Just Waiting for the Ship

 

Here I am again, on a Saturday night, but this time we are waiting for out ship to come in.  We have had an interesting week as we sometimes made plans on the go.

We bypassed Montreal and planned on doing the same with Quebec City.  But we checked the weather and where we were headed had rain in the forecast s we decided to go into Quebec City instead.  Here we toured on Quebec City including the Basilica,

Chateau Frontenac,

the narrow streets teeming with people,

and climbed the 387 stairs to the top of the wall around old Quebec City.  The next day we visited Montmorency Park and Falls. 

We took the gondola to the top of the falls, walked across them and took the 410 stairs going down (much easier and quicker than up). 

Then it was off to the Sainte Anne De Beaupre Church which is absolutely amazing – the design, and the size, and the opulence.

People were healed

A lot of confessionals

The floor

Then there were one more set of falls to visit - Chaudiere Falls

I have complained about how slowly my one sink drains so while in Quebec City, and we were in a campground, I decided to use lots of hot water to perhaps clean out the pipes.  Well after day one, they drained a bit better, but after day two – wow, it drained immediately.  BUT, then Gerry went outside and there it was, all the water.  The drain pipe had come off the hose to the grey tank because the clamps holding it in place had broke.  Now, we had a wet mess that needed drying plus a repair job was in store.  After a few F bombs, Gerry settled in place to do the repair  in an area where he could only reach with one hand through an opening 10” x 12” and about 18” back inside the cabinet.  He got it done, drain is draining slowly again, no leaks, but bruised arms and even on his head.

Filling with fuel can also offer some challenges such as pulling up to the pumps and not being able to get out easily.  Well in New Glasgow, NS, that is what happened – we didn’t pay enough attention when pulling in and there was no getting out without backing up.  As you know, when backing up with another vehicle in tow, the front wheels go crossways pretty quickly.  A brainwave – start the vehicle, straighten the wheels with power steering, and continue to back up (at least until it happens again) but it did allow us to make the turn to leave.

Then it is time to continue east so it’s was off to Hartland, NB here we walked across the St. John River on the world’s longest covered bridge. 

Then we stopped at the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Factory where we walked across the worlds shortest covered bridge and toured the factory.  Rather interesting to read the story about the potato and to watch how potato chips are made.

Fredericton, NB has some great history where we visited the Garrison Centre.  Now this was a disappointment as all the buildings are currently being used for modern uses.  I had hoped that some of them would have been a museum.

  It’s always a challenge to find parking with the motorhome but they advertising free RV parking so there we went.  Well, the parking is off a one-way street and there was absolutely no way that we could make that turn.  So we go around a block and come in from a different direction.  We get into the lot to discover that the RV parking is used by workers because it is free and there is no way out  we unhook, get turned around, and leave.  Gerry always runs the GPS and I often run Google maps simultaneously because one never knows.  Plus one best be looking at signs as well.  We follow the route suggested by the GPS but whoa, that underpass is only 3.1 meters, we need3.7+ meters so I get him to stop.  Now where because straight ahead is too short,  sign says “No Left Turn”.  Out I go, stop and direct traffic because we have to turn left.  Everyone was very good and I only heard one remark something about paying attention.  It’s a good thing that we were paying attention.  No photos of this one - we were too busy trying to get out of there.

Since we are in the area, let’s go to the Bay of Fundy and Hopewell Rocks.  The Bay of

Fundy has the biggest tide in the world and the Hopewell  Rocks have been eroded to create some real unique landscape.  It is best to go there twice – once at high tide and once at low tide.  While we weren’t able to do this, we did hit high tide, halfway to low tide and it was amazing to see.  

As I said, out plans are fluid so when the weather was wind and rain, we decided to go all the way to Sydney and sit and wait for our ferry ina couple of days. First let’s fill with fuel so we pull into a service station (of course small) and some fellow was coming in to where we wanted to fuel.  When he realized that, he backs up and goes to another pump and apologizes.  That is one example as we have chatted with more locals that we probably do in Regina.  Folks here are amazing.   Fortunately, we found a park with a large parking lot right on the water.  Just across a small bay is the ferry terminal with ferries leaving and/or coming at least once a day but there are fishing boats coming and going all the time.  Some of them have a real following.

Along the roads are many interesting sights.

Wild lupines are everywhere

It's farming country - can't get in a hurry

An interesting sign

Dairy farms are a plenty in Quebec

An sometimes you just have to stop to smell the flowers!

Tonight is our last night on the mainland as we sit here and wait for “our ship to come in”. 

Tomorrow we leave for Newfoundland.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope each one of you have a great Canada Day and a super week.

Half Way There

 

I think we are about half way to the east coast.  This week we were fortunate to do some more visiting and a great deal of sight seeing.  We started the week by going to Peterborough to visit with my niece.  Some of you may remember that a large, destructive storm went through that area a couple of weeks ago.  A good amount of the damaged trees have been cleaned up but signs of the storm are still evident as this tree, although it has been cut, shows some of what a storm can do. 

And it is very wet.

We then got to tour Sandra’s new home and enjoyed a great visit and a delicious supper.  After supper she toured us around a bit and took us to see the locks and explained how they work.    The next morning we decided to see if we might be fortunate enough to see some boats go through and sure enough, there were five boats, all together, going through the lock.

Then it was on to Picton to visit with friends, Rick and Chris.  They certainly did not leave a stone unturned as they showed us the many sights and points of interest in their area.  Day one we went for a little drive and got started on an incredible visit.  Day two was spent mostly on the water as they toured us along the many beach homes and bays.  The weather must have been ordered as it was absolutely perfect. 

In the evening one of the communities held an outdoor concert so as you can tell, it was a very full, fun day. 

Day three we drove to some of the communities in the area, stopped at a little roadside stand  where we got some of the best tasting strawberries ever,

had lunch at a cider mill where we tried a couple of ciders, an

d let me tell you – blackberry peach cider is the best! 

We went to Sandbank Provincial Park which has a beautiful sandy beach.  

Discussion - should we go any deeper

Crystal Palace and replica birdhouse

A sample of birdhouses that we visited in Birdhouse City

In Trenton there is a Canadian Air Force Base.  There was a huge complex nearby of the barracks and buildings that were used during World War II.  Some have been refurbished and some are in quite a state of disrepair.

Day four we went to Belleville and took some of the many sideroads.  The day was hot and muggy, we walked along the harbour,

Every room has a view in this condo

 and we got out of there just in time as quite a nasty storm went through.  We did dodge the rain until we arrived back but there was quite a downpour although it was pretty short-lived for us.  Then it was time for us to get out of their hair but what a visit!!!

As we continued east, we made a stop in Kingston to visit some old friends, Tom and Joanne Miller.  Although it was a pretty quick visit, we made good use of it.  Since it was getting on in the day, we stopped at the Shorelines Casino for the night.  We went in and paid our camping fees ($5.00) and that was it.  They had a great place to park except it was right next to the freeway – I needn’t tell you more.

The weather was great but it was starting to turn.  This morning started out cloudy which soon turned to liquid sunshine as we had rain pretty well all day.  We drove along Lake Ontario a good part of the way.  

Every little island can have a home

This is to keep the ships and boats from going through here

I know I have inundated you with photos this week but there was just so much to see.  I had a real tough time trying to determine which ones you might enjoy as it was sure a snapping week! I hope you enjoyed your week as much as we did.  Have a great week and I’ll be back next week.

One the Road Again

 

Here we are on the road again off to see another part of our great country.  Today, we are heading east and without fail, the wind is from the east.  The traffic is relatively light so the going is good.  We arrive in Kenora and find a large, quiet spot at a trail head where we spend the night.  We might as well loosen up the legs a bit so we head down the trail for a short ways – at least until we arrived at the “turtle pond”. 

We walked along a river, or a channel joining two of the numerous lakes in the area enjoying the scenery. 

As we were preparing supper, some deer came out of the bush, looked at us, and then wandered back into the  bush.

Along the highway, there are constant warnings about moose.  We did see three of them, but none were as mean looking as the one portrayed on the highway sign.

Bridges can often be quite interesting although most of them now are pretty plain and you hardly know that you are on a bridge.  That is unless they are doing construction on them, which we hit quite a number of, and you get to wait as it is one lane of traffic – slow traffic.  We did find a rather pretty one near Thunder Bay.

One night was spent in White River.  Now I learned a little bit of history - White River is the home of Winnie the Pooh which I did not know. 

Unfortunately, it must also be home to the meanest black flies in the country.  We went for a walk down a neat wooden sidewalk

and it seemed that these flies were relentless in swarming around our face.  We met one of the locals and made mention of it and his comment was “they are just annoying.  At least they don’t bite like mosquitoes”.  Wrong – I spent the next couple of days scratching as they do bite!

The scenery on the trip down is amazing.  First you go through Lake of the Woods area and then travel along the shores of Lake Superior and every turn is breath-taking.  It really has some spectacular scenery.

After three and a half hard days, we arrived in Pickering to visit with our friend Janet.  It was great to see her again after a fair number of years and of course, there is also a whirlwind of activity.  We drove out to Port Parry, which is a historic little town with a number of boutique shops and a lovely drive.

A couple of evenings were spent at the local legion – one as we watched folks play darts and another evening, we were entertained by karaoke.  On top of that we won a 50-50 draw as well $25 on a ticket – sure can’t beat that!!  We had an incredible supper at Dawn and Jason’s home – brisket which he cooked for sixteen hours – which was superb, and of course all the trimmings.  It gave us a great chance to visit with all the family.

And sometimes you come across something unique - this is what found this week.

Tomorrow our trip continues as we continue east.  Thanks for stopping by and hope you can follow along with us.  Have a great week!!