Sunday, August 17, 2008

Moving Right Along

We left N. Sydney and took a different road around
Bras d'Or Lake.
We drove about 4 hours and found a Royal Canadian Legion not too far off our route thru Nova Scotia and headed for there to really recoupe from the long voyage. Bob tried again to get our internet working. Still no luck. We headed to the library to check our email and then went to dinner. The evening was spent meeting new people at the legion.

We had a late start from the Westville Legion and hit some rain along the way but drove a little over 200 miles to Pointe Sapen, NB. About half way to the Provence of Quebec. We found a roadside picnic table in front of a wharf. Went down and talked with some of the fisherman and told they were bringing in lobster. We quickly unhooked the car and drove to the fish market where they told us we could get them. How appropriate. For those who know me well my nickname was DJ growing up and that was the name of the fish market. Now get jealous.
We got 3 lobsters with extra claws that had fallen off for $18 and a big bag of mussels for $10. We chowed down. We also spent the night right there.

The next morning we continued our jaunt rapidly thru the Arcadian Route and ended up over 200 miles later in Campbellton, NB. Along the way we stopped for a couple of hours at a marshland
where we had lunch. Visited with some local French speaking people and watched a pair of baby eagles. Here in Campbellton we found a big lot with a few trailer's parked for storage and since it was on the waterfront we pulled in. We drove around checking on places we could leave the motorhome and just take the car around the Gaspe.
Had a great sunset.

Early the next morning we relocated the motorhome to Sugarloaf Prov. Park's administration building where they agreed to keep an eye on it. We packed an overnight bag and headed out. We had so many people tell us how beautiful the "Gaspe" was we had to do it. Bob and I were both disappointed. It was just one town after another.
Lots of lighthouses tho.


A town that painted their fireplugs.
Very little scenery other than shorelines on the south side except for the Perce' area where the "Rock" is. We stopped and took pictures.
Didn't want to do the boat ride out to it. We continued on to the Forillon National Park and again unless you took long hikes you didn't see any scenery. The north shore got a little better but again there were a lot of towns. We decided since the day was going quickly we would not stay overnight at a B&B and instead head home. I found a short cut through Chic-Choc mountain region and we headed home. Some short cut. First we ran out of pavement but that was ok, it was only 30 miles. Then the signage was bad and we made the wrong turn. We came upon a "caution" barrier and eased around it. There was washouts on the sides of the roads but we were going down the middle. Then we had a flat tire.....Bob is a whiz at changing tires and we were on our way in no time. A couple of miles further and only about 2 miles to the main highway we hit the BIG WASHOUT. All across the road. So we turned around. Got back to where we had made the wrong turn in the first place. Drove to the campground nearby and a very lovely young man who said I reminded him of his grandma gave us directions. Now mind you it is getting to be dusk. We are in deep woods and moose country. Oh, did I mention we were also running low on fuel. We finally got to the main road but still had to drive super slow with our eyes peeled. We are in the middle of nowhere. No B&B's so keep going. Finally get to a town, get fuel, look for accommodations and decide to head back home. We arrived at the park, retrieved our motorhome and headed a mile down the road to Walmarts. The first time for us. It is now 11 or 12 pm. We don't know which because we are confused on what time zone we are in.

We headed out early this morning and crossed back into the US at Van Buren, ME. The border guard welcomed us back and talked to us about rv's. He is planning on buying one next year. Never asked us any questions and after another guard came and ran our passports we were on our way. We got as far as Houlton and parked in a church lot. We have cellphone again.

3 comments:

Brenda said...

Wow! what an experience you've had! I'll bet you're glad to back in the states. Welcome home!

Barbara and Ron said...

Sounds like you had a really bad day. I guess it was time to come back to the states. Will we see this winter?

owner said...

We are heading back to the southwest. See ya when we get there.