September 27-27 On the road to Fundy

The Longest Wooden Covered Bridge

Under the AXE

We left Quebec under threatening skies and headed east along Canada 20 which hugs the south bank of the Saint Laurence seaway. From Quebec east the Saint Laurence looks less of a river and more like a huge bay. On the south bank, the land is rolling with lots of farms, diaries, and corn fields. There are lots of trees too, and they are beginning to turn to brilliant reds and oranges. We have been seeing the trees beginning to turn for the last 10 days or so. Now they are verging on the spectacular. Unfortunately we have been having overcast skies and rain, but even in the flat light the colors are amazitng.


We stayed in the town of Rivier du Loup, a good sized town on the Saint Laurence. It had a charming town center, but also a huge shopping mall, just like any medium sized town. We went to the mall and it looked and felt like any other we have been to, but with one exception, no English spoken. Pats had her hair done in the salon, no English, I went to the equivalent of Home Depot, Canada Tire, no English. These folks are just like Americans, Monolingual! To think that they can live in their own town in North America and not speak a lick of English, amazing!! What is even more galling, is the town looks like it could be in South Dakota or Minnesota, it doesn’t have the European charm as old Quebec. The strength of the French culture is not to be underestimated.

Today we traveled south along the border of Maine and New Brunswick. Amazingly we have left the French influence and entered into the English world in only a few miles. The signs are in English, and the greetings are “Good Day” rather than “Bon Jour.” We visited the Potato museum and saw the longest wooden covered bridge in the world at 1222 ft. Tomorrow we hope to see the largest double headed axe in the world. We are headed to the Bay of Fundy where the tides are the largest at up to 45 ft from low to high.

September 26 Québec Le Grand Tour Fantastique du Touriste

Le Chateau Frontenac

No Vacancy

Pats with the Harlequin

We finally had the tourist day that we have been waiting for, having the tour bus pick us up at the RV park and taking us to see the sights of the city.  No hassles with maps, finding the route, finding a place to park, reading a tour guide to get some idea of what we’re supposed to see.  Instead we have the sort of charming bus driver/tour guide, tell us bad jokes, point out places/buildings/monuments, and telling us some history of the city and the people who created or were influential in the development of the city.  Our tour was only 2 hours long and we had 4 hours to wonder on our own.  At our age we can comprehend no more than two hours of information so it was just right.

Quebec is the only walled city in North America.  When the French built it they only walled three sides of  it, the approaches from the Saint Laurence, but left the western approach undefended, thinking that no force could penetrate up the Saint Laurence past Quebec because of the narrow strait which was heavily defended on both sides of the river with cannon.  In 1759, on a moonless night, the British did just that, they slipped up the Saint Laurence to the west of Quebec and attacked with a force of 4000 on the Plains of Abraham.   Both the British and the French generals perished in the battle, but the city was won by the British.  The Brits, now in possession of Quebec, extended the fortifications around all four sides of the city.  Once the walls were in place Quebec was never attacked again.

 Old Quebec is the consummate tourist attraction for the middle aged and older.  There are stately old buildings,  churches, art galleries, antique shops, statues and monuments, restaurants ,souvenir shops the grand hotel Le Chateau Frontenac which overlooks the walled city. Being built on a steep hillside down to the shores of the Saint Laurence, the cobble streets are narrow and winding, the buildings built of brick or stone make this a very European looking old city.  Some of the streets are lined with the old cannons that used to defend the city.  The Quebec City Hall  is called the “Hotel de  Ville.”   After too many English speaking  tourists entered the building trying to rent a room,  the mayor had the words “City Hall” added to the stonework of the building.  So much for the French only language policy.

Today there were five cruise ships in the harbor, dropping off over 10,000 tourists.  There were lots of oldsters in the crowds and few kids.   It was a blustery day with a pretty fierce wind, it was chilly but not biting cold.  For lunch we had a big bowl of French onion soup and Caesar salad.  Qui Manufique! 

September 22-23 Ottawa and Montreal

Spent an afternoon is Ottawa, the national capital of Canada. Very stately with a mix baroque – gothic state buildings and new modern buildings in the downtown. Nice greenbelts along the Ottawa river. Right next to the Parliament is a canal that was built in 1822 from Ottawa to the Saint Lawrence for the purpose of transporting men and material should war break out between the United States and Canada. It is 121 miles long, 40ft wide and has 16 locks that rise 95 ft over the course of the canal. It is still operational today and is used by pleasure craft.


We took the mini tour of Parliament up the clock tower, dedicated to the soldiers who died in the great war. We took our pictures with statues dedicated to the proclamation in 1929 that women are “persons.” I’m not sure what they were before, but hopefully not chattel. There was a nice statue of a younger Queen Elizabeth astride a horse. It all made long for a cuppa tea.

Canada has two official languages English and French. Most public signage on the roads are posted in both languages. Most plaques are bi-lingual, products in the supermarket are as well. When you get to Quebec, one of the languages got dropped. I have no French ability, and had trouble working the gas pump, the subway all in French. Asking directions is difficult, while most speak very good English they pronounce the place names in French which is totally incomprehensible to me. I’m ok if I can get someone to point out on the chart where I want to go, but for them to tell me, I can’t relate the sounds to the written words. The true mark of an American -- Monolingual.

We took the metro into Montreal and toured the old city.  We went to a fancy French restaurant Café Napoleon. Very good food and service, we were way under dressed, but they let us in anyway.



Parliament



Women are "Persons"

September 20 -21 On to Canada

Home /Sweet Home

Back on the road north to cross  into Canada at Sault Saint Marie.  It was Patsy’s birthday and she received a number of calls from friends and family.  Sault Saint Marie is where Lake Superior connects to Lake Huron via a number of locks.  It is quite a heavy industrial area that is surrounded mostly by forest and a few farms for hundreds of miles.  Kind of a surprise when you drive into the area.  The locks were originally built in 1855 and over the years this water route has been used to ship, coal, iron ore, grain and other bulk products across the Great Lakes..

We turned east on Canada 17 driving on the north shore of Lake Huron on to Sudbury, a nickel mining town, and then on east along the Ottawa River which separates the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.  We expect to arrive in Ottawa on the 22^nd.

Tonight we are staying at the Lakeview Trailer park in Mackay Ontario, just a wide spot on the road, but the park is right on the river.  Most of the trailers here are parked permanently.  These are travel trailers and 5^th wheels none of them over 40ft.  People have parked them and build structures round them, houses actually, from one to maybe four or five rooms.  I don’t know if this is some kind of a tax dodge or building permit dodge, but some of these places are bigger than the trailer that they enclose.  Some are pretty fancy and others are very rustic.  This place really is a fish camp and I think most are used for recreation, but  others look to be permanent residences.  

Sept 18-19 Traverse City Michigan

MaryAnne and Capt'n Greg

The Crew

I have a cousin who lives in Traverse City Michigan.  I have not seen MaryAnne in at least 10 years, but when I saw her last she said “That if you are ever in the area please be sure to look me up.”  So I did.  The internet is a great thing to find people as long as they are not trying to hide from the law or an ex-spouse.  I found her  telephone number and we eventually connected.  So instead of hanging out in the U.P. we headed south across the Mackinac Bridge down to Traverse City which lies on a large bay.  I have not seen much of MaryAnne as an adult but the few times our paths crossed I always enjoyed her  company, and  this visit was no different.  We got to visit and get up to date on all the relatives, living and dead, and tell stories about them when we were much younger.  It is rare when you can reconnect with a person and comfortably pick up where you left off  especially when its been many years since you have been in contact.  MaryAnne and Greg (her husband)  were great hosts, they let us  drive over their manicured lawn to park the trailer and truck in their backyard. (Hopefully no sprinkler heads broken)  took us sailing on their (Hopefully no sprinkler heads broken)  took us sailing on their yacht and showed us a wonderful time while we were with them.

September 16-17 Wisconsin

Traditional Barn with rounded roof.

Not much to report, we are now in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan)  We saw no large cheeses in Wisconsin.  We were happy to leave the plains behind and travel through varied countryside, from cranberry blogs to pine forest.  We did see an Amish buggy and a lot of traditional barns with their rounded roofs rather than a hard chine roof that one normally sees around the west on a barn. (the pic is off the web, there is no snow on the ground yet.)  Every farm has at least one silo .

Today we crossed  into the U P and saw Lake Michigan for the first time.  It is a very big lake can’t see the other shore, but the surf is small, more of a chop than breakers.   Went to the super market and the checker was very friendly and talked just like the characters in the movie “Fargo”

We have been spending a lot of time on the road and are getting tired so I think we will spend a day or so to recoup and then we will cross over back into Canada for a while. We crossed into the eastern time zone, just a day ago we were at the geographical center of the country.

September 15 Still on the Plains

Today we left South Dakota and entered into Minnesota.  Can’t say there is much change in the scenery.  I think maybe they grow more corn here.  We stopped in Sioux Falls for gas and checked out the local Cabella’s store.  A virtual Disneyland of a store for hunters and fishers.  More camo gear than you could possibly need. Aquariums like you would see at a real Aquarium stocked with game fish, walleye, bass, trout a dozen more fresh water game fish I had never heard of.  A hundred stuffed game animals to help you identify what the animal looks like that you are setting out to kill, set in a natural diorama setting.  A then of course, the 100 or so mounted heads on the wall, to give you an idea how that moose head would look mounted in the family room.  I am not against hunting or fishing, but somehow I find stores like these to be a tad excessive.

Along I-90 there is not a lot to see but occasionally you come across an attraction to break up the day.  I mentioned the Corn Palace, there is also the Tractor Museum, the Pioneer Village, the 60foot Jolly Green Giant, a  metal sculpture of a very large cow with horns,  the Spam Museum, and Jelly Stone RV park with Yogi Bear.  Because of time constraints we had to miss most of these attractions, although we could smell the Spam Museum as it was located in the Hormel Plant, but we did stay at Jelly Stone Park as they had an “Overnight Special” which encouraged us to stop. Yogi and BooBoo were unfortunately out of town. Tomorrow we will continue to head east on I-90 into Wisconsin where we anticipate meeting a large cheese.