Heading Across Eastern Quebec (8/16/2015)

We left the Quebec City area this morning, heading east.  Dave and Mazie left us before 8:00 a.m., to head to Maine but the rest of us got on the road about 9:00.  It was misty and sprinkled just a little, and was pretty hazy all day.   We worked our way back to the 132, which follows the coast of the St. Lawrence River.  However, this highway is very rough in lots of spots, so it's hard riding/driving.  We made two stops in one little artsy town, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, first at an antique store where the owner did iron sculpture and reconditioned the antiques that came in rusty, etc.  Then we stopped at a sculpture museum where a craftsman was there working today.   This town had a brochure like the island we visited yesterday, with spots marked to identify the different shops.  They had some sculptures outside, but there were many more inside.

The first stop was of more interest to the guys, but this sculpture museum was really interesting.  We first watched a video of a craftsman actually working on a piece of sculpture that was hung right beside the video screen, so we could see the finished product as we watched him make it.

 Here was another nice sculpture.

There was also a reproduction of a Norman Rockwell painting, and another one of a famous Saturday Evening Post photo.  All of the work was amazing.

We took several pictures of the artwork, which is called low relief or bas relief.  It was totally different than the wood sculptures we save 5 years ago in Chetwynd, British Columbia, which is considered by some as the chainsaw wood carving capital of Canada.  Here they use wood chisels, in Chetwynd, they went after the logs with chainsaws.

And of course there was a gift shop.  And of course it had lots of really neat things.  I found a couple of nativity scenes that I would have bought for Brenda had I won the lottery.  But since I didn't, she will just have to look at the pictures.

As we walked back to our vehicles, we passed this big old totem-pole log that looked like it hadn't been worked on in the last 20 years.  Too bad Mazie wasn't still with us, she could have taken on that project.

We drove on, back on our bumpy road.  We ended the day on the edge of Trois-Pistoles, in a very nice, grassy campground.  We drove 165 hard miles today, and got off the road just before 4:00 p.m, all of us really ready to get out of our seats. 

On our bumpy road today, a rock hit the windshield, which sounded like a gunshot.  We thought maybe it hit the fiberglass on the roof, but we found the spot the next morning.  It had "starred" a spot, but as we drove on Monday, it started spreading.

This is our last night in French-speaking Quebec.  I'll have to say that I will be glad to get into New Brunswick, which is bilingual.  Until this trip, I never even knew where New Brunswick was, and tomorrow we will be there!  Amazing.

l'ile d'Orleans Island (8/15/2015)

Today was a little different.  We decided we each would be on our own, so we all headed out in separate cars.  However, Dave and Mazie did meet up with us at our first destination, the Changing of the Guards at the Citadel.  We arrived at 9:00, just in time for a guided tour before the ceremonies at 10:00, and learned a lot about the history of the Citadel.  We passed the guards on duty on our way in.

 We had a great tour guide who made it interesting.  The ceremony itself was awesome, and we had talked to some people who had a relative playing in the band, so we watched for that.  And the mascot, the goat, of course.

The beaver is Canada's national emblem, along with the maple leaf I guess.  Anyhow, it was part of the Citadel and even incorporated into the landscaping.

Part of the tour took us to the highest point in Quebec, and we could see a boat in the harbor that might be the one the Brundiges are taking. 

The parade lasted about 45 minutes and we really enjoyed it.

And the goat behaved too, although Mazie said it was about to lose its blanket.

We left the Johnsons here and headed off to the l'ile d'Orleans, an island out in the middle of the St. Lawrence River hear.  It is 21 miles long and 4 miles wide, with lots of shops, markets, restaurants and ice cream shops, produce stands, and agriculture.  We stopped at the Visitor Center and got a map, then drove the entire island, with a few stops here and there, including lunch with a view.

We shared a 10-inch pizza and some overcooked french fries, so of course we had to make an ice cream stop later.

Quebec has mountains, and we got a good view from the island.  We could see the ski runs, but it was pretty hazy today so they weren't very clear.

The south end of the island is fairly densely populated, but the north end is where the agriculture is, and some pretty good-sized farms.  We saw fields of strawberries, corn, potatoes, green onions and sunflowers, to name a few.

strawberries

green onions

sunflowers

We also stopped at a cheese shop, where the sellers were in period costume.  We thought we would see someone making cheese, but they were only selling it.

We passed one strawberry field where pickers were working to load a semi-trailer.

It was a narrow, busy highway, with lots of bicyclists, but it was a nice drive with a nice view.  An enjoyable trip.  Marilyn and Collins had set off for a boat cruise on the River, but after they got back from that, they too drove the island, although we never ran into each other. 

Marilyn had a funny story to tell.  She stopped to ask the price of blueberries.  The lady, of course, did not speak English, but they somehow communicated that the basket of blueberries cost $20.  Marilyn "explained" that that was too much and the basket was too big because they were traveling and only wanted a small amount.  So the seller said $3.  Marilyn thought that was ok.  The seller gave Marilyn the little basket, and Marilyn gave her the $3, but the basket was empty. The seller waved her hand toward the blueberry bushes and sent Marilyn out to pick her own berries.  So Marilyn had her very first blueberry-picking experience today. 

We came off the island and stopped by the Montmorency Falls, but it apparently cost even to drive into them so we turned around and I didn't get any pictures.  We could see them from the highway, and they are pretty impressive, but we have seen a lot of falls this trip.  I didn't get a picture so I copies this one off the Internet.  "The falls, at 84 meters (275 ft) high and 46 meters (150 ft) wide, are the highest in the province of Quebec and 30 meters (98 ft) higher than Niagara Falls. The basin at the foot of the falls is 17 meters (56 ft) deep. The falls are at the mouth of the Montmorency River where it drops over the cliff shore into the Saint Lawrence River, opposite the western end of the Île d'Orleans."
 

We drove down along the harbor on our way home but never saw any big ships or cruise ships in port.  We worked our way back home shortly after 4:00, so I loaded up my laundry and got that taken care of before we leave here in the morning.  It was after 6:00 when I got back from that, so I thought maybe we would go try this Huberts Chicken we keep seeing, instead of me heating up the RV and having to clean up the dinner dishes.  We had seen a Huberts not far from the campground, but when we put it into the GPS, Lucille took us to one further into town.  We walked in but didn't see anything we were familiar with, even the chicken cuts didn't look like KFC, so we walked back out.  Joe put Mexican food into the GPS, and we headed off to try to find that restaurant.  We missed one turn and went in circles to get back on the freeway, but then the GPS took us into the back side of a mall that appeared to be closed for the day (it was 7:00 by now).  We never did find that restaurant and decided it might have been in the food court inside the mall.  But there was another restaurant there with lots of people sitting outside, so we parked and walked up to check out their menu.  It was pricey, with bottles of wine on most tables, so we decided against that.  Back in the car to the second Mexican restaurant that came up on the GPS.  Well, we ended back in downtown Quebec City for that one.  We did find it, and found a parking spot.  But the restaurant was very busy, and Joe tried to communicate with the waitress about seating, without too much success.  She finally pointed out a very small round table on the patio, with only one chair, and said she would bring out another one.  While Joe waited for his chair, he watched a guy out on the street trying car doors, so he didn't feel too safe about our car.  The waitress finally brought the chair, which was too tall for the patio table and Joe's knees were practically in his chin.  We waited another 5-10 minutes and our waitress never came back, so we got up and left that place too.  We made a few more circles getting back to our route, and ended up eating a balogna/cheese sandwich back at the RV about 8:00.  What a trip!  However, we did catch a couple of pieces of artwork that our earlier travels had missed.

(The second picture is 5-gallon buckets!)


The Johnsons are leaving us tomorrow and heading back to the U.S. tomorrow, first to Portland, Maine for Mazie's lobster dinner, then possibly to Tennessee to visit friends, and then on west.  We hope they have a safe trip.  The Brundiges and Froeschkes will continue on east tomorrow, heading toward New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy (whenever we get there--it won't be tomorrow).

Touring Quebec City (8/14/2015)

We got an early start and headed into the city to take another city bus tour.  Somehow, I forgot my wallet which presented a problem later in the day, but I had grabbed the camera instead of my wallet so it really turned out for the best.  We dropped off the other 4 and found a parking garage, which just happened to be connected to the ritzy Le Chateau Frontenac (Fairmont) hotel.  Parking for the day was $35.00!!!!  But we were just barely in time to make the 9:30 bus so we went ahead and parked.  This was another double-decker bus and we got to sit on top again.  There are lots of flowers around this city, like all the others, and they had some flower gardens along the boulevard that stair-stepped down this hilly street.

 We drove past the Parliament building, which was quite impressive.  We came back later to tour it.

We passed this little red and white house, which is the oldest house in Quebec City, but I don't remember what year it was built, sometime in the 1600s.  I believe Quebec City is the oldest city in Canada, and is the capital of the province of Quebec.  The first part of our bus tour was in Old Quebec, which is the only "fortified" city in North America.

After our 90 minute bus tour, we stopped off for lunch at Pub St. Patrick, which was recommended by our tour guide for its fish and chips.  They were good, but not great, and very pricy.

As I said, they do a lot with flowers here, but we spotted this very interesting planter up off a second-story window.

We walked over to the Citadel to see the fort, and Joe wanted to walk on the wall.

The rest of us watched over him to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

There was a fountain along here, the "Tourny fountain was donated to Quebec City by businessman Peter Simons for its 400th anniversary."  We've seen Simons department stores in both Montreal and Quebec City.

We walked on over to the Parliament building and, as I said, this is a hilly city so we had lots of walking uphill.  I had a problem here at the Parliament building because I did not have a picture ID with me (since I forgot my wallet), so I had to fill out a piece of paper with my name, address and birth date, then one of the security people "screened me" to decide whether or not to let me in.  But they did, and they used Joe's ID to sort of verify my address.   One of the most interesting parts of the Parliament building was the stained glass inside.

The blue room is the equivalent to their House of Commons.  The pinkish room used to be the Senate but they have done away with that so the room is now used to study bills and for visiting dignitaries.

Rather than walk any further, we hopped back on the bus at the stop and rode the rest of the way around again, then back to the visitor center where we started.  Joe and I went over to get the car out of the skinniest, lowest-ceiling parking garage we had ever been in.  We found the car, but when we tried to pay with the credit card, the arm wouldn't come up to let us out, even though it had charged us the $35.  An attendant finally came over, and he decided to run the card again, so now it was costing us $70.  The arm did come up then, but he didn't know what to do about charging us twice, so he sent us over to the hotel receptionist, which of course we didn't know where that was.  We drove around to the front of the building, and after a couple of wrong attempts, I found the hotel receptionist and got a $35 credit.  Meanwhile, Joe had driven over and picked up the rest of our crew.  But we finally got it all straightened out, and headed out of the city to the campground.  We apparently were in 4:00 rush hour traffic because it was very slow moving, and the streets here are very narrow.  But we creeped on out of town and made it back to the campground.  Joe went on a little drive to find a convenience store but didnt' find one, so he dropped off the Brundiges at the campground and the rest of us went on, still looking for that convenience store.  We ended up at a very nice IGA grocery store, picked up a few things, Joe fueled the car, and back to the campground to finally call it a day.

We had a little rain during our walk to Parliament, but it didn't last long.  Otherwise it was a nice day.  Canada as a country is bilingual, but Quebec is the only province that has made French its official language.  New Brunswick is bilingual, and the rest are English.  So here in the province of Quebec, all government papers are in both English and French, but most businesses just print their stuff in French, like menus, directions, road signs, etc.  It's very disconcerting to not be able to understand the road signs, so I won't be sorry to leave Quebec.

Arriving Quebec City (8/13/2015)

We de-camped and got on the road about 9:00, with a first stop at a nearby propane yard.  I think we paid $3.52/gallon for the propane.  We stayed along the St. Lawrence River on 132, with a couple of detours for road construction, and picked up the 20 to cross the river on 73.  We drove 197 miles but they were hard miles -- lots of little villages, narrow bumpy roads, lots of road construction.  We did catch a glimpse of a ship on the river but no place to pull over to watch it.  We fueled for $1.124/liter.  Somewhere along the way we lost Collins and Marilyn, I think they missed a turn on the detour and came out on the 20 much before we did.  And when we got to our campground, Marilyn called and said the address that she had put in her GPS wasn't the right one, and they had gone way north, so they had a rough day.  But we finally all got together at the right campground. 

On our drive, I saw one of these big arm chairs that I have seen all summer but never caught a photo.  They have been painted various colors and are sometimes sitting close to the road.  You can see in this photo that the car beside it is much smaller than the chair.

They still have a few phone booths in Canada, and I took a picture of one of those too.  Later I saw another one in the city of Quebec.

We went through one little village where they had built shelters for the kids to await the school buses.  I only saw these in this one town, but I thought they made good sense (I also thought I should have had one when I lived at Claypool when I was a kid).

Just before we got to the bridge, we passed a passenger train stopped on a side rail.  I think it was the one that takes people all across Canada.  We later saw another train heading toward it so I don't know if they were going to hook them up or not.

We crossed the bridge and headed to our campground, arriving about 4:00.  Traffic going the opposite direction was pretty heavy so we were glad we were not in all that.  Our campground is pretty nice, and right on a little river.  Our spots are grassy and we have a little room.  We even sat out for happy hour with Dave and Mazie while we waited for the Brundiges to show up.