Greg and Bonnie’s RV Adventures

We did not move locations today. It rained all night long last night, but at least it was a quiet rain. No wind and the temperatures were more moderate making it a quiet evening. We thought we may as well not leave for PEI until the weather clears. We’ll head out tomorrow.

One of our neighbors put out an American flag today. He said it was in honor of us, which was quite nice. This has been a great community to visit. We really feel like neighbors. We’ll actually miss these folks.

Our initial reaction to our current park was that it barely met our requirements. After spending the night and getting to know our neighbors, we are convinced it is one of the best stops we’ve made. This park is mainly seasonal retirees who spend summers here. Their trailers are permanently set up with porches and such. Although not many people are here now, the ones we’ve met are so very nice. They all know we are the travelers, and they are very interested in where we came from and where we are going.

The young woman in the office has been so customer focused. She’s gone out of her way to give us information on restaurants and such. We wanted to buy a bag of ice, but because we are ahead of the season and their ice machine is empty, she drove over to a gas station and bought us a bag of ice!!!

This morning we did our laundry and after lunch we walked to the beach and spent an hour sitting on the beach, in the SUNSHINE. While walking back to our rig, we were met by an elderly gentleman who was walking with the aid of his walker. He stopped and talked with us for a while. He is a veteran of the Korean War, and he enjoyed talking with Greg about the engine and miles per gallon of our rig. His name is Renaldi, and he and his wife have been coming here for 14 years. They have been married for 54 years. I just took to Renaldi because he reminded me of Dad. He had the same gait as Dad using his walker, and he wore his ball cap. He shook our hands and the entire experience was so nice.

Tonight we took a cab (the driver was such a nice young man who gave us a quick tour of this little village) to the restaurant suggested to us named Gabriele. We had a great meal of lobster and other items. Our waiter was very attentive to show us how to open the lobster. We actually saw the cook come out of the kitchen and get the lobster out of the tank before cooking it. It was in the ocean yesterday. The evening was perfect and we were ready for a comfortable evening considering the last week.

Rain is expected overnight, and if the weather is bad tomorrow, we might just spend another night here. They close the bridge to Prince Edward Island if the winds are excessively high, so we’ll check out the reports in the morning before we decide when to leave.

The photos attached are from the beach today as well as photos of our dinner this evening.

This entry will encompass Monday and Tuesday, May 27 and 28, 2013. Yesterday was the first good day of weather since we arrived in Canada. The temperatures were low, but we started the Gaspesie Loop with high hopes. The route hugged the eastern coast of the Gaspe Peninsula. We drove through little villages all day long. The villages were right on the ocean and the views were magnificent. It’s hard to imagine living in a place like this. The house were mostly neat and very colorful. And the houses, for the most part, are very small.

I must say I miscalculated the start date of this trip. It never occurred to me the campgrounds would be closed until June 1, but this seems to be the case. We drove more miles than we generally do yesterday because we couldn’t find a campground open. We found one which was open, but the bathhouses were closed. We stayed for the night on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean and we were the only ones there!!! But it seemed to be safe and we were locked in, so we slept well. The winds howled all day, and as we left the peninsula and crossed into New Brunswick, I realized the cold temperatures were worse in the Gaspesie than down here. Today our temperatures raced into the low 60s, and the sun was out all day, so we enjoyed the drive.

We are going to stay in this campground for two nights, because we need a break from driving, and we also need to do laundry. And this campground requires 50 cents to shower just like the first one, so I think it is the rule rather than the exception.

We are about 75 miles from the bridge which will take us over to Prince Edward Island. This island is famous as being the home of the author of Anne of Green Gables. Her home was Prince Edward Island and she wrote the story about her childhood here. We understand the island is very beautiful. We also hope to get a good lobster meal while there.

The photos are from our drive yesterday on Gaspesie. And as we drive south from the peninsula, English is more often the spoken language. Diesel is $5.50 per gallon.

The winds howled all last night and it rained as well. Temperature was below 40 this morning but we decided we may as well move on as to stay still for the day. We had a good breakfast and set out around 9 am.

We are definitely in French speaking country. Hardly anyone speaks good English; some folks can speak enough to answer our questions and some can speak no English at all. Today we are driving toward the Gaspesie Peninsula. The two lane road hugs the banks of the St. Lawrence River, which is at low tide during the middle of the day. We have passed through several little villages today, and although we’ve been on the road for 6 hours, we’ve only driven 150 miles. We’ve had a detour, and the speed limits on this road are low. We also stopped for a few groceries at a local store, and that took longer than usual due to the language barrier. But it was actually fun figuring out items in the grocery store.

Some of the names of the villages we’ve passed through are Montmagny, Saint Jean Port Joli, saint pascal, and we’ve settled in the Camping du Quai campground for the night. the village is called Rivière du Loup and we are right on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Every little village we passed through has a huge double steeple church in the center of town. It seems there is only one denomination, and I haven’t figured that out yet. Still freezing rain, but Greg has on his jackets and rain poncho to do the hookups outside. We continue to be warm and cozy inside the RV, but we would love to be outside!!! We hope every day will get warmer.

Tomorrow we will continue on the Gaspesie Loop around the peninsula. We should see ocean tomorrow.

The photos show me near a dam on the St. Lawrence River, and some sights from the little villages. One photo shows the St. Lawrence river at low tide, and one photo shows the bad road we experienced while on a “detour” through one of the villages.

We saw sunshine last night for the first time in a couple of days, but it was short lived. As we drove east, the weather got worse and worse. After starting out at 53 degrees, we are now (at 4pm) 40 degrees with a chilly drizzle.

We stopped for LP gas this morning before heading out toward Montreal. We had the good fortune of finding an Information Center on the outskirts of Montreal, and they gave us a good route to get through the city with the least amount of stress. Montreal’s traffic is notoriously bad—we hoped since it was Saturday, things would be quieter. We made it through Montreal without any trouble. The roads are a mindboggling spaghetti plate of roads and exits.

We are shocked at the amount of Tim Hortons that are everywhere. We stopped for diesel fuel and Tim Horton was next door to the fuel station and the line was out the door. Tim Horton rules up here in Canada.

We passed a sign directing us to a nudist colony—-bet there aren’t many people there today. Unless they are indoors.

In Ontario the road signs were in French, with an English replica right beside it. But in Quebec,all signs are in French with no English. We can figure out most of the signs, but some we haven’t a clue. Can’t tell whether a store is a hardware store or a grocery store. As we continue eastward, we will enter the Gaspesie (pronounced Gas-peesee) Peninsula. We should soon see plenty of beautiful scenery as the road hugs the coast all the way around the peninsula. There will be plenty of little villages for us to explore. If the rain continues, we may sit out one more day somewhere along the road—-in this weather we wouldn’t be able to see a thing. Obviously, we took no photos today. The landscape continues to look like home, but should be changing soon.

This will be a short entry today. We made it to Ottawa for the evening. Campground is fine but nothing special. They charge $1 to get a shower, which is tacky. so we will shower in the RV, thanks but no thanks.

We are looking forward to getting through Montreal tomorrow. We are not so keen on these big cities, so we are studying the map this evening. After tomorrow, we should be finished with the large cities for a while. We will skirt by Quebec City but will not sightsee there. We are anxious to get to the less populated areas. And by the way, Ontario looks just like home, so there are not much interesting new landscapes yet. We will be on the Gaspe Peninsula in a couple of days and the scenery will be drastically different.

Temperatures are more moderate today, but still cool with high of 52 or so. We woke this morning to 32 degrees but had a good night’s sleep—-thank goodness for the electric blankets!

We’ve had the coldest weather this week that we’ve ever encountered since we began traveling in our RV in 2008. It was 39 degrees when we awoke this morning; the temperature got to 43 degrees during the day, and by 4 pm it was back down to 37 degrees. We expect 32 degrees tonight. The locals say this is very unusual, and next week we should see low 70’s. I’d be happy to see low 60s. But we are warm inside and luckily, we brought our electric blankets on this trip.

We had no trouble crossing the border. Questions were much less than 2010 when we went to Alaska. This morning the agent looked at our passports and asked: where are you from; where are you going; do you have firearms. That was it.

After crossing the border, we stopped at a currency exchange to get loonies, toonies, etc. The exchange rate is 98 cents on the dollar, so it actually is much better than 2010. We also found a Tim Horton ( think Dunkin Donuts) Their coffee is great, and we also shared a little box of timbits (donut holes). Excellent on a cold dreary morning.

We also stopped at the visitor center and got a conversion chart, so all day we’ve had to refer to it for speed limits, mileage, liters vs gallons, etc.

The fields up here are standing in water and nothing has been planted yet. They have had so much rain this spring it has thrown everything off.

We stopped for diesel in a little village called Bruce Mines, and before we could get out of the RV, a little lady was outside ready to pump our diesel. Remember “full service”? They still have it up here. We also paid $4.89/gallon. That’s the highest we’ve paid this trip. We are also in an area where Mennonites live, so we’ve seen horse drawn carriages and clean farms. We saw our first moose, but couldn’t get a photo. We skirted Lake Huron, which still has ice floating in it.

Tonight we are in a little park called Glenrock, which is on Nipissing Lake. We are just about the only tourists here, once again. Think we may have left a little too early this year, but how do you ever know? Tomorrow we hope to get to Ottawa.

We awoke to very heavy fog this morning, but decided to press ahead. After having a bowl of cereal and packing up, we drove a little ways and stopped at McDonalds for coffee.

We are still having a chuckle when we ask “where is my hat?” and it’s on his head, or “where are my glasses ” and they are on my face. But we are settling into our groove and not nearly as confused as our first day out. LOL

Our plans changed a little for today. We drove about 60 miles to Sault (pronounced sue) St. Marie, to do a little sightseeing. During the drive, we saw an unusual sight—-a beautiful eagle was on the side of the road, enjoying a breakfast of road kill. Sault St. Marie is the last city in Michigan before crossing into Canada. I had read about a campground right on St. Mary’s River situated so you can watch the ships coming to and from Canada, and near the locks. We are literally looking at Canada across the river. The campground (Aune Osborn RV Park) is so great, we decided to stop for the day and enjoy the views of the ships from our camp sight. Within a few minutes of setting up, the first ship came by. You first hear a fog horn blast, and then in a couple of minutes you can see the ship rounding the bend before coming directly in front of our site. We saw two ships come by in the first hour so we expect to see several ships today.

Sault St. Marie was founded in 1668. Lots of beautiful Indian names up here, including Chippawa County, and Taquamenon Falls. The town of Sault St. Marie has the small town feel and is very quaint.

The campground has a wonderful walking path so we bundled up and walked a lot today. Temperature is around 50 degrees, but as long as it doesn’t rain, we are in good shape. The downside of this park is that I cannot get WIFI at our site, but the views override the need for WIFI. Maybe I can walk over to the office later and download today’s entry.

I’ve attached several photos of our views of the ships today. Tomorrow we will definitely cross over into Canada.

We didn’t make any miles today due to bad weather. We decided to just stay put rather than getting out in the weather to unhook plugs and such. So we spent the day reading, dozing, etc. This evening we were able to get out and walk around the park. It’s a nice little park. Yesterday we were the only rig here—-today two more have come in.

We will cross over the border tomorrow and look forward to seeing some new sights. The photos attached to this entry were taken today in our park.

Here are some photos from yesterday.

High winds while crossing the Mackinaw Bridge.