Miramichi, New Brunswick tonight......

Our Location: Walmart Front Parking Lot, Miramichi, New Brunswick
 
(June 9, 2018 Post)

Woke up this morning to a very unusual sight, a big yellow ball in the sky. We had no idea what it might be but we were informed it’s called the SUN. Yes it was shining brightly and made us all feel so much happier and warmer too. The night was cool, the morning wind was also crisp. Fluffy clouds dotted the brilliant blue sky but not threatening in any way. The night was quiet at Walmart and I didn’t hear any noises of any kind until about 5 am ADT when a big rig pulled in behind us for a couple of hours rest. Other than the Igloo not a single camper was in sight. We pulled up the feet and headed off around 8:30 am leaving Bathurst behind us in the rear view mirror. 

Chaleur Bay which is the bay between Gaspe Peninsula and NB's north east coast.

Such a pretty blue.

Taking the scenic route of NB11 once again we headed for points further east than Bathurst,  a small place called Caraquet on the tip of the eastern shore of a jut of land. The road was amazing with scenic views and vistas much of the way. We managed to find a place to pull off to view the water which is Chaleur Bay. This body of water is dark and cold looking with some muddy areas around the bottom of the cliffs. Off in the very near distance a mere 14 miles away we could see the long arm of the Gaspe Peninsula of course is in  Quebec. We enjoyed a couple of more stops along the way this morning, two at churches, one at an information centre, and one at a fuel station. Sis paid for the fill up this morning at $1.34 per litre. 

No pull offs here, we were parked in a gas station parking lot.

Tiny little church by the sea side.

The churches were very different, the first one was stone, regal and majestic. It stands on a large plot of land that overlooks the Chaleur Bay with a cemetery on the grounds as well. I noted one stone that was in excellent condition, no moss, no rust, easy to read, the death date was 1889. A final resting place of amazing beauty with the waves crashing below and the birds screaming above. Crab apples blossoms in full colour now were being blown away by the wind as we watched. The second church was a nice wooden structure, painted white with stain glass inserts in every window. It too had a cemetery behind but I didn’t make note of any of the the headstone dates. Very bright, inviting, not regal or majestic but soothing in its own way.

Can you see me way up on the top of the steps?

Love the cliffs over there.

The rest area/information centre was housed in a light house, which happened to be closed today. (pressure washing the outside in preparation for repainting)They had a few picnic tables and benches also available. A picnic table enclosed in a wooden structure similar to a lobster trap was an attention getter. A small foot bridge over a little gully and a couple of open picnic areas as well. The views were stunning, cliffs and weathered homes, waves crashing at the bottom of the cliffs offered those postcard  views that I’ve seen for years but never in person. We truly enjoyed the ride along the Arcadian coastal area. A stop at the Historic Arcadian Village netted us a disappointed as it wasn't open to the public yet, but will be starting tomorrow, June 10. We made our way slowly to the Miramichi area of New Brunswick where we once again are in a Walmart lot. This will be our last Walmart for a few days as tomorrow we move to a camp ground. The temperature climbed a bit today, not sure if it was due to the sun or the difference in location. We are getting much closer to the bottom part of the province. 

Lovely view, don't you think?

Can you see the different colours in the water? Shallower by shore, then drops off fast.

The temperatures today were a mixed bag ranging from cold enough to need a sweater/hoodie  during our sight seeing stops near the water but further in land we needed only light sweaters. As I type this at 6:10 pm ADT the clouds are moving in once more and the feel of rain is in the air. Hopefully it holds off until much later. While I didn’t mention it we of course call Dad when we  stop each day just let him know his daughters and granddaughter are fine and where we are so he can follow along in the comfort of his home back on the Island. 

The information booth is housed in this lighthouse, obviously closed until they finish the pressure washing and then painting. The Blue, White, Red plus the star is the Acadian Flag, very prevalent here in NB.

Lobster trap over the table.

More picnic area.

The view from along the walk way. 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

A nice country church.

 

Until next time…. take care, be safe,

 

Home on a pole.

Church on the way to Miramichi, NB.

Willy Jeep seen at Walmart in Miramichi.

Welcoming us.

 

Lots of water around this area.

Deb

Touring New Brunswick......

Our Location: Walmart Front Parking Lot, Bathurst, New Brunswick


We left Edmunston after a rainy night. We shared the parking lot with numerous other RV’ers and something I noticed that was odd to me truckers had no issues blocking some of the exit/in roads to the parking lot in the middle of the area. Instead of parking across the lines they just blocked the driveway. I found that odd, and they looked at us odd as I didn’t park that way. Interesting. 

 

Riley noticed this fellow just hanging out while we were leaving Edmunston.

Cool, wet, damp and overcast was again the weather pattern for the day. Our goal was to reach Bathhurst on the north east shores of New Brunswick. One must be careful not to assume all roads on the map are actual roads, some are logging roads and with that in mind we continued on TransCanada 17 South until we veered off onto NB11 which took us north, then east, and finally south to our destination. 

 

Some of the long sweeping views as we left Edmunston on Provincial 17.

 

The sky doesn't look it but heavy rain is not far in the offing. Construction is minor.

 

We managed to fill up with the Big Dog’s drinking bowl for $1.24 per litre, best price we’ve seen the entire way. The previous fill up was $1.39 per litre. Huge difference. The green here is new, very much early spring colours and multiple just opening and soon to open blossoms such as crab apple, cherry, etc. Tulips and daffs are still the flower of the day. So we are again experiencing the cool temperatures of early spring. The wind is getting more noticeable which is to be expected nearer to the ocean which we managed to see on our journey today, snips and snaps of it at least. With the rain falling hard at times it was difficult to get any good pictures. However we did manage one or two. A quick stop in the small town of Saint Quentin for a break in their lovely little park  turned out to be the only place to stop during our drive. No other road side areas except one at a small town named Kegwick  which was literally 10 minutes down the road for S.Q. 

Lovely views, can't beat those green colours.

The over cast is getting more noticeable.

 

New Brunswick 11 was for the most part a good highway to drive, it had some extremely rough patches in places but over all it was good. Well signed, lots of moose warnings, although we haven’t seen any live moose, just a number of statues. NB11 reminded Riley and I of the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains in some ways, although the hillsides here are much less populated and more dense with foliage. The views were stunning in many places. We passed places like Campbellton, Delhousie, Belldune, and on into Bathurst. Cousin Ruth lives in Belldune but was at work when we passed through the outskirts of her town. The drive was beautiful with the wonders of mountain driving along with the vast sweeping views that comes from reaching the high points in the road way. In many places it was forest and only forest with the small clearings here and there for roadways and houses/towns. In a few places there was the open fields of the farms starting to show their first green of spring plantings. Just like a light fuzz on the ground. The mountains here are nothing like the Southwest USA but they are mountains in their own right. The Appalachian Mountains to be exact.  We’ve all commented a number of times about the various shades of green in the distance, the views different at each high point as the growth mixture changes to more of one green than another. Few very short passing lanes on NB11 as well. Some beautiful views of the water as we rounded the corner at Campbellton and headed south. We would catch glimpses here and there of the waters off to our left.

The grades become steeper and steeper as we go along.

Similar views, but still very pretty.

Bathurst is showing the first signs of english since we left Ontario. Even on the edges of New Brunswick such as Edmunston we found we were still dealing with more french than english speaking people or heavily accented at least. Signs were a bit more multilingual near the provincial borders but here in the town of Bathurst are in english which is helpful if it’s language signs and not visual signs. We all noticed that Quebec had NO BILINGUAL signs which I thought was mandatory since both french and english are the official Canadian languages.

Some pretty views, see the slash in the trees,t hat's the road way.

A small pond by the road side.

 

So if it  seems like we aren’t actually sight seeing I’ll tell you why.We’ve discovered that we are too early due to the late spring to enjoy the gardens, etc. We’re too early for the summer events, which actually don’t really interest us anyway.  The rain is a definite factor and it’s rained pretty much each day of travel since North Bay, our second day’s location. Some times down pours, some times mist like air and all points in between. It’s very cool here with temps some times dipping very close to the single digit numbers even during the day, the wind in that case also plays a factor as it’s a chilly biting wind. The few sun shine spots have been rare and usually while we’re driving which limits our ability to take advantage of it. The other thing as mentioned above, due to the late spring everything is late. A number of the museums and such listed along the way haven’t interested us in the least but we figured that when we set out to see this side of the province. While we could have gotten off NB11 and gotten closer to the water we opted to wait until we are much lower down in the province due to the crisp winds. Which is one of the reasons we haven’t gotten ourselves into a campground either.  In a day or two we will be in Shediac which is lower in the province and hopefully more seasonal in temperature. We’ll be staying a couple of days in a park there and getting out with just the Dogsled which will be fun, much easier to get around and see things as well. I’ve been thinking about getting out my heavy coat to even just walk around the parking lot. Even Riley is in long pants. 

 

I'll take these views.

Yes that is the wiper blade you can see in the corner and rain drops on the bottom. All pictures have rain drops in them.

So there you have it, nothing exciting but some good views and we are having fun enjoying this outing. Always an experience when traveling!!! Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

The town where we'll be spending the night.

Until next time …… take care, be safe,

 

The town of Sainte Quentin has a definite western flavour.

The town of Saint Quentin little road side park.

 

 

Deb

From Ontario to Quebec to New Brunswick.....

Our Location: Walmart Front Parking Lot, Edmunston, New Brunswick

We've been having connection issues with the Jet Pack and so I'll summarize our travels. 

We arrived last Friday at Riverbend Park and were told the mosquitos are plentiful, okay not a problem, we’re staying a few days but being from Northern Ontario we’re used to flying pests right? Well let me tell you, we have no idea how fortunate we are in our summer location with the bugs. Here we couldn’t go outside without being covered from head to toe, and I mean COVERED, not 20 or 30 but hundreds, they came in on everything and were like bees in a swarm.

 

Our stay in Carlton Place, heading into Ottawa and the cloud cover.

 

Ottawa as seen from the Dogsled as we cruised by. 

 

We had to get out of the Igloo on Saturday for a while, we were going a bit stir crazy and headed into Carlton Place a short distance away. The Dogsled steering was off as we pulled into the store parking lot and I didn’t like it at all. We’d passed a Chevy Dealership just down the road on way to the store so I headed back there, they were 5 minutes from closing. Two technicians came out and checked it out, it could be any number of things but we’re pretty sure it’s something to do with 2/4/4hi-lo drive. They put us in a cute little Chevy Trax free of charge and said they’d call Monday morning with the results. Hmmmmm…okay the power train is still covered for another 20, 000 miles, but electrical issues aren’t. So we’ll have to wait and see. Back to the Igloo we went with our little tiny Trax and the mosquito population which kept us trying to get to the door 4 times before they finally stopped picking us up and carrying us away. Saturday night and most of Sunday it rained which also put a damper on our sight seeing ideas. Instead we stayed in, watched some movies, had a nap and just hung out. 

 

Between Ottawa and Montreal, including crossing into the province of Quebec.

On our way to Drummondville, QC. Love the stop lights, side ways instead of up and down, much easier to see.

 

Monday morning 8:30 am the dealership called, they can’t find anything wrong with the Dogsled, they think it was stuck in 4 wheel drive but it was no longer stuck. All the fluids are good, right levels, right colours, no smells, no issues in the front diff either. So we’re good to come pick up any time. By 10 am we’re in the little Trax heading for the dealership, picked up the Dogsled quickly. Thanks to Kathleen, and Matt for their help during our stressful time. We left the dealership, crossed to Walmart for haircuts and a quick little few groceries. We noticed no bugs of any kind. So instead of staying for another night at Riverbend Park we opted to come to the Walmart out of the bugs and the wet. Fill the Dogsled’s water bowl as I’m not connected to the Igloo, always easier that way. Home we go, hook up, pack up, fighting the mosquito’s the whole time. My pant legs were covered with at least 100 buggers on each leg, not mention all the other places they were that I couldn’t do much about. Half an hour later we’re ready to pull out, three turns of the wheel and whoosh we sunk. Now we can’t go anywhere, not in any drive 2, 4 or 4 lo. Tires are full of mud and we’re three feet from being on the gravel driveway. Top it off, it’s pouring rain again. Hmmmm…this is not a good thing in my opinion. I think Mr. Murphy is back, and I’d like to send him elsewhere. 

 

Sights between Drummondville and Edmunston, NB. Including Quebec City in the bottom two photo's, can you see it off in the distance?

Martin owns Riverbend Park but had nothing big enough to pull us out. We’re only down a couple of inches and I stopped no use burying us deeper. So I called the Auto Club and guess what NO trouble with the membership now but the lady tells me I don’t have RV coverage and they can’t service my 5’er. I told her I don’t want them to service the trailer, just pull out the truck. She tells me I’ll have to sign a waiver before they hook up the tow truck. Send him anyway. Nice fella arrives within about a half hour, hooks up one cable to the front of the Dogsled and he pulls us out of  the slicked up muddy spot. He didn’t ask me to sign anything before hooking up, just to sign that I was happy with the tow. I was very happy with the tow, he didn’t care that the Igloo was attached. Martin the owner offered to pay for the tow and also gave the driver a tip. You can’t beat that for helpful now can you? Out of the mud we stopped to dump the tanks on the way out. We topped up the fresh tank to about 2/3 and headed off down the road. We arrived at Walmart since we’d already asked about staying and were told we could most definitely stay. A quick parking lot set up, we made lunch, cleaned up and then headed out for a walk. Riley, Jan and I made two rounds around the outside of the lot, then Jan and I continued for another two rounds. The wind is a bit crisp, fairly good speed and there are NO mosquitos at all, not even one. A much better place to park, no standing water, no soggy grass and no bugs.

 

More of Quebec City as we passed by, and the highway heading further north east.

Tuesday found us on our way toward Montreal, Quebec. Uneventful travel day, we simply followed the 417 East to Provincial Highway 30 East to PH 20 North until we reached Drummondville, Quebec. We stayed in an empty parking lot near the Walmart in Drummondville for two nights, the rains have just continued to fall almost the whole time. I needed a break from driving in the rain. We debated about sight seeing in Quebec City but as all of the road signs are in french with no english anywhere we decided against it and instead just motored on northward on PH 20 past QC and not quite as far as Riviere du Loop, QB, taking exit 499 we headed toward Edmunston, NB which is where we are located tonight. An information centre just past the NB provincial line netted us some information for our time here in this province. Tomorrow morning, Friday June 8 we’ll head a bit north but  mostly east heading for the shores that brush against the Atlantic Ocean where we will find a nice park and stay for a few days while we spend some time exploring the area. We haven’t explored much due to a few reasons including the weather, cool, wet, rainy, with splashes of sunshine on occasion but not very encouraging. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we’ll find some blue skies and warmer temperatures. 

 

Some of today's views in the province of Quebec.

We drove along the St Lawrence Seaway for most of the day today.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Finally into the province of New Brunswick!!!!

Until next time…. take care, be safe,

Deb

Going to rest for a couple of days now....

Our Location:  Riverbend RV Park, Pakenham, Ontario

A nice night for sleeping or at least nothing bothered me last night. I fell into bed right around 10 pm and didn’t hear a thing until 5 am this morning. According to sister Jan there were lots of kids out and about screaming and yelling, etc around 11:30 pm. Seems they too were staying at the Walmart overnight. 

Some of the sights as we drove along Trans Canada Hwy 17 East between North Bay and Pakenham in Ontario.

We were all up by 7 am, packed and ready to head out again this morning at 8:30 am. We were happy to leave North Bay behind us in our mirrors and point the Big Dog’s nose east once again. We pulled back on to TransCanada 17 to continue along our way. 

Leaving  North Bay, lots of water around, some rivers, some marsh, some bigger bodies as well.

Lots of little towns dot the landscape between North Bay and the Ottawa area. I won’t try to tell you the names other than the few that stick in my mind, Deep River, Mattawa, and Arnprior.

Of  course fog was constantly seen over most of these bodies of water.

We stopped a couple of times, once for fuel and while we didn’t really see the parking lot accident I certainly heard it. A Chevy Silverado backed into some little Honda car as it sneaked behind to get to the gas pumps. Ironically a police officer was just returning to his own cruiser when the accident happened. Who says there’s never a cop around when you need one? 

Blossoms, lilacs, and lots of green are now everywhere.

Our next stop was a leg stretch in Deep River at a church/school parking lot. We didn’t realize it was a school lot until we read the the bus signs. Didn’t matter we were there for 10 minutes and then gone. 

Some long sweeping vista, road signs are in kilometers, and a bit of rusty looking water tower in Deep River.

A bit of rain, a bit of sun, hot, humid weather and a few rumbles of thunder have been the call for the day today. I believe this weather will now pass us by as we’ve been heading east right along with it but will staying for a few days right here in this park. I do wish we’d have a thunderstorm though that might help the humidity that has locked in around us these last number of days. 

Some of the sights we noticed along the way.

We arrived at River Bend Rv Park in Pakenham, Ontario near Ottawa around 1 pm this afternoon. We parked here last fall when we came for sister Jan’s daughter’s wedding. Brittany and Kevin were married at the end of September and have since left the Ottawa area, moving to Newfoundland where Kevin is now a member of the RCMP detachment in Port au Basque. They are expecting their first baby, a boy, in mid to late September. 

Deep River hosted our rest stop in the church parking lot.

We are parked in J2, not far from where we parked last fall. This spot is closer to the road and near to a marshy area and the mosquito’s are horrendous. We’ve sprayed all the screens with bug spray  and I can tell you we won’t be outside here doing much. According to the park owner they’re waiting for the dragon flies to arrive as they apparently help control the mosquito population. 

Arnprior is where we get off Trans Canada Hwy 17, and head toward Packenham.

I called my dad but had to leave a message as he’s off gallivanting around the country side somewhere. After the message leaving effort I started lunch preparations, we finally finished eating, and doing dishes by around 3 pm. 

I enjoyed this drive for the most part, some great views.

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing, reading and doing a few things to entertain ourselves. Called my dad again to chat, he says it's cold, rainy and windy back on the rock. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Deb