Day 15 Monday June 24,
2019 We had a departure time between 10:30AM and 12 noon so we
departed at 11AM and had a leisurely and scenic 150 mile drive to
Camping du Qual in Riviere-du-Loup Quebec Canada. Today was a
Canadian holiday so there was no road construction but there was lots
of RVs on the road. We have been seeing a lot of farm land throughout
the parts of Canada we have been through but we saw the most today.
Some of the fields look like there were over a 100 acres or more in
size, mostly hay fields and the farmers were cutting and gathering
the hay.
 |
| Team work getting Carl's slide pushed in |
 |
| Lots of silos in this area |
We arrived at the campground
about 1:15PM and was the first to arrive behind the Wagonmasters.
Those that departed before us stopped along the way for fuel, etc. We
setup in site 27. This is a nice campground. After resting and
updating the Blog we walked down to the dock where we will board a
boat tomorrow to go on a whale watching excursion. We had planned to
ride the Jeep to the dock tomorrow and take two passengers so there
wouldn't be so many cars down at the dock. We had a choice of
driving, riding our bicycles or walking so we decided to walk and not
unhook the Jeep since we are only here two nights. The walk is only
twenty minutes down a nice walking trail. The sun was shining bright
today but the air has a nice coolness to it.
 |
| Like ducks in a row |
 |
| Christmas House across the street |
Our guide in Quebec City,
Roger, told us that Quebec Canada is 96% French speaking. All the
road signs, street signs, etc. are in French. Some words are fairly
obvious some are not.
Here is your French
lesson for today:
Chute is Waterfall
Poubelle is garbage
Douche is Shower
Sortie is exit
Arret is Stop
Day 16 Tuesday June 25,
2019 It was 56 degrees today at 7AM but the sun was shining bright
so it was really nice outside. We met part of our tour group at
8:15AM that wanted to walk with us to the dock. One of the ladies had
already walked the trail this morning. We boarded the boat at 9:15AM
and headed out. Our narrator, Michele, was a Marine Naturalist and
spoke both in French and English. Levi then repeated what Michele
said in Mandarin (Chinese) for the Chinese onboard.
She told us it would take
about 45 minutes to get out to the area where we should see the most
whales. We had not gone far when we saw two adult and one juvenile
Beluga Whales. The adults are white and the juveniles are light brown
at birth and then turn bluish gray and finally white as an adult.
After about an hour we began
to see several whales, saw several blowing (where they expel water
out their blow holes when they surface). It is difficult to get a
good photograph because on average they surface for only 3 seconds
and it may be several minutes before they surface again.
 |
| Ready for some whale watching |
There were several other
boats also out whale watching. The boats have to be licensed to bring
passengers out and they have to keep a certain distance from the
whales so they don't become stressed. There were also two researchers
onboard gathering data about the whales and other marine life. This
is the most whales we have seen at one time.
We also saw several seals.
There was one large group of them we passed on the way back to the
dock. This was a nice excursion. We returned to the dock about 1PM.
 |
| Burr is cold in this wind |
 |
| Seals |
At 6PM we all gathered in
the clubhouse at the campground for BBQ Pork cookout. One of the
couples brought several pounds of BBQ from home. Several side dishes
and desserts were provided by others in the group. The BBQ was really
good so we all have a fine meal followed by the travel briefing for
tomorrow's trip to our next campground.
Day 17 Wednesday June 26,
2019 We didn't have but 99 miles to drive today so we didn't leave
until 11AM after we all gathered up at the Tailgunners site to have
Chocolate Banana Nut Bread and coffee for a mid morning snack. Then
we headed for Grand-Metis Quebec Canada and Camping Annie's
Campground.
We all stopped about 6 miles
from the Campground, at Reford Gardens (Jardins de Metis). Elsie
Reford founded the gardens. The gardens were beautiful with well laid
out walking paths. We were provided a map so it was easy to meander
through the gardens without getting lost. Lena and I had lunch in the
Bistro before touring though the gardens.
 |
| Garden Dibbles (check the one mounted on the bottom of a shoe) |
 |
| You need a rake |
 |
| 1948 International |
 |
| Japanese Primrose |
 |
| Lawn Mowers |
We arrived at the campground
about 3:30PM and setup in site 52. After I washed the bugs off the
front of the motorhome again and Lena washed a load of clothes we
drove down the road along the coast into a small village to take a
few pictures. The coast line and beach along this part of the Saint
Lawrence River is very rocky. On the way back to the campground we
spotted a lighthouse and after a bit found the narrow gravel one lane
road down to it to take some pictures. It was private property and
had a fence blocking the entrance so we were not able to walk up to
it.
We had our drivers meeting
at 7PM for tomorrow's 213 mile drive. This will be the longest drive
so far of the tour but was told it is a beautiful drive to take our
time and enjoy it.
French Lesson for
today:
Est = East
Ouest = West
Lentement = Slow
Sud = South
Nord = North
Day 18 Thursday June 27, 2019 We had a little rain this morning
before we departed the campground at 9AM for our drive of 213 miles
to the Petit-Gaspe Campground in the Forillon National Park. We
stopped to fuel up and just a short distance away we stopped at
WalMart for a few groceries. Almost our entire drive today was along
the banks of the Saint Lawrence River. We could see the water just a
few yards to out left and massive rocks, hills and mountains to our
right. We passed through several small villages since we are not
riding on a major highway but a two lane road that is in fairly good
condition except for some really rough areas. The scenery is quite
spectacular with the river, rocky shore line, colorful houses, large
churches with tall steeples and thick forest and rocky mountain
walls. There was a 40 mile section that was a challenging drive as it
was right over a mountain with the road going up and down and around
curves with grades from 8 to 14% (14% is rather steep). But
thankfully the grades were usually less than one mile. Like one of
the men in our group said that is diving the only truck pulling a
travel trailer, he would come up the hill and couldn't see over his
hood as the road dropped down the other side.
 |
| I think this is ground dogwood |
 |
| New growth |
 |
| New growth |
After setting up we drove through two other loops in the campground.
Our group is split between loop A and loop E. Then I took a walk
around the loop we are in, Lena is not feeling 100% so she stayed in
the motorhome.
Day 19 Friday June 28, 2019 We woke to fairly heavy rain this
morning and 54 degrees so we stayed in bed later than usual. Today
there are no planned activities except a cookout at 6PM if the
weather will co-operate. Lena is still not feeling good so I cooked
breakfast and then after the rain stopped about 10:30AM we drove
through some of the park to checkout the shore line and an old
homestead that is open to the public.
 |
| St Peter's Church |
 |
| Little pine cones |
The homestead was very interesting. It sits on the bank of the river
and has a fairly large two story house with a cellar, a boat house, a
large two and half store barn and some other outbuildings. Xavier
Blanchette and his wife had 10 children but three died before the age
of 5. There was an interpreter in the house. He said they made their
living mostly from Cod fishing and a little farming and were mostly
self sufficient. They fished, hunted, had some cows for milk, pigs,
chickens owned some woodland for firewood and other wood products and
were considered fairly well off. There were bedrooms upstairs and
part of the loft was Mr. Blanchette's Winter workshop where he
repaired shoes, etc., during the harsh weather. The windows were two
windows separated by about 3 inches of air space same as the front
door that faced the river. I guess that is the forerunner of the
modern day double pane windows.
 |
| child's potty |
 |
| Cellar |
 |
| family home |
 |
| Boat House |
 |
| Inside barn |
French Lesson for
Today:
Grave = Shore (as in river shore)
Ouvert = Open
Day 20 Saturday June 29, 2019 Our drive today is only 65 miles to
Camping du Phare in Perce Quebec. We departed at 11:05AM drove about
20 miles and stopped at a Canadian Tire store. We saw the signs
earlier in the trip and thought it was just a tire store. It is like
a WalMart (without groceries), a Home Depot or Lowes and a Harbor
Freight all rolled into one store. We browsed through the store and I
found one item I needed. About 15 miles from our campground we drove
into some heavy fog coming off the Saint Lawrence River. Yes we are
still riding along the banks of this river. The Wagonmaster gave us
the option of driving into our site, rather than backing in so we
could look right out our windshield at the Saint Lawrence River. We
are sitting a couple hundred feet or so above the river and can see
the village of Perce off to our left and an island to our right that
we will take a boat ride out to tomorrow.
We set up in site 107 and decided to walk into town and check out the
Do-Re-Mie Bakery we had been told about. We didn't realize it was
going to be a two hour walk round trip but we got some good exercise
in and got a nice loaf of sourdough bread and a couple of muffins.
 |
| Perce Rock in the background |
 |
| Our view out the windshield of the Rock and Perce |
 |
| Pet pig in campground near us |
 |
| Bullwinkle and me |
After returning to the campground we set outside and watched several
whales surfacing right out from us.
Day 21 Sunday June 30, 2019 We woke up to 52 degree and fog so
heavy we could not see much more than 200 feet in front of us. We
were concerned that our boat ride excursion would be canceled but the
fog lifted in time for us to board about 9:30AM for a ride out to
Perce Rock and Bonaventure Island. We can see both from our great
view out the front of the motorhome. Perce Rock is rather unique
looking as it is tall, rather narrow, long, with a large hole through
it and it sits out in the river off the shore of the village of
Perce. Bonaventure Island was inhabited many years ago and there are
still houses on the island but is now owned by the Province of
Quebec. It is the nesting grounds for thousands of birds. They nest
along the crevices and rock cliffs around the island. There were
several seals laying around on the rocks.
 |
| Our boat |
 |
| Waiting to board |
 |
| Local artist |
 |
| Perce Rock |
 |
| Bonaventure Island |
 |
| Lobster Boat |
We returned to the dock about 11:15AM and went to lunch at La Maison
du Percheur just a few yards from the river and the dock. This was a
four course meal of carrot soup, a salad, a main entree of seafood
and the best I can describe it was similar to a pot pie with
different kinds of seafood, a creamy filling with mashed potatoes
over it and then baked and was very good, followed by a thick piece
of decadent chocolate cake and coffee.
We checked out a few of the shops around the village and went back to
the campground to relax and let our lunch settle.
 |
| Lighthouse at end of our campground |
 |
| Our group |
Note: I have added a photo to the June 18th
entry that shows the route we are taking on this adventure.
Day 22 Monday July 1, 2019 Today is Canada Day. The wind was really
whipping this morning and it continued most of the day.
The Wagonmasters and Tailgunners cooked pancakes, ham, sausage and
provide coffee, tea and orange juice for the entire tour group this
morning for breakfast. Two of our group are Canadians so after we ate
we all sang Canada's Anthem and then did a group photo with little
Canadian flags.
Two of the ladies in the group and Lena and I drove into the village
of Perce to checkout some other points of interest near the Perce
Rock.
 |
| Lena, Kathleen and Emma |
 |
| Perce Rock |
 |
| That is the road we came into town on |
Then we drove out of town a few miles and stopped at a fishing boat
marina. A really nice old 1964 Pontiac car was in the parking lot and
I talked to the owner a few minutes. There were several lobster/crab
fishing boats in the marina.
 |
| Lots of driftwood on the shore along the river |
 |
| 1964 Pontiac |
 |
| Lena and Kathleen |
Later Lena and I drove back into the village of Perce to try some
fish and chips (french fries) and take a walk on the boardwalk that
looks like it is fairly new. They have done a good job with the
boardwalk and park right on the shore of the Saint Lawrence River.
 |
| Fish and Chips |
No comments:
Post a Comment