Day 13 - St. Fulgence to St. Jerome, QC

These are the celebrity sightings we’ve seen during our trip:

The actor who played Mr. Peterman on Seinfeld in the pizza place Ludlow, VT where we had lunch.

Richard Branson cruising in a corvette in downtown Bar Harbor.

David Beckham in the bar (during ladies night, hmm…) at Boeuf Cochon where we ate dinner tonight, our last evening in Canada.

We neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of these sightings, but all three of us agree on them so it must be fact.

We woke today being able to see across the fjord and take in some of the great views socked in by fog last night when we arrived. Blue sky was starting to peek through the clouds and gray.

Breakfast was scenic and delicious at the hotel. We had a leisurely breakfast and each kind of dragged a bit from the ride the day before. We headed out around 9:30am.

Our day today was filled with great sightseeing for more than 200 of the 340 miles.

The first section included dense evergreen forests and sharp mountain ranges with surprise lakes and ponds around the corner.

Here is the quirky picture of the day.

We enjoyed this scenery for a long while and temperatures were cool but very pleasant. We felt we deserved this perfect weather and scenery after yesterday’s deluge.

Our first break was a gas station near Berthiaville. They actually had a decent selection of wines on display. Still 100% French speaking, we conversed with single words “Gas on 6” to pay. 

Continuing on, we eventually stopped for lunch around 12:15 in the town of La Tuque at the Italian pizzeria. This town was all about the paper mill, we could smell it! Luckily the waiter quickly realized we spoke no French even though we could mostly figure out the menu with some English words. The locals were also there finishing their lunches. At 1:00 as we were eating our lunch, all the locals left. We figure they had a set lunch hour from Noon-1pm and had to be back at work.

After lunch, temps were getting toasty and we headed back out to the great scenery. The highway took us along rocky mountains beside the St. Maurice river.

       

Our final gas stop was about 90 miles from our destination. Afterwards, it was around this time that traffic picked up, 4-pm or so. The GPS also alerted us to severe traffic in the Montreal area so Rob diverted us off the highway onto a scenic road that went by lush farmland.

We got to our hotel around 6:30pm.

Day 12 - Grand Falls to St. Fulgence, QC

We all felt tired from yesterday’s adventures on bad roads and such, despite a quiet and very comfortable sleep at the hotel. We got breakfast in the hotel and prepped the bikes with optimism that we wouldn’t have rain today. Radar suggested we may get rain about 10am. Since the rain gear takes a while to put on, we opted for our rain pants to start.

Since we were in the area we had to see the Grand Falls that makes this town famous. Michele had looked up photos online and was expecting a mini Niagara. As we drove over the bridge leading to the parking area, Rob said “Oh, it’s only a grand trickle.”

Each spring the dam gates are opened to allow for snow melt and “a few months later” about 90% is diverted to the power plant. We must have just missed it, but it was cool anyway.

After the quick stop, we drove north to St. Lawrence River which we would follow down and around all day.

Soon we entered Quebec, a new province for us!

Instead of following interstate 20 we took the Riviere du Loup, a road that runs by the river, in the hopes of better views. We were not disappointed despite the gray skies. Many of the towns were very quaint and farmlands were right on the floodplain. The river had a strange hue to it due to the rain storm.

We had lunch at Restaurant La Voliere. This was our first experience with a French menu, luckily they had English translations. Rob also looked up words on a translator app, so we added to our small library of French vocabulary today. We all opted for the daily special. Rob and Jerry had spaghetti with shrimp and Michele had a beef stew.  The starter was a vegetable soup. Everything was so delicious and unexpected given the restaurant is in a shopping strip on a very busy retail road.

After lunch and back on the bike, Rob decided that the Wing’s French speaking GPS was not helpful and confusing matters. We navigated through town and got back on TransCanada 2 to TransCanada 185.

In Quebec City the GPS navigated us to a ferry, which we didn’t prefer to take due to time. However, the roads leading to it were steep and scenic.

Getting back on track was tricky and we encountered early rush hour traffic at 3:30pm. After a confusing series of about eight turns we ended up back on the river route.

After Quebec City we followed TC 75 North. Rob said that as if someone snapped their fingers, the traffic from the city disappeared. We had smooth roads and great views of evergreen mountains for 150 miles.

Since gas stops were few and very far between Quebec City and Saguenay, we took a break 84 miles out. We saw a camper trailer pulling a trailer pulling a small boat on a trailer. Jerry wondered how that guy backs up? Looking down the road where we came from, the skies were very dark and menacing. No sooner did we mention we should get moving when the skies opened up on us.

We had rain solid for 84 miles, and hard pouring rain at that. Temps got down to 55 degrees. We noticed an abundance of moose signs, all in French, apparently warning us of high alert areas. The highway had very tall fencing to help prevent Moose wandering into the highway. After about 60 miles, Michele spotted a gorgeous Moose right next to the fence! Jerry was about to catch a glimpse also. We deserved to see something great today given the terrible weather conditions. Since it was raining hard, Michele didn’t have her camera out for the last leg of the trip. She also saw a light brown and black fluffy fox trotting near the ditch by the road.

We were a bit apprehensive about the road leading into the hotel, assuming it would be gravel. Or worse, slippery mud going downhill! We spotted the hotel up on the hill and had a short mix of pavement and gravel. Michele debated about staying at the hotel since it was very possible the weather would prevent us from enjoying the view, which was the whole point. Of course, we couldn’t have been more socked in with fog!

After unloading the bikes and quickly getting covers on them in the rain, we got settled and went downstairs to dinner. This little guy was chomping on weeds outside our window.

The kind young gent who runs the front desk was also our waiter. Soon more people from the hotel showed up at the restaurant. The menu was 100% in French, uh oh! The waiter said he would explain everything as best he could in English. In the meantime, Rob and Michele tried looking online to translate. Michele saw a lot of shrimp, foie gras and other items not to her taste and instead chose the braised ribs with vegetables. Jerry got the two mini burgers and Rob ordered the chorizo casserole. Everything was so good! We reminisced about the day, our moose sighting and favorite parts of the trip. 

Tomorrow we continue our trip through French Canada and head for St. Jerome, just north of Montreal.

Day 11 - PEI to Grand Falls, NB

Today somewhat felt like a comedy of errors with crazy wind, an out of order bathroom, terrible back roads, a flipped over car, road construction, getting separated in a roundabout and the threat of rain without the benefit of radar.

We said goodbye to the Sonata Inn with sunny blue skies and a cool breeze in Charlottetown. We headed towards the Confederation bridge to cross over to New Brunswick.

On our ride over, the wind picked up significantly and blew us around. It was also fairly cold with menacing gray skies. We considered stopping to put on more gear for warmth but pushed on.

The toll booth lady asked where we were from and Rob replied by question if we get a special rate being from Virginia. She said no, but she only charged us the standard motorcycle rate, not the extra axles with the trailer.

On the bridge, the wind was not bad at all, perhaps due to the large concrete walls.

Soon we were back in New Brunswick. We like this sign warning of large moose.

In an effort to take the more scenic route, we rode up the Acadia coast (not Arcadia) for awhile. The roads were a little bad. We connected back up with Trans Canada Highway 2 and took a fuel break. The fuel stop was in the local grocery store and there were no bathrooms in working order, or so said the lady at the register. Jerry went across the street to the church and it was actually an art gallery, with a working bathroom.

We followed TC-2 for approximately 80 miles eventually. Our progress was delayed due to a car that had just crashed and flipped over on the highway. People were running from their cars to help passengers in the SUV sitting on its roof. All the airbags looked to have deployed and the passenger compartment was still intact so hopefully no one was seriously injured.

Then down the way was a bit of construction, and we couldn’t figure out why traffic was so slow. Surely drivers were not gawking at the highway workers? Upon reaching them, we discovered that the workers were hand-spraying the temporary white land markers on new pavement. And, to get the width correct, they would lay a long pole in LIVE moving traffic whenever there was a break between cars! Yikes!

We stopped around noon for lunch, hoping to find the Silver Fox diner, but it too was a wily fox and we could not find it anywhere. Subway for us. On our way out, Michele spotted a large silver fox statue and thought the diner could be at the other end of the same building where we just had lunch. Oh well!

After lunch we exited onto Hwy-105 which closely follows the Saint John River and Rob had hoped would be more scenic than taking TC-2 the entire way. Hwy 105 was more scenic but we were not blessed with good road fortune at all. These were worse than the previous bad roads. Patches over patches and invisible heaves. At one point, Rob hit a heave hump dip scenario, going only 35 mph (he says) and Hitched went airborne. Jerry said it was a good 8 inches in the air! So much for the breakable treasures packed inside. We slowed down a bit more and suffered along.

In the meantime, Michele caught pics of great scenery.

And many very quirky sightings, such as this spaceman on a stick.

And the large potato man.

We entered Fredricton and it is here in a rotary (traffic circle) that we got separated from Jerry. Rob turned right to take a fuel break and somehow we all missed each other. Jerry came on the CB and said “Where are you guys at?” Uh oh!! We got back on the route hoping Jerry had continued ahead. He did and had stopped at a gas station. We didn’t see his bike parked until we passed so we had to keep going since there was no safe place to pull off.

Continuing onward, we drove by and over the bridge of the Macequac dam. It was impressive.

Over the dam, Rob and Michele stopped at a gas station to fuel up and wait for Jerry to catch up. We synched up after just ten minutes and hit the road again together.

Not learning our lesson from the bad roads earlier, we got on another 20 mile stretch of atrocious road conditions (Rob used a 4-letter word to describe them that won’t be repeated here).

We hope this cow had a good afternoon nap and not a permanent one.

With the skies getting darker and our patience (and bike shocks) completely shot, we found a bridge and crossed over the St. John river to get back on the well maintained TC-2.

Rob was able to see the weather radar in Maine since we were so close to the border. We decided to gear up with our raingear. Good thinking, we did have light rain for about 20 minutes.

We got to our hotel much later than expected today, around 5:30pm and were fairly bedraggled checking in. The ladies at the Best Western Plus Grand Sault were super friendly and figured we needed a meal. They gave us food delivery menus and said the restaurants delivered. A kind gentleman who works in the area and stays at the hotel often suggested Pizza Boy, so we took his recommendation. With delicious fried chicken and a salad delivered, plus wine and beer from the hotel bar, we settled in the hotel dining area and had a great meal.

Tomorrow morning we hope to leave early to see the Grand Falls of the St. John River that runs right through downtown!