Left home at 12 noon, stopped at Costco for cheap gas price for our 98 litres. Proceeded to Port Huron border crossing over the bridge with a magnificent view of Lake Huron. At the border crossing Pepsi’s dog food was thoroughly investigated to see whether it was admissible or not. Next stop was the visitor centre where the staff where extremely friendly and helpful and suggested a state park on Lake Michigan for our first overnight stay. Reservation was made on the spot it was a long weekend in the US after all. Walmart stop for groceries like exquisite swedish coffee, salad, apricots and a prepaid visa to try and activate our iPad data plan. This was unsuccessful and we’ll need to find another way to do this. Lunch at Wendy’s and then off to van Buren State Park. Unfortunately there were two by this name approximately the same distance from us and Martin entered the wrong one into the GPS. So we had a bit of a detour. We finally arrived at the correct park at about 9:40pm and had a beautiful electrical site. The park is situated on the shore of Lake Michigan with dunes along the beach.
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Dundas to Van Buren SP
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Haliburton to Home
Today was a gorgeous day for sailing and a swim. Unfortunately a gorgeous long weekend and vacation need to come to an end. At 4:30 we started our final trek home, only sweetened by an ice cream at Kawartha Dairy in Minden.
After that we still had to find one last dumping station to clean out our tanks. We found one at Hammock Harbour RV Park in Orillia which charged us $16 for the privilege.
The traffic on the rest of the trip wasn’t too bad, except for the area just south of Barrie. We hadn’t been in any real traffic for three and a half weeks, so it felt a little weird.
What worked and what didn’t:
The Roadtrek 190 Popular performed very well with some minor exceptions such as a furnace/AC/heat pump controller that didn’t work right and some moulding and an interior light cover that came off. The Roadtrek allows us to go for about 3 days without needing water or dumping and the built-in inverter allowed us to charge our laptops, phone, GPS and camera batteries. The Roadtrek has level indicators for the grey and black tanks but these are unreliable. We found flushing the black tank with water and then dumping it again helped with it reading empty when it really was empty. The macerator pump worked well. It is surprising how much fits into the Roadtrek and one develops a real admiration for the design and though that went into its construction. Ferries and rough terrain can be a challenge given its low clearance and long wheelbase.
Ruth needs her coffee in the morning and a stainless steel Italian coffee maker on the stove worked really well.
The SiriusXM receiver built into the Roadtrek wasn’t really useful except for the last two days when we were driving south or south-west. It was totally unusable in the maritimes and was busy acquiring its signal more than it was playing music.
The 4 ton hydraulic bottle jack I bought for $29 to lift the Roadtrek when changing spares worked well. The scissor jack that comes with the Roadtrek isn’t all that useful because of all of the tanks located underneath.
The Telus Huawei E587 Mobile WiFi device provided us with 3G/4G Internet access on our trip and worked very well as long as there was cellular network coverage. Telus and Bell are the only providers to have any coverage in Labrador, many parts of Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. The E587 allows up to 5 wireless devices to access the Internet simultaneously so we could use our laptops and iPads all on one data plan. We used Skype on the iPad to make outgoing calls when necessary.
If you’re looking for information on the Trans-Labrador highway, these sites are very useful:
http://www.tlhwy.com
http://www.tourismlabrador.com/home/files/pg/trans_labrador_highway_guide_may_2012.pdf -
Arnprior to Haliburton
Before leaving Breezy Hill campground we emptied and filled tanks and then drove into some stormy weather with a brief but very strong downpour.
Our routing took us through Bancroft where the annual Gemboree was taking place. This is a rockhound and semi precious stone collector’s haven and occupies both the arena and community center. Here you’ll find beads, minerals, meteorites as well as all sorts of new age healing crystals. One stand offered a stone from Russia that claims to be “composed of nearly all the elements of the Periodic Table”. Another stand offered one with only 7 elements but still claimed to be able to cure pretty much anything that might ail you.
After a quick lunch we drove to the annual get-together of some of our friends at a cottage in Haliburton. About 40 people, mostly kids of our friends now, were celebrating the August long weekend by swimming, water skiing, canoeing, sailing, jumping off cliffs into the water and talking to good friends.
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Kamouraska to Arnprior
The morning arrived extremely early – 4:30 to be precise. We quickly got dressed and then drove to the wharf we’d been at the night before but found the light lacking. We then drove to the other side of town where we found the sun rising with a farm in the foreground. Another spectacular sight and many images were captured.
We then returned to the wharf and photographed some more.
After a quick stroll throught town and breakfast we headed to Quebec City and we lucky to get one of the last parking spots in the lower part by the river. We immediately walked into “Les Fetes de la Nouvelle France”, a celebration of early French Canadian history, complete with costumes, crafts, foods and genealogy booths.
Lunch was salmon with bearnaise sauce and a baked potato at Hotel Ste-Anne.
From there we drove to Breezy Hill Camping for the night and got the last spot which turned out to be a little too steep for our Roadtrek’s minimal ground clearance. We were then directed another site normally occupied by a seasonal camper who was away that night.
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Forillon National Park to Kamouraska
The Forillon south campground has a service building that has great shower facilities and washrooms and it was only a short walk from our nicely wooded camping site. After a nice long hot shower we packed up and left with a target destination of Matane.
We didn’t get all that far before we stopped to photograph another lighthouse at Cap des Rosiers.
Soon afterwards we found ourselves in a rain and thunderstorm so we decided to drive as far as we could before stopping for the evening.
For lunch we stopped at Cantine des Pecheurs for fish and chips but were disappointed.
At the Fromagerie des Basques in Trois Pistoles and stocked up on more than enough cheese, bread and a pie.
Dinner was at St-Hubert in Riviere-du-Loup or Riviere-du-Lop as our GPS calls it.
We made it to Kamouraska but not before stopping to watch and photograph a stunning sunset vista.
We’re staying at the Vistor Center parking lot, along with a number of other RVs and hope to get up before sunrise tomorrow at 5:17AM in order to photograph some more. This area is very picturesque.
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New Richmond to Forillon National Park
After breakfast and cleanup we emptied and filled tanks and then headed out towards Gaspe. Our first stop was at a garage sale that had new pants for $5, new sweaters for $10 and silver plated candle holders for $1 each. $48 dollars later, I had three pairs of pants, three new sweaters and Ruth had three new candle holders.
A little further up the road was a GM dealer and we dropped in to have the tire pressure monitoring system looked at. The tool required to reset the monitors turned out to be a pretty expensive looking piece of kit and the spare tire wheel turns out not to have one of these sensors in it so we had to swap out the spare with the now fixed original wheel. $57 later, the Roadtrek was happy once again too, not to mention freshly washed. Great service!
One of the next towns has painted all their fire hydrants as cartoon characters.
By this time we were hungry and stopped at one of the many municipal rest areas along the way. This one had a swimming pool and ocean view and we had our sandwiches enjoying the sunshine at one of their picnic tables. Ruth got caught in a lobster trap.
After lunch we drove to Perce which has a nearby island that is home to many, many seabirds and a unique rock formation with an arch in it. There was a helicopter operation nearby and for $300 Ruth and I had a 20 minute aerial tour of the area. Spectacular!
Hwy 132 in this area is very curvy and scenic and goes through many small towns. There are lots of motels and campgrounds and there are a lot of tourists. Definitely a place to return to.
Our home for the night was Forillon National Park. This park was created in 1970 when land was expropriated. Some of the buildings, such as a general store, have historic significance and have been preserved as they would have been at the time they were in use.
There is a 4km hiking trail that leads to Cap de Gaspe, the site of a lighthouse. All three of us hiked the trail (and back for a total of 8km) and enjoyed the view at the lighthouse and the two porcupines that were having dinner on the grass there. They were incredibly tame and we got within about 3 feet of them.
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Saint Peters Bay to New Richmond
The visitor center opened at 8AM and I enquired where we could get our flat tire plugged. The local repair shop was just down the street and for $10 Johnny plugged the tire. He didn’t have the tire pressure monitoring system tool either, so we’re still driving with the warning light on.
After the repair job we headed to the second Prince Edward Island National Park and went for a swim. A bit cold and Ruth had a crab climb onto her foot.
After the swim was a trip to Green Gables, the location on which Anne of Green Gables is based. We watched two short movies about the site and L. M. Montgomery’s life and then toured barn, house and gift shop in the rain. Once safely back in our RV we had lunch and then departed on the long drive towards Gaspe.
We crossed the Confederation Bridge into New Brunswick. The view from the highway is mostly uninteresting and we stopped only to switch drivers, coffee and ice cream and again later for gas. Once into Quebec the scenery is spectacular and we found a nice campground by the river for the night.
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Halifax to Saint Peters Bay
The morning started emptying and filling the RV followed by a trip to the grocery store to buy some food for the coming days.
We decided to visit Prince Edward Island instead of heading straight back as we still had one unallocated day in our schedule. There are two major paths into Prince Edward Island – the Confederation Bridge and the Ferry from Nova Scotia. We decided to take the ferry in and then drive out on the bridge. The ferry runs every 1.5 hours or so and we arrived at the terminal just as the 2:45 ferry was leaving so we ended up taking the 4:30 one.
Once on the island we drove up to the Prince Edward Island National Park and did a hike to the dunes just as the sun was setting. Just as we were leaving the parking lot for the hike I noticed a hissing sound coming from one of the rear tires. Upon inspection I found that there was a nail stuck in it. We decided to leave it until we returned from the hike so as not to miss the sunset.
When we returned from the hike we changed the tire. Our $29 4-ton hydraulic bottle jack had no problem lifting the RV and we were done with the tire swap in about 30 minutes. The van has tire pressure sensors in each wheel and it now had a new wheel. I read the manual for the procedure to reset the sensors but ended up getting stuck once it said to use the tire pressure tool to walk about the vehicle to identify each wheel to the onboard computer. Unfortunately we didn’t have this tool so we just had to leave it in “SERVICE TIRE PRESSURE SENSOR SYSTEM” mode.
Since it was already dark we looked for a campground nearby and found one in Saint Peters Bay. When I asked the guy that the office if he had space he fumbled around in his papers mumbling about there being a festival on and that one needed to book well in advance and that he didn’t know if he had space and that you shouldn’t just park anywhere overnight and so on. It appeared that there was a lot of space in the park but we ended up driving to the visitor’s center and parked there for the night.
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Halifax Day 2
The girls and I had different agendas today. I spent the day assisting Brent on a shoot for a hair styling competition and Ruth and Pepsi visited Lunenburg, the Lighthouse Route and Peggy’s Cove.
The photo shoot was a lot of fun – three models (black, blue and orange hair), one hair dresser and a make-up artist.
While Martin was assisting in shooting the models, the girls (Pepsi and I) went for a great outing. Beautiful weather, a fast trip on Highway 103 to Lunenburg where I spent a couple of hours to get to know this historic town which was designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1995.
The town was established during Father Le Loutre’s War, four years after Halifax. The town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants especially from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands in Nova Scotia and, as a result, the (Catholic) Wabanaki Confederacy raided the community nine times in the early years of the settlement. I visited one of it’s oldest houses from 1753, now a museum which gives a great insight into the history. Fascinting how the news settlers found their new land, promised by the British King: Pick a card, any card from a deck of cards! On its back you find the number of your lot and you can find it on the map.
Blue Nose II still under repair in Lunenburg and two new Schooners are almost finished by a small boat building shop called The Dory Shop.
Then Pepsi and I took the Lighthouse Route back East, going by beautiful small towns, great beaches –no swimming unfortunately- and ended up in Peggy’s cove for a few shots and a wonderful ice cream since the day was very hot and sunny against all odds.
Back in Halifax we met Martin at Brent’s Studio.
At 7:30PM we met Trevor for ribs at the Boneheads BBQ on Barrington street. It was great to catch up again and share experiences of our travels in Atlantic Canada. After dinner we walked to a pub with great live Jazz music and had a round of drinks.
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Halifax Day 1
We toured the Marine Museum of the Atlantic and viewed a 3-D movie of the Titanic wreck as well as artifacts from the Titanic and displays on Halifax’s response to the disaster. Among its many other exhibits, the museum has a display on the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917 which destroyed the city and was the largest man-made explosion until the first test atomic bomb was detonated.
Next we decided to head towards Pier 21 and stopped at the Choco Cafe for Real Belgian hot chocolate, chocolate mocha and chocolate fondue. This was delicious and gave us the much needed energy to continue our trek of 4 or 5 city blocks as well as getting us out of the rain. By the time we had finished, the rain had stopped.
We marched on to the farmer’s market where we bought a small wheel of extra old crumbly gouda for $25 and a small piece of blue cheese for around $10.
The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 was next. This museum is the site where 1.5 million immigrants came to Canada during the period between 1928 and 1971. It tells their stories and displays documents related to their journeys.
An interesting quote from the museum: “A Canadian is an immigrant with seniority.”
In the evening we met with Brent and his wife Megan for Indian food at Curry Village. Brent is a fashion photographer in Halifax and has been on three of our photography trips and has become a great friend and mentor. After dinner we toured Brent’s fabulous new studio and saw his huge collection of props and wardrobe.
