Departed Markham around 9:30AM stopping for gas and some last minute groceries. Followed Hwy 401 to Belleville for a stop at Walmart to get an inverter for the RV so we can charge laptops and batteries while driving. Had lunch at McDonalds while we where there and then headed off towards Montreal and Trois-Rivieres. I had programmed the GPS to take us to the intersection of Hwy 40/55 to keep us on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence and it ended up thinking it needed to have us do a U-Turn to get to that intersection. During that detour we discovered a Parks Canada site called des Forges-du-St-Maurice, the site of Canada’s first industrial community. It had unfortunately already closed for the day but it looked interesting so we might come back to it on the way back. Walmart has a policy of allowing one night camping at many of their stores, so once we once we got back on Hwy 40 we phoned the Walmart in Beauport to ask whether we could spend the night in their parking lot. No problem. We finally arrived at 8:40PM and had dinner. By 10:30PM, there were a total of 9 RVs in the parking lot, including one with Swiss license plates.

We started the morning talking to the couple with the Swiss RV. They brought their camper over from Switzerland and are going to be travelling across Canada and the United States for the next several months. We left the Walmart parking lot at 9:00AM and drove Hwy 138 passing through Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre where there is a huge shrine that attracts a million pilgrims each year. The first chapel was built in 1658. Right next to it is the Cyclorama of Jerusalem, which has nothing to do with bicycles, but which houses a panoramic painting 14 meters high and 110 meters in circumference. We continued on Hwy 138 to Baie-Saint-Paul where we turned onto Hwy 362 which follows the St. Lawrence river. The area is quite hilly and the Roadtrek had to downshift a lot, both up and down the hills. Some of the grades were 11% and extended for several kilometers. This area is stunningly beautiful and has lots of artist galleries.

Lunch was at La Malbaie at a small picnic area overlooking the town and the St. Lawrence river. There was a couple with a white tablecloth each enjoying a glass of red wine – truly La Joie de Vivre.

Very shortly after our healthy lunch we came across Fromagerie St-Fidele and stopped in for some of their cheese, a maple cranberry dressing for future healthy salads and a generous 2 scoop maple-walnut ice cream.

The highway continues to Tadoussac where a ferry takes you across a river. This ferry is free and runs continuously.

We sweat and walked off all the ice cream calories when we visited Longue-Rive, the site of a former wood mill. The mill was in operation from 1860 to 1962 and there are still a few remains of the foundations of the large chutes where the logs were loaded onto ships. There is a waterfall at the site now and the St. Lawrence and the granite offered many great photographic opportunities.

The highway from there to Baie-Comeau isn’t as spectacular and is much more even which allowed us to make good time to our campground for the evening at Pointe-Lebel, a peninsula just outside of Baie-Comeau. On the way we saw a huge hydroelectric plant and we expect to be touring one tomorrow.

Today we start the trip up to Labrador. We started the morning by emptying the tanks and filling up with fresh water. Ruth got her first black fly bite of the trip. We left the campground at around 9:30 and stopped for gas and some groceries. Next was a stop in Baie-Comeau itself. It is a beautiful little town with a paper mill, aluminum plant and a port where wheat is loaded onto ships for transport across the Atlantic. The town has number of nice shops and Ruth got a new pair of Keen shoes. As we were about to leave we stopped to talk to Pierre Philippe, a retired schoolteacher who now lives in Baie-Comeau.

At around noon we started our trip up Hwy 138 towards Labrador. At km 2 on the highway our fridge door popped open and some of the fridge contents temporarily escaped although fortunately the blueberries stayed in their container. We stopped to shut it but it opened again as we started rolling again. We finally stuffed one of the cushions between the fridge and the bathroom door and it stayed shut for the remainder of the trip. At km 30 we saw a trailer that looked like it had rolled over while going around a curve. The road is paved but parts of it are pretty bumpy. That doesn’t stop the trucks from racing and Ruth had one chase her for several kms. Fortunately we were faster up the hills. At km 100 there is a large transformer station where the voltage is increased to 735 kV for transmission to minimize power loss over large distances. From here for about 50 kms the road is very smooth.

We made it to the huge Manic 5 Hydro electric dam and generating station (km 212) at 3:30, just in time for the last tour.  The tour was wonderful and included visiting the powerhouse where the turbines are. The dam is 214 meters high. The tour guide told us about a road leading to Lake Louise from where one can get a great view of the dam and can camp over night. We spent the evening photographing the dam and talking to several of the other people that will be spending the night here.