On the Road to Quebec

July 11, 2010 We lefty Fundy National Park and headed north through Moncton to the Confederation Bridge that leads to PEI. It was raining so all we could see is this giant bridge that disappeared into the fog of Northumberland Strait. The Bridge is 13 kms long and there is no charge to go to PEI, but you pay when you leave the island. The cost is $42.50 for a vehicle, and then $7 per axle if you are pulling a trailer. So our cost was $56.50 which seems reasonable to me. We stayed just outside of Charlottetown at Brackley Beach at a campground called Vacationland. They were promoting the fact that they had won an award for being a high level campground, but I don’t agree with that rating. Some of the sites, including ours, were tiny; their debit machine did not work, only one dryer in the laundry worked, both of the pay phones were out of order, the washrooms were full of dead bugs and so on. I question the rating system used.

Charlottetown, PEI

Confederation House where delegates drafted our Constitution.

The island was hopping with tourists and there was a major music festival taking place over the weekend including a performance by Taylor Swift. Then on the Monday, Regis and Kelly were doing their show from Charlottetown and it created quite a bit of excitement, and I might say, a lot of good press for PEI. We took a drive into Charlottetown and walked around the old part of town and it was very nice. The next day I played Glasgow Hills Golf Course and it had great views of the rolling hills and of the water. My impression of PEI is that it has a slower pace of life, with nice rolling hills, farms that are very well kept, beautiful beaches, potatoes, and a lot of very nice golf courses. It really is a place to relax. After 3 nights we decided to head out and I made a major mistake hooking up the RV. I had plugged in the wiring to the truck and then not thinking, I decided to move the truck over a little to line up the hitch. When I moved forward, I tore the wiring harness out of the RV. Big mistake!! So instead of hitting the road, I found an RV shop and we sat around in the rain for over 2 hours before a technician could reconnect our wiring. What a start to the day.

We decide not to travel to Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, as we want to be back home by August 10 and we would need a couple more weeks to see those Provinces. So we headed back through Moncton, NB and travelled all the way to Fredericton, NB. We found a Wal Mart and crashed in their parking lot for the night. Next morning we hit the road early, following Hwy 2 along the border of Maine, through Edmundston, NB, crossing into Quebec, down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City. We checked into the Quebec City KOA which is just across the bridge from Quebec City. Along our route in Quebec we drove through very fertile land with many farms on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and many small towns that are very recognizable with their distinct church steeples.

Beautiful, romantic Quebec City!

The next day (July 16) we drove into Quebec City and did a walking tour (with Hooch) through the “Old Town” high above the St. Lawrence River.

The area around the Hotel Frontenac is beautiful, high above “Lower Town” and the St. Lawrence River; the buildings of the Old Town have been restored and are functional for commercial enterprise with apartments above. There are many narrow streets and sidewalk cafes. I had travelled to Quebec City on business about 25 years ago and since then I have promoted it as the most romantic city in Canada. As a result of that impression, I have always told Laurie that I would like to have lunch with her at a sidewalk café in Quebec City. Now I can stroke another item off of my “Bucket List”

Montnegamy Falls just outside of Quebec City.

I went golfing at Golf Stastny which is a course owned by retired NHL player Marion Stastny.  I had the opportunity to play with a French Canadian who could speak English.  A couple of things that he told me that were weird; for 2 weeks every July there is a Construction Holiday.  Basically construction shuts down for 2 weeks, in the middle of the Summer.  Summer is when the weather is good and construction should be rocking....it is particularly an important time for the paving industry who needs good weather to lay pavement.  The second thing he told me is that all leases for accomodations expire on the same day, July 1 each year.  That means that all leases must be renegotiated, or people will be moving.  Imagine the demand for moving trucks???