Since our space in the RV park in Kingston was flat and level we had deliberately not put the jacks down as this also dumps air from the airbags and had thus avoided a log wait for them to fill. We were on the road at our usual 10:30 or so, for part of the way on the 401 freeway.
An hour later at Brockville we turned south for a half hour grocery stop then continued through the town to highway 20 which runs along the St Lawrence River shore, roughly parallel to the 401 but much more quiet and picturesque.
As we progressed and lunch time approached we realised that none of the small towns had anywhere we could park. Eventually in Prescott we found space in front of the Coast Guard base and stopped for a dog walk and a sandwich. And of course an AbqL photo to prove we had been here.
We continued along the 20 for a while enjoying the scenery including this canal between the road and the river, returning to the 401 just before Cornwall arriving at the outskirts of Montreal just after 3:00 PM
Internet here was a pay per use, something like $6.00 for one day. When Art queried whether that was for 24 continuous hours or day by day. We had booked in for 2 days so the manager gave us a code reserved for monthly users to use for the 2 days we were there and charged us $8.00 for the 2 days.
We phoned Art's niece and found that we were only 20 minutes or so from Phoebe and Gordon's place on the McDonald Campus of McGil University. Theirs was one of the three BC weddings of nieces and nephews that we missed or would miss this trip. They had been married a few weeks ago on Vancouver Island and had been back just a week in preparation for school.
Phoebe and Gordon met years ago, just after Phoebe began her career as a high school math teacher in Vancouver. Today Gordon is a prof of Environmental Sciences at McGill University while Phoebe is doing her PHD in Education. She will be the 4th of Art's siblings to be called “doctor”--unless her little brother gets there first—he is doing his doctorate in Architecture in Calgary. Art says he knows where brains are—he gave most of them to his siblings' kids!
We met them at their home on Campus and went to an East Indian Restaurant for a wonderful supper. We tried the Indian beer and pronounced it very drinkable. While in the restaurant it began to rain accompanied by a spectacular show of lightning. Gillian went back to check on the dogs as both tend to be a little nervous with thunder, fireworks etc., Tia especially so. She found Trekker snoozing and Tia sound asleep! After supper we drove back to the RV Park while Phoebe and Gordon elected to walk home.
The rain continued to pour down, the lightning continued to flash. The roads were soaking wet, visibility poor yet the traffic continued to travel at the posted 100 Km/H, frequently only one car length at part. As Art often says, these are the people who keep paramedics and hospital staff gainfully employed. Scarey. And stupid.
Next morning we braved the traffic again to visit at least Montreal's Notre-Dame having seen the Paris version last year. We located a parking garage just a few blocks away; $15.00 for anything over 2 hours. Walking towards the cathedral we notice that even bicycles had parking meters! Not a great way to encourage alternatives to the ever present automobile.
Rue Notre-Dame was being rebuilt, construction everywhere, including the Place des Armes which was totally dug up.
There is a great mix of architecture in Montreal, old and modern buildings in a hodge-podge of styles.
After a quick look around we went to the “Victoria”, and English style pub for of course, fish and chips and beer. The Quebec micro brew beer was very nice, the chips great, the fish only OK – prepared from commercial frozen haddock filets.
Back to the car we had to find our way out of town as of course the construction messed with the GPS's instructions. The “Detour” button on the GPS worked well and soon we were in the early part of rush hour. It took us an hour and a half to get back to the RV Park.
This marker was noticed during our return in the middle of early rush hour. Signs of things to come?
As we got closer to St Lazare a few ominous clouds began to roll back in.
Another great evening getting to know this great young couple. Art had known Phoebe fairly well when she was a child and teenager but hadn't seen much of her in recent years. Phoebe prepared a wonderful supper, we chatted and caught up on thing past and their future plans, enjoying their company very much. But the kids had to get up early for school so we made our goodbyes and returned home.
Again a bit of a low start – this beginning to sound like a theme? Well, we are retired so what's the rush? Besides, having been through part of a rush hour yesterday afternoon we didn't want to start too early!
On our arrival we had only connected the electric cable and had been using stored water and the holding tanks so this morning Art had to connect the water hose to fill the fresh water tank and the "Stinky Slinky" to the sewer to empty the grey and black water tanks.
Art started the rig about 11:15 expecting it to take some time to fill the air bags. Half an hour later they were still not filling, air running out as fast as it was pumped in. Art switched the engine off and walked to the office to look for a mechanic. No Freightliner in the yellow pages but the receptionist called her boyfriend for a recommendation. This may sound familiar to those of you who have read our blog post of a couple of years ago in Poza Rica, Mexico!
Art phoned and spoke with the service department and was told that if he could get it to the shop they would take a look at it and order parts if necessary but wouldn't be able to work on it until tomorrow.
After much fiddling around Art managed to find the shop location on the GPS (we had been misspelling the street name), meanwhile Gillian had gone back to the office to get directions. Looking at the map they provided Art decided to follow their route as it avoided the freeway, a place he didn't want to be with air pressure issues!
We eventually pulled onto the road at 12:15. A very bumpy ride followed having no rear suspension! The fact that much of the road needed resurfacing didn't help any. (Later, Gillian had to pick up a bunch of her clothes that had fallen to the floor of the closet. Again)
Fifteen minutes later we arrived at L.S. Auto Parts, which was closed for the lunch hour! Art spoke with one of the mechanics who came over, he slid underneath the rig (right next to the propane tank with a cigarette in his mouth) and said “it seems to be the leveling valve—I think we will have one in stock”. While he was under there the service manager arrived with take-out lunch in hand and looked at the legs sticking out from under the motorhome and said “He is on his lunch break” Art said that he hadn't asked, he had volunteered to look, which seemed to satisfy him. He had a few rapid words in French with the mechanic, then told me they would look at it one o'clock.
Taking a cue from the shop, Gillian took the dogs for a walk and Art made a couple of sandwiches for our own lunch.
At the dot of one PM all 5 bay doors opened at once! After a bit Art realised that he should go in and give them the details. When the work order was done he returned to the rig for a snooze.
After an hour or so a mechanic came out asking Art to back the rig into bay 2. Then we waited a while longer but eventually work began. It was soon obvious that it wasn't going to be a simple fix, and too quickly closing time was approaching. They needed a bay with a pit, which would not be available until about 10:00 AM Friday morning. Art moved the rig to the part of their parking lot outside the gate where we would spend the night.
Meanwhile, Gillian had spotted a Beauty Salon across the street and had inquired about a hair cut and pedicure. No chance of a hair cut but there was a 5:00PM slot for a pedicure available. When she discovered that we would be here for the night off she went.
While she was away Art worked on the blog for a bit while details of today were still clear in his mind. He also replaced a broken kitchen drawer latch that had been on the “To Do List” for a while. Not quite Brownie Points—been too long for that!
At 6:15 Gillian returned with her newly painted nails. The dogs, Trekker especially, were delighted to see her. He had been quite worried when she disappeared into the building across the street a while ago.
While Gillian waited for her nails to dry Art decided that a good opportunity for Brownie Points would be: Walk dogs, move car closer to the rig, pour a couple of drinks, Scotch for Art and a dry Vermouth for Gillian. Art moved his scotch aside, pointing out to Gillian that this time he wouldn't accidentally pour the Martini Extra Dry into it, which has been known to happen a time or two in the past. Not a cocktail likely to become popular! He poured Gillian's Martini into the correct (empty!) glass and put the bottle back in the fridge. Chatting with Gillian he picked up his (he thought) glass and took a sip—which was followed immediately by spitting and sputtering (Art doesn't like dry vermouth) and Gillian's instant collapse into the giggles.
At 7:45 (PM) Art started the generator. It needed to be run anyway (the book says at least once a month for one hour) then switched on the Explorer Automatic Satellite system (StarChoice Satellite) to watch the 5 O'Clock news at 8:00 PM (don't you love/hate Time Zones?) Also time to charge the motorhome and lap top batteries. The system found the StarChoice satellite within 5 minutes. Love technology!
Dinner tonight was thanks to Gillian—no surprise here! Lamb sausage, carrots, corn on the cob, green beans, potatoes. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Guess who does the washing up? Small price to pay.
After dinner we watched a bit of TV, worked on catching up on the blog then called it a night.
At the appointed time Art turned on the inverter and the satellite receiver and we caught up on the news. Art pounded away on the lap top and eventually got caught up to date! Now all we need is a wireless connection for a few hours to attach the photos and upload the blog.
About 9:30 the motorhome that had been occupying the bay we had been waiting for was moved out side. We were hopeful for a moment but then they drove in a large truck that had just arrived. Not a good omen.
Killing time Gillian wandered over to the salon again and this time returned with a haircut. At 10:45 Art checked with the service manager who told him 10 or 15 minutes so he too went across the street and got his hair cut, along with a beard trim. The stylist told him “There, you are a new man” to which Art replied, “perhaps, but I still feel like an old man!”
Back in the rig, still waiting, watching the bay doors to close to signal lunch time, the text-only version of our blog is now up to the moment! Guess we'll go for lunch too!
Not far away we found an interesting looking restaurant that we thought would be a better bet than the Subways, McDs and all the other fast food places we had passed and pulled in.
The design inside was also very interesting and a bit different from the norm yet very appealing. We were shown to a table, given menus, the waitress quickly realising that the language of choice was English. We told her that Spanish was an option but she disagreed! The menu was fine, we told her that when it came to menus we could manage in four languages; English, Spanish, French and Italian, in that order. Now if we could only get up to speed on other topics and vocabularies!
We ordered drinks, the draught selection being limited--they only carried Molson's products but had a few European bottled beers. Gillian opted for a Becks non alcohol beer (driving) while Art was very please with his Belgian dark ale. Lunch arrived and was as good as expected. We needed a treat after the past couple of days!
Back at the shop we found our motorhome inside! Art stayed inside with a book (another nap) while Gillian took the dogs for a walk on trail she had hear about from the receptionist.
Finally at 4:30 they pronounced it done; they had removed a faulty valve and replaced it with a less versatile device--it would do but with limitations--the rear air bags would now not deflate when using the stabilizer jacks, but they would fill! Art paid the bill and pulled outside to hook up the tow car. Testing, he found the bags wouldn't fill!!!!!
Back into the shop, the mechanic messed around for a bit underneath the rig having Art start it up (to run the compressor) shut it down etc etc. At last the bags filled though slowly and at 5:30 we were done. Back out side the gate and hooked up we decided that we didn't need to add rush hour Montreal traffic to our stress level so sat and read and tried to relax before hitting the road towards Quebec City.
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