Gaspe to New Brunswick and PEI

The weather continued to look rather blah so around noon we decided to leave Levis, even though we had paid for 2 nights: Earlier in the year we had bought a membership in “Passport America”, an affiliation of campgrounds that offer discounts for members. Camping Transit offered a 50% discount but had a minimum 2 day stay at that rate. So Gillian paid for two days. Plus two dollars for internet, two dollars PER DOG! and it got expensive any way you look at it. However we planned to stay free tonight so that would make up for it.

A little after 1:00PM we pulled out, air bags had performed just fine! During the trip Art thought he noticed the air pressure dropping a little more than normal, but from both front and rear systems equally. The compressor was more than adequate to bring pressure back up but Art thought it to be cycling just a little more frequently. It may just be paranoia! We will do a full air brake run up in the morning just to see. We will also phone Freightliner N.B. in the morning to set up an appointment.

At 2:00 PM we pulled off to fuel up: Diesel and propane for the rig and coffee for Art. Gillian also made a couple of sandwiches to eat on the go although hers had disappeared before the rig hit the highway. Another quick lunch and fuel stop; 30 minutes.

As the day progressed the cloud level raised and we had more than a glimpse or two of blue sky, but the temperature remained cool and actually began to drop. From the “balmy” 15C that we started with, it was down to 13 by the time we stopped for the night. Glad we had topped up the propane — the furnace would be needed!

The drive along the part of the Gaspe Peninsula that we drove was very pretty; old wooden houses in excellent condition, flat fertile farm land, small rivers and lakes and always to our left, the St Lawrence River, getting wider across with every kilometer. We had wanted to go all the way around the Gaspe but as we had been delayed so many times we thought we had better make up some time.

Highway 2 is a two lane each way divided highway, the 100 Km/H posted limit a little hard on fuel, but so as not to impede traffic too much we more or less maintained that speed. That and the city driving we had been doing has had a deleterious effect on fuel burn. As of tonight our over all trip average mpg (US) has dropped from 9.4 to 9.2 mpg.

We turned south at Mont Joli, heading towards New Brunswick and noticed a change in terrain; now more hilly with taller trees. A bit after Mont Joli we stopped for a shopping and pee break. Gillian went into the IGA store and Art took the dogs for a stroll around the large grassy field next door. Gillian, who always says “don't go shopping when you're hungry” went into the store at least two hours after lunch which probably explains the case of beer and bag of Miss Vickie's potato chips! She then had to return to the store because she had forgotten the number one item on the list — her cereal! Art had noticed a church in the distance and was able to take this photo from the IGA parking lot as a freight train passed by.

Leaving Mont Joli Art decided that he only wanted to drive another hour or so. Looking at the map there appeared to be a rest area about forty minutes south. Right on schedule we found the small picnic site and boat launch in the town of Sayabec. Trekker was overjoyed with the opportunity for a swim, chasing a stick thrown into the lake made it even better!

Parked on a level spot we didn't bother to put the jacks down nor did we extend the slides since we were only here for an overnight We could manage without the dinette.

Energising the inverter Art activated the Explorer automatic satellite dish which again found the Starchoice satellite in less than a minute! Then since there was almost an hour to wait for the 5 o'clock CHEK TV news (it being a bit after 7:00PM here) he switched the inverter off to conserve battery capacity.

The dogs exercised and tired out we sat down with a drink and the lap-top to record the day's events for posterity (or the “delete” key, which ever comes first). Note: no Scotch-Vermouth moments! Only because Art forgot to pour Gillian's drink when he poured his. Brownie Point disaster! He did remember when it came time for refills however.

Dinner tonight was sauteed chicken breast with fresh herbs from our garden accompanied by carrots, beans and sweet potatoes. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Art of course will do the washing up in a vain attempt to regain a few Brownie Points.

After the news we watched “New Tricks” on TV and were in bed by 10:00!

In the morning after breakfast Gillian took the dogs for a last walk and the chance for a splash for Trekker. Using the huge reward of a swim as the prize for behaving properly Gillian had Trekker on a “heel” command when a mink swam across the bottom of the boat launch then ran into the reeds. Trekker of course went ballistic, jumping and lunging. Gillian turned him away and when he calmed down approached the lake again. An immediate return to the jumping and lunging behaviour cancelled his swim — he couldn't be rewarded for that, so they returned to the motorhome, poor Trekker, still dry.

For once, early to bed had resulted in early to rise; we were on the road just after 9:00, the brake test showing everything was fine, pressure holding the required time with engine (and compressor) switched off . We crossed into New Brunswick a short while later, stopping near Bathhurst NB for lunch at 1:00 PM, almost 3 hours after setting off. No, not bad arithmetic: Time Zones.

We paralleled the Salmon River for quite a long way, this was a very pleasant picturesque and relaxing drive.

This part of the provincial coast was indented with many deep narrow inlets, some of which required bridges in order to avoid long inland detours.

At the rest area we had phoned Freightliner in Moncton for their address, punched it into the GPS and at 4:30 we were there. Art went in, faulty part in hand and spoke with the service department. They were very helpful and were easily persuaded to search for what we had been told was an after market part. Filling out a work order we left the part behind, Art pleading “please don't lose this — I'll have a heck of a time trying to describe it!”

By 5:15 we arrived at a nearby Wal-mart after negotiating a few blocks of red mud — more road construction. Checking with the staff we were given permission to stay the night, found a relatively level spot, put the slides out and got comfortable.

We had chosen a spot close to a Chapters store, particularly as near the attached Starbuck's Coffee as possible with the intent of hopefully being in range of the free wi-fi offered by all Starbuck's stores. Unfortunately, we could not even see a Starbuck's connection but were able to connect to an open wireless provided by a Ramada Inn on the other side of the building!

The connection was very slow so we did nothing more that check and read some e-mails and delete unread some of the huge “jokes” files forwarded by well meaning friends which have resulted in so many huge files in our in-box to the point where we can't receive any more e-mails until some files are deleted. Sometimes with slow internet connections we are not able to download our e-mails to delete the garbage and so miss real mail. So. Here's the hint folks: anything over 4000 is deleted without reading in every case. Files over 1000 may or may not be read depending on connection speed. 'Nuff said.

Within a few hours two more RVs had pulled in; both with BC license plates. One proved to be from Victoria, the other from near Kelowna where Art had lived for a couple or years a long time ago. These were the first BC RV's that we have seen since Dawson Creek.

The weather on the way down had been reasonable but the rain had been threatening. Things were pretty wet by the time we arrived.

Tuesday morning, the 14^th. Although Art first woke at about 6:30 to the sound of rain on the roof and road construction across the parking lot he just lay resting for a while, dozing on and off realising that this was far too early to get up. A short while later he looked at his watch to find that it was after 9 o'clock! He must have fallen asleep for a while without being aware of it.

Eventually up and breakfasted he wandered into the nearby Chapters to browse the shelves, finding a new Robert L Forward novel, the first new novel of the “Flinx” series in 35 years! Since Art has recently been re-reading this series he was delighted. Being sharp sighted when it comes to books, he noticed an author that he and Gillian in particular liked, Sue Henry, who writes mystery novels set in Alaska, —a new novel set in Homer, Alaska, which we had visited this trip and also featuring a motorhome! Had to buy it. He also picked up the latest issues of “Wooden Boat” and “Latitudes and Attitudes” (a recommended read to boaters and non boaters alike).

He also discovered why we couldn't get the Starbucks wifi signal. It wasn't in the near corner of the store with the huge “Starbuck's” sign, it was located in the opposite corner of the building!

We eventually (12:10!) hit the highway, avoiding the muddy dug up section, almost making a wrong turn, we were soon on our way to PEI.

On highway 16 north to PEI, Art suddenly remembered that we hadn't refuelled. The tank gauge reading ¼, about as low as we like to go. We turned off at Port Elgin and found a small station that we could just fit into and pulled up alongside the pumps. When he began to pump the fuel Art realised that this was one of those stations that had removed the latch that allowed the fuel to flow without squeezing the nozzle handle. Since he finds this hard on his hands and fingers he stopped at $50.00 and went in to pay, taking along his coffee mug. As he approached the till he asked “any coffee around here?” and was told “Yes, over in the corner and since you bought so much fuel it's free”! Almost (but not quite!) feeling guilty Art said “well it would have been another $150.00 if the latch hadn't been removed. It's too hard on my hands to squeeze that handle for too long.” They didn't seem too concerned and didn't offer to pump it for him (which has happened in the USA a couple of times) so he paid for the fuel, took his free coffee and left guilt free.

Soon we were approaching Confederation Bridge, linking New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The weather was fortuitously clearing rapidly and by the time we were crossing the bridge the visibility was excellent. We enjoyed the 12.9 kilometer drive and soon were in P.E.I.

We pulled into the Welcome Centre, had a good look around, had lunch—a first for Art, a scallop burger and chips which was delicious. Gillian too enjoyed her lunch, a bowl of seafood chowder and half of one of Art's scallops, all he was prepared to part with, Brownie Points be damned! Somethings are worth suffering for!

After lunch we did a bit more shopping, Art buying a jacket with zip off sleeves and a “PEI Dirt Shirt” dyed with the ever present red PEI dirt.

At the Centre we watched an excellent 30 minute video about the construction of Confederation Bridge, opened in 1997. It was a fascinating and tremendous undertaking, completed on time and on budget. Outside there was a monument, a scale model of a section of the bridge, the surrounding brickwork engraved with the names of everyone who worked on the project, some 2500 people. The outer ring of stones carried the names of all the contractors and subcontractors involved.

In the photo, the grey rocks on the right are from New Brunswick while the red rocks on the left are from PEI.

The beautiful sunny day was being threatened by clouds in the distance as we made our way to Sunnyside and the Linkletter Provincial Park. With a few worries about the route (Gillian had dropped the map down the stairwell and there was nowhere to pullover so she could retrieve it!) we eventually arrived and found our site; not quite on the waterfront but good enough.

Wet. As we arrived the rain began. And continued to pour down. Art decided there was no point in waiting for it to stop so donned his rain gear and began the struggle with jacks, blocks, electric cable (that 50 Amp cable is very hard to handle), hoses etc. By the time he was done the right rear jack had buried the wooden block into the wet soggy grass (there two under there) and the sun was shining so Gillian with a smile said “see, I told you we should wait!” and set off to walk the dogs for their walk. Art went inside and poured a drink.

The satellite was found quickly so we watched the news and after supper found an episode of “New Tricks” on SCN which Gillian had not seen before—and which we both agree one of the very good ones.

The evening was spent visiting with neighbours from New Jersey discussing sports, politics, Cuba and Vietnam. The gentleman was a Vietnam veteran but was critical of the US Government's involvement in that and other areas of international involvement. He said “I love my country dearly, but the USA has done a lot of wrong things over the years”.

Soon it was too cool in the breeze off the ocean so we returned to the rig for some TV watching, drinks, dinner and composing these words.

Another slow start this morning—it was 11:30 by the time we got going to tour the west side of the island then later the centre. Along the way we snapped a few photos on the run. The church is in the town of Miscouchie, the bridge a little further along the northwest coast.

Our first stop (forgetting the camera in the rig) was to see a shipbuilding museum which was interesting, but poorly signed, the entrance too was difficult for the big rig. We were told that we should have taken the gravel road back at the gate. There was no hint that it led any where in particular and the sign pointed down the paved lane to the museum. . .? ? ? Were we supposed to be psychic?

Anyway, from the museum we were told the rest of the display and the Yoe House were through the back door. (Mr Yoe had been the wner of the shipyard) Out the door there was nothing but a large expanse of grass, an old closed school house and in the distance, the Yoe house. We had had enough so returned to the rig and took the gravel road back to the entrance. ¼ the distance! A sign would have been nice. As would have directional signs at the museum. We later found that we had missed completely the old shipyard itself!!!

Moving on we stopped in Tyne Valley for fuel both for the rig and ourselves. Here we found a Pub/Seafood restaurant, a combination we couldn't resist. Waiting for more than a week for more beer delivery, the only draught they had left was Guinnes! We settled for a bottle of one of the microbrews available, for lunch Art had no trouble deciding on the one dozen breaded and panfried oysters with french fries and salad while Gillian had scallops in a marinara sauce.

The owners turned out to be from Victoria. At one point they lived very close to the condo we lived in 30 plus years ago. Small world.

We continued our tour until it was time to find a place to stay for the night. We found one in the book then tried to find it. Thanks to poor signage we finally had to phone for directions and were told “yes I just saw you go by”! We turned around,for the second time down the mud road this time turning right (it had been a 50/50 guess the first time around) and were soon settled in for the night.

This large park had very large open grassy fields so Trekker had a great time with a couple of ball chasing and fetching sessions between which Gillian did some laundry and Art hooked up the battery charger to the car (the suplimentary braking system draws from the car battery) and then was occupied on the internet working on the previous post.

Thursday, September16^th

Surprise, surprise we slept in this morning. Rain last night and WIND , it was almost noon before we left the RV park.

We decided that we would head to the north-east side of the island to continue our sightseeing. If the weather improved enough and soon enough we would stay one more night. Didn't look too promising.

This part of the island didn't seem quite as picturesque as the west end, the cold wind and on and off rain didn't help. There were some very pretty spots, just didn't didn't seem quite so expansive and the west side.

Somewhere around 1:30 we stopped for lunch, more seafood! Unfortunately the seafood chowder wasn't ready! Art decided on another scallop burger and Gillian was tempted by the seafood pizza. By the time we had finished our meal the soup was 15 minutes from being done. We had spotted a shop near where we had parked that we wanted to check out so decided to do that then return to the restaurant for takeout.

Back at the shops we had a good look around, bought about forty dollars worth of books and a coffee and went out to take a photo of the sign that had caught our attention.

Back on the road the decision had been made: Due south to Woods Island and the ferry to Nova Scotia.

The road was fairly good with a few sections of really really bad and one detour through a mud bog. The tires slipped a bit but we got though with out needing a tow!

At 4:45 we arrived at the terminal to find that the 16:30 departure hadn't even arrived yet so we hadn't missed it. We hadn't worried much about which ferry we would get, thinking probably the 6:00PM, which, as it turned out, wasn't scheduled today! In any case the ferry arrived and we boarded somewhere around 5:30 and sailed almost immediately.

It was an uneventful crossing, the clouds clearing a little and the rain slowing to a halt. Soon we were back in the rig and the second vehicle to disembark! Following the directions in the campground book we arrived at the campground in Pictou without incident. The signage was much better than last night though still restricted to the blue official signs. However every turn though was marked by a rectangular blue “Harbour Light Campground” with a directional arrow to keep us on the right path.

At the office Gillian asked a gentleman in a pickup truck who seemed to be the owner of the park “Do you have room for us tonight?” who replied in the affirmative and led us to our space. Art asked if he could give Gillian a ride back up to the office to register and pay and he said that we would see us in the morning and drove off!

We were soon settled in once the jacks were down and pushed the button on the Explorer dish which found the Starchoice satellite even before Art had extended the slides!

Dinner was easy; Seafood chowder for both of us, Gillian finished the last quarter of her lunch pizza and Art filled a tortilla with the shrimp marinara left over from dinner two nights ago. Beer each and later an after dinner drink while watching some TV and working on the blog we were in bed a bit earlier than last night but much later than hoped.

Quebec City

Leaving Montreal after 6:00PM the worst of the traffic was over, at no time were we at a complete stop. There were a few slow sections especially where the roads were under repair but soon we were on the relatively quiet Highway 20 of the Trans Canada Highway rolling towards Quebec City.

Watching for signs and checking against the map we found the first Rest Area and pulled in to check it out. We weren't planning to stay at this one, we just wanted to see the layout and check for any "No Camping" or "No Overnight Parking" notices. Finding none we set off fairly confident that we would be able to stop for the night without having to chase all over looking for an RV Park.

The next Rest Area didn't appear where we had expected so we kept going, finally stopping at the next (and the last before Quebec City) after about 2 1/2 hours of driving. This put us about an hour or so from the city for tomorrow.

In the morning we were up and rolling at our usual 10:00 AM or so and arrived before noon at "Camping Transit" in the town of Levis, across the St Laurance River from Quebec City. We were setup by 12:15 and leaving the poor dogs behind we set out to look for dog food for Tia before catching the ferry across the river.


The ferry does carry cars but we decided that it would be wiser to park at the Levis side and walk on the ferry. The weather was beautiful for the crossing and good for sailing on the river. Not as much commercial traffic as we would have expected, just this single small freighter making its way down river towards the Atlantic. The best view of the city is from the river.





The terminal on the other side located in the old city, almost at the foot of the Funicular, a coged rail almost vertical elevator sized device. We walked around the old town (old as is 400 years) taking in the sights and atmosphere. At one point an artesan had a wood turning lathe set up in the street, quite a draw for the tourists, many of whom had never seen one in use. It made Art miss his shop and his own lathe but he resisted the impulse to ask if he could have a turn. (bad pun intended) In the photo to the left the Hotel is the most obvious, the Funicular track is in the lower left of the picture as well in the centre of the street scene. (Click the pictures to see the detail)

For a two dollar fee each we rode the funicular to the top which arrives at Chateau Frontenac, a huge, picturesque hotel. This is the most photographed building in Canada. A hotel! Not even particularly old for the region. We too were guilty, taking half a dozen snaps. Between the hotel and the cliff face are the ruins of the old fort currently undergoing some restoration.

After walking around a bit we decided to look for a bus tour of the area and at 2:40 found that the 2 hour tour had just left at 2:30, the next one would be at 4:00! Good excuse for lunch so we found a sidewalk cafe not far away and spent an enjoyable hour people watching.

The tour was very good--small bus with very few passengers--only 5 besides us! A family of three from Peru, and a French couple. The tour was in English and French, the guide remarking that if you were bilingual you would get two tours for the price of one.

We covered the Citadel, the oldest continuously occupied military site in the Americas. The Royal 22nd Regiment (the "veint-dous") is based here. The base is partially opened to the public. Also on our route was the Plains of Abraham, some of the old residential areas and the shopping district as well as the Grande Allee, the main street though the city, soemtimes called the "Petite Champs d'Elysee". Shops and cafes and trees lined the street. In the sunhine it looked very inviting.

The last stop on the tour was the old section town at the base of the cliffs where we elected to leave the group, our ferry terminal right in front of us.



Crossing the St Laurance once again to Levis we returned the the RV to find two very happy dogs, bouncing with energy and tails wagging furiously.





Gillian took them out for a walk while Art climbed into bed for his (almost) daily nap and to rest his aching legs. He roused in time to hear Gillian returning from having done the laundry! He's so far in the hole in the Brownie Point department he will never dig himself out!

A drink poured for each, Art tackled adding the photos to the blog while Gillian, yup, you guessed it, prepared dinner.

We watched the news and an old episode of "Heartbeat"and recorded one of "Mid Summer Murders" and went to bed.

Sunday we thought we might stay another day and catch up with banking, photo editing and possibly a return to QC for Gillian, but as the morning progressed weather became a bit miserable with a cold westerly wind. We posted the latest to the blog, checked the e-mails, looked for a Freightline shop on our route, packed up ready to head further east.

Probably more pics of Quebec City to come.

Montreal: Family, Sights and Repair Shop.

September 7^th, Montreal

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

Thanks to a misleading Exit sign we missed our turn so we exited to a shopping centre and retraced our steps, this time following the GPS closely. We exited at Exit 3 even though the directions in the guide book said take 26, and were soon registering at Camping Lac dec Cedres in St Lazare. A few days later on another map we noticed that some of the exits had 2 numbers such as 4/32 for a short distance. Very confusing especially as the single digits did not appear on the exit signs!

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 4^th 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.

While there Art's cell beeped, which he knew meant a text message. Checking, he found Phoebe had invited us for dinner that evening. Not being a good “texter” (Morse Code is faster!) he replied “time?” which only took him a few minutes to compose and send. Phoebe replied “7:30?” to which Art sent “OK”. Getting the hang of it, this wordy reply only took couple of minutes to prepare!

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.

We rested up a bit, Gillian took the dogs for a walk and Art had a nap. Cleaned up and changed we returned to Phoebe and Gordon's. Art texted “enroute” as we left and actually had the message sent before we hit the freeway!

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.

September 9^th

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.

We woke bright and early this morning, about 7:30! Figures, we had no where we had to be other than here. We were even an hour too early for the Global BC News from Vancover that starts at 5:30 AM Pacific Time.

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.