Gaspe area

Dale invited 2 young gals for hot coffee and breakfast on Sunday morning before we left Levis, Quebec. They were very appreciative and their stories were most interesting. One of the girls, Tara, was a cyclist from Taber, Alberta, who was cycling across Canada to raise funds and awareness for a small village in Uganda. She had a support car along with her with a new driver who came in every few weeks. Tara had been to Uganda once before and was heading back later this year to assist in the building of a clinic. Tara said that doing this was on her “bucket list”!! When the weather got bad or she had a tough hill to ride, she had notes of support and encouragement from Uganda and it made the trip easier.

We passed through St. Jean Pont Jolie which was known at the carving town of the district. We just had to visit this remarkable shop and museum of 2 floors of large and small piece all by local artists past and present. The displays in the museum were truly beautiful. I gave Dale some great ideas for future projects.

You could often see the government dollars being spend as there was road construction everywhere. We had a near miss with a track hoe who didn’t see us or wasn’t aware and swung his bucket into the on coming traffic and come within 3 – 4 feet of my side of the bus! I was really uneasy for the rest of the ride.

As we travel the coastline through the quaint villages and towns we saw classic French charmed houses with the flower boxes on the windows and rocking chairs on the porch and large wrap around verandas. All were tidy and neat with no junk or old cars in the yards. The church spires were very prominent and in the center of town, some had red doors which seemed unusual. As we travel throughout Quebec we have seen many houses, and barns with bright red metal roofs, with red shutters and window trimmed in red. It was a feast for the eyes for me as I love red!!

One little town we passed through again had the orderly flower gardens and charming houses that were like they were freshly painted and even had distinctively painted fire hydrants. Nearly everyday we saw groups of older folks riding their bikes on trails, city roads and even highways. They are a fit bunch!!

In one of overnighter we met our neighbours who had been travelling in their RV for 4 years and still love it. He was diagnosed with cancer and after his recovery he and his wife sold their house, gave the business over to their son and hit the road. They worked together and were married for 40 years. They are heading to Florida just ahead of us so we hope we can meet up with them again.

We were lucky to be in Gaspe on the day that they were celebrating their 400 year anniversary and the Snowbirds were doing their famous aerial demonstrations. We had a great viewing site on the side of the highway going into town. The location and the skies were great for viewing but getting into town for dinner was delay a half an hour with all the folks from the area wanting to get from the prime viewing location to home.

I did some geocaching but it was a challenge as the information is all in French. I had to put the information through a translation program (which only deciphers each word) and makes for garbled hints. I did 3 and gave up but I am up to 258 finds!!

At our next over night stop we visited an old chapel on Mont Joseph that looms of the city of Carleton and had a magnificent view of our RV park and the Charleur Bay. Next stop of the day was at the homage (lobster) shop to pick up a tasty meal to add to the fresh corn for dinner………..mmmm! At the end the day we hopped on our bike and rode to the end of our RV park peninsula, with a little lighthouse, to take pictures and see the sunset.

Next we headed for New Brunswick (the world’s second-largest exported of peat moss) with our stop in The Berry Patch RV Park in Bathurst. After registering and a little chat we found out that both husband and wife worked at Syncrude in the Mine Technical!!

Today is my birthday so I am expecting bacon and eggs for breakfast, long with a lobster dinner and a movie!! Thanks honey……. ;-)

Aug 30, 2009

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