Posts by Virginia
July 12th & 13th
Well, we missed out on Fort Chambly. We found it ok but we could not find the RV parking lot. The streets were extremely narrow and lined with parked cars and pedestrians weaving in and out from the sidewalks to the street. It was a very scenic area and we were disappointed but after we made the bad mistake of entering a dead end narrow parking lot and having to make a 15 point turn, we gave up on Fort Chambly. Maybe another time. It was a Sunday too and a lovely sunny day which probably contributed to the mass of people and cars. Onward to Camping Transit in Levis, Quebec, on the other side of the river from Quebec City. Great spot, nicely grassed. The only downside is that although you drive through the countryside to get to it, it actually backs onto the highway which is noisy. We could live with that, though, compared to some of the spots we had been in. We signed up for the Red Bus Tour through Quebec City and headed off by shuttle to catch the ferry. Nice chatting with other travelers in the shuttle. We started at the museum. They had the Egyptian display which was fascinating. We were glad it was early in the morning and there were very few other people viewing the displays. After that, we got on the bus for the Public Market. There were lots of fresh veggies, fruit and cheese. In a hidden corner of a store at the far end of the Market, we discovered an exotic spice shop. There was a whole wall of drawers of spices. Cabinets with jars of different kinds of peppercorns. We couldn’t get enough of the smells. The bus tour continued on to the Plains of Abraham and past all the historic landmarks. The tour guide explained as we were going downhill on one very narrow street that the snowfall for last winter would have been up to the bottom of the flags on the light standards. It didn’t start to thaw until the end of April. Great beauty in the summer but I don’t know if I would like the winters! At the end of the tour, we watched the street buskers and then strolled downhill through narrow alleyways, past funky shops and lots of interesting smelling restaurants. We could have spent a month there. It...
Read MoreWawa – The Home of the Geese
In the middle of nowhere, we were stopped by police checking for drunk drivers. They were really diligent and spent quite some time chatting with each driver. We stayed at Wawa RV Resort on the river. It was certainly one of the nicer spots we have stayed in and was filled with RVs and tents. The owner said that there were a lot of people doing their bucket list trip across Canada and we met a few. One lady said there was a 3 week wait for the Newfoundland ferry. I panicked because we hadn’t booked yet so I phoned the ferry and the agent told me at the most there would be a 3 day wait. Not that bad. We could explore Nova Scotia while we waited. But she said that we would be paying roughly $400 each way. Yikes! I have already spent our reserve funds on rig repairs. PEI is $113 return if you take the bridge and the ferry. We may have to look for work! On our walk to the river with Lucy, we were stopped by a young man who asked if we knew where there was a store close by. They hadn’t brought any supplies with them and were wanting to buy something simple to eat for dinner. Of course, it being our first time, we weren’t familiar with the area and didn’t know how far it was to the actual town of Wawa. I offered them a Sidekick to tide them over. Too funny, they couldn’t find a pot to cook it in and then didn’t have any way to cook it so I offered to cook it for them. When I brought it back to them, turns out the fellow was a Metis artist from Saskatachewan and he gave me a printed art card as a thank you. They were on their way from Quebec to teach at a Francophone school in Red Deer, Alberta. We ran out of propane so had to run into Wawa to fill...
Read MoreWalmartians
Onward to Thunder Bay. We spent yet another night at Walmart. A great way to save money. The website that I search for parking rules at Walmarts said the place to park was by the garden centre so we found a nice level spot to park ourselves. We are certainly getting more comfortable parking at Walmart, although we haven’t yet dragged out our BBQ. We do put our bump out though. Just easier to move around inside with it out. Just as our heads hit the pillows, a train blew by. We had been parked for several hours and didn’t even know a train track was nearby. After that train passed, there was another every couple of hours. Hard to get used to those train when you are so used to silence. In the morning we had been joined by several other rigs parked in different corners of the mall parking...
Read MoreLower Fort Garry
Late start today. We got to Lower Fort Garry just after noon. Don had a craving for a restaurant brekky and I had to allow him that indulgence. We spent our time at Lower Fort Garry and talked to the docents. The mercantile store reminded me of Grandpa’s trading post. Then, on to Walmart in Kenora with 12 other RV’ers. No overnight parking signs were all over the place. We parked right in front of one. 🙂 I did go in and ask if it would be ok to park overnight and was told that it was a city bylaw and that we might get a ticket. There was no ticket. The city would probably be foolish to prohibit overnight parking for RVs but I could see that the bylaw would also allow them to move real transients who could park there for longer times. There were two deer grazing just behind our rig when we woke up in the morning. I can certainly see the attraction of the Ontario cottage country. It was a beautiful drive but as Bob said, it consisted of rocks, trees, lakes, rocks, rocks, trees, lakes. The odd cop hidden amongst the rocks watching for...
Read MoreWeyburn, SK
You can still see a bit of smoke in the air. It doesn’t smell anymore though. So we boondocked once again in the Walmart parking lot. Again we had neighbours as you can see from the photo. It was amusing to see the exercise bike come out, the BBQ, the table and chairs. Making themselves right at home. A bit later in the evening, I happened to look outside and saw their dog running down the boulevard, dragging its leash. It wasn’t really a safe street – there was a major highway close by and a train track. Just as I was about to go let them know their dog was loose, one of the owners came out and looked for the dog. I pointed to where it was going. They managed to get the dog back. That is my greatest fear, to loose either the dog or cat. So we thought our batteries were going dead. The solar panel is supposed to charge them while we are driving so that we can use them at night but the inverter panel was telling us that they were at 24%. What the…So we went to bed as soon we couldn’t read our books anymore. We could see that there was an RV dealer just up the road and decided to stop in in the morning and have them check things out for us. Minard RV is a very large dealership and they have a great service department and store. While Don was having the rig’s electrical inspected, I was inspecting another 5th Wheel. It was pretty much the same size as ours but had 3 bump outs. Wow! Nice! Hmmm, the salesman even gave me the trade in value on our rig. Wow was I tempted. I think the only reason I resisted is that it would once again delay us for a couple of days. I am really anxious to get to Newfoundland. Turns out the inverter panel was not reading things properly. Our batteries are fine and our solar panel is working as it should. We just can’t trust the readouts. I guess we will know when the batteries go dead when they don’t turn on anymore. Then we can worry about things. Tonight we are parked at the Arrowhead RV Park in Ile des Chenes, Manitoba. Sure a lot of francophone communities around here. Could almost be...
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