Gaspe, Canada

Day 4, today, was from Matane to the village of Gaspe out near the tip of the peninsula.

The sun allowed the opportunity for many kodak moments, although sadly, many of the great sights could not be captured by my photo lens, as there just weren’t safe places to pull over, especially with an extra 15 ft. tagging along. Around every corner there was another feast for the eyes.

Small towns nestled into the bays along the St. Lawrence which by now is so wide you can’t see across it. The highway heads up inland from time to time only to return to the coast to find yet another town trying to impress with it’s boardwalk, or picnic areas along the water, or Casse Croutes with the most outstanding frites, not that I’ve tried any of those, just to be clear.

I worried the first time I travelled in the Gaspe region about my lack of French, but either I’ve learned some more French or am less afraid to use it, or the locals are speaking more English. So no anglos should be put off because of language challenges. I even had someone deal with a hitch issue I was having in an RV store and there was only one person who spoke English but I ended up with about 5 guys standing around solving my problem for me back and forth from French to English. If you try your best French they’ll almost immediately switch to English for you. Or at least they did for me. Guess it speaks to my French ability.

Tomorrow I’ll head for Perce to once again visit the famous rock, but I’m not knocking myself out getting up early enough to get the best lighting, so will have to do with whatever I get. Not sure where I’ll end up, but that’s the best part of wandering.

Take a look at the album below.

Matane, Canada

Day 3 was Levis to Matane along secondary road 132 along the Saint Lawrence River into the Gaspe region. As you can see from this pic, it was grey and rained most of the day.

Although grey, the drive along 132 still provided non-stop interest from small town to village to rural settings. It meanders along the mighty St. Lawrence, and hops over Highway 20 from time to time. Many of the towns have interesting shops and bistros, and I’m always so intrigued by the architecture and obvious pride that shows through in the houses all along the way. Bright colors, old stone, varied roof lines, and gobs and gobs of curb appeal. Although my third time along this stretch it’s always a pleasure.

I overnighted in the busy town of Matane in a field with a whale at the entrance. Well, it was a campsite, but basically it was a field with services on posts in regularly spaced intervals. You could see the St. Lawrence, there, in the distance. But there wasn’t a lot of choice and I was tired so this was it. What I neglected to note was that there was a barn with horses also sharing this field. One of my two known allergens. Another of those pesky lessons learned (LL). I set up in the rain, but enjoyed the use of my own shower to get warmed up. Another thing ticked off my orientation list.

Just as the sun was setting it broke through the clouds and produced the most gorgeous sky and a rainbow. I was sure it would bode well for the next day. There were 2 bicyclists camping in pup tents among the big rigs, who I’m sure were pleased to see it was clearing after what must have been a miserable day was undoubtably a cold night.

Levis, Canada

Although I’m 4 days into my trip, I’m just finally catching up with my blog writing.  Today was the first day it felt like a tourist adventure.  Up until now it’s been learning how to do this RV camping thing.  An early start on Wednesday, Day 1, got me to Prolite in St. Jerome, QC, for the walk through of my new trailer.  Jean, Pierre and Stephan were great.  I’m sure they told me everything I need to know.  Whether it’s been retained is anyone’s guess.     The first few days provided more lessons learned that I’ll ever tell, and I’m sure I’ve many ahead.  But isn’t challenging yourself what it’s all about?     After Prolite sent me on my way, feeling like a new driver with my first licence, I tootled down the freeway to a perfect campground for a newbie, the KOA in Levis.  And by tootled, I mean made two wrong turns on the maze of freeways going through Montreal.  Oh joy, ended up in the parking lot of a lovely mall at Highway 15 and 440 in Laval at one point, hauling 15 feet behind me.  That was a new experience.   In any case, the KOA was the perfect choice.  It had huge pull through spots so I didn’t have to back into a spot.  (On day 4 and I’m in my third spot and have yet to back the thing up.  That’s a challenge for another day).    The KOA Quebec City (actually located across the river in Levi) is a great site.  It’s huge and clean and the staff were friendly.  They can arrange to have a shuttle pick you up to take you over to QC or you can drive yourself to the foot ferry terminal in Levis, just 10 min drive and it takes you right to lower town in QC.     I unfortunately stayed in the KOA literally trying out as much as I could and finding homes for whatever I could in this incredibly small space.  Stephan from Prolite was able to talk me through a water issue.  Just an airlock or something in the holding tank, which with his help I was able to resolve.   The number of big rigs rolling in on Thursday had me feeling like mighty small.  This is a video if you click on it, it should come up.

Montreal, Canada

Saint Jerome, Canada

Ottawa, Canada

After weeks of preparation and planning, I am less than 2 weeks from starting my 9 province, 20 state camping adventure. It seems so much more real now.

This past week I paid for, registered and got the license plate for my new Prolite Plus S trailer. It’s waiting for me in St. Jerome, QC.

http://www.roulottesprolite.com/indexen glish.htm

I will be off to St. Jerome bright and early on June 3rd to be introduced to it. They will do a walk through with me to show me all the features and systems involved, hitch it up for me and then I’ll be heading down the road.

I’ve never had a travel trailer before, aside from using my family’s tent/trailer the year after college, so I’m a little apprehensive about the steep learning curve involved. But I’m excited to once again have just a key for my SUV (and for the trailer) on my key ring. My daughter Gill has a necklace that says, “He who wanders is not lost”. I have one that says, “I am no longer afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my own ship”. Both are rather appropriate.

I am spending these last few weeks getting my apartment packed up and ready to go into storage and working with the great folks at Core Physiotherapy to get my SI joint back into shape after a couple of years of neglect. A huge thanks to Eli, Tanya and Isobel.

http://www.corephysiotherapy.ca/index.h tml

My first stop will be in Levis, QC – just a couple of hours down the road from St. Jerome, for my first couple of nights at the KOA there to figure out how to make everything work! And I will undoubtably hop across the bridge to have a visit with one of my favourite Canadian cities, Quebec City.

I will spend the next 6 weeks travelling through Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Hopefully all their snow has melted by the time I get there! I’ll be back here in Ottawa for a couple of weeks at the end of July to put my possessions in storage, and then I’ll be westward bound. My return to Ottawa is currently planned to be in early spring 2016.

But maybe I’ll get on the road and decide I hate camping, driving, sight seeing, and photography, and that I miss everyone too much and will decide to head back. That’s why there are Interstates.

Ottawa, Canada

Today I did two things that have all of a sudden made this adventure seem more real and imminent.

One thing I did, was to make arrangements for the payment of my travel trailer. (More on the change of plans on this front later.)

And the second thing I did was to pop into the local CAA office to add the trailer to my CAA coverage and pick up maps for the 9 provinces and 20 states that I will be travelling through on my adventure.

“Maps”, you say, “when online maps, and GPS are so readily available?” While I am an early adopter of many digital tools, there are some things which I find the analog versions still work best. One of them is maps. Of course I’ll use all sorts of iPad apps and my GPS for finding RV Parks, specific routing, etc, but the maps will be along for the ride as well. Am I the only one that still likes to pour over maps on the dining room table while planning a trip? There are some great apps for finding RV parks that I’ve found: Allstars, and Book Your Site are two. If you have any favourites, let me know.

I’m also using a packing iPad app called Packing Pro to try to keep track of the millions of items to do and remember to take on my adventure. Well, maybe not millions, but I’m at 401 so far, and instead of the list shrinking as I accomplish things or acquire items, it’s often going up as I think of things I need to do or buy. Sigh.

http://www.quinnscape.com/PackingPro.as p

Anyway, as of May 13th I will be the proud owner of a Prolite Plus S. As you may recall, the original plan was to buy a 13′ Scamp trailer from a Minnesota company, but when I found this 15′ Prolite at a local RV show I decided that it better suited my needs and I am able to support a Canadian company which I’m happy to do.

If you’re really interested, here is the link to a video of the trailer. It’s pretty darn small, but how much room does one person need.

https://youtu.be/GXIYaL-vxPI

Ottawa, Canada

Travel has always been an important part of my life. My father was a school teacher so we spent the summers of my youth travelling and camping throughout our home province of Manitoba and from one end of Canada to the other and back several times.

During married life, travel stayed an important part of my life, but starting a business, having a family, immersing myself in politics, building a cottage in northern Ontario, and later moving to Ottawa and 2 years working for the government meant travel had to take a lower rank among the many other priorities. Those other things were important and I wouldn’t have changed any of the important decisions I made along the way, but it is now time for me.

I retired on Oct 17, 2014.

Now that my only priority is time spent with my awesome daughter Gillian, and her husband Phil, along with my many family and friends across the country, it’s time to put travel back up near the top of the priority list along with getting and keeping myself healthy and mobile so that I can, you guessed it, travel.

One of my happiest places is when I am driving down a secondary road, not knowing what is around the next corner. So, when my brother-in-law mentioned a small travel trailer that his brother had bought that my CRV could tow, the plan started to gel in my mind.

Today I took a major step towards one of my dreams. I ordered a 13′ fibreglass Scamp travel trailer. It will be ready to pick up at the end of April. My plan is to spend the spring/summer travelling in Canada and then in the fall I’ll head south to Florida, across the southern States to California and north up the coast to BC to arrive there next spring.

I have often said that the planning and anticipation of a trip is at least half the fun. So I thought I would start this blog here on the day that process begins in earnest. Many of you aware of my plans have said you would like to come along on my journey, so this blog is a way for you to do that.

Let me know if there is anything you’d like to hear about along the way!

NOTE: After this posting, I attended an RV Show in Ottawa and decided to buy a Prolite Trailer instead of the Scamp. It’s Canadian-made and ticks some of the other boxes.