We entered Quebec for the second time just after noon on Saturday
August 17, by crossing a bridge from Campbellton, New Brunswick. We were now two full days behind our rough
schedule, and could have made up some of that time by continuing north to the
St. Lawrence River somewhere east of Quebec City. However, I really wanted to see the Gaspe
Peninsula, so we turned east (the direction opposite to home), and followed the
north shore of Baie des Chaleurs to Perce Rock, which was quite
impressive. I was surprised by how
developed the peninsula is, at least in a narrow strip along the
shoreline. From Perce Rock we continued
north through the town of Gaspe and got a campsite at Forillon National Park,
on the south shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Gaspe Peninsula, South Side
Percé Rock area
On Sunday morning we went down to the beach near the
campground for a while. We then finally turned west towards Victoria - we were in eastern Quebec, a long way from home with only 2 weeks to get there, with several things and places that we still wanted to see. We stopped only for lunch in a rest area
along the coast and for gas in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, before ending up at a
municipal campground in Saint-Fabien, just west of Rimouski. It was a pretty uneventful day overall.
Beach at Forillon National Park
Gaspe Peninsula, North Side
Near Rimouski
Saint-Fabien
Monday August 19 (day 59 of our trip) turned out to be
somewhat more eventful. We continued
west, and crossed the St. Lawrence River to the north shore at Quebec City, to
avoid having to do it in Montreal where traffic might be more congested. We didn't stop in Quebec City, but did leave
the freeway and follow the old highway along the river between Donnacona (where
we bought gas) and Portneuf (where we bought vegetables from a roadside stand
and had lunch). From there we headed to
greater Montreal, following the directions on our GPS to very efficiently get
us through the network of freeways to a Wal-Mart in Laval, where Rhonda had
gotten confirmation by phone that we could spend the night. We then drove a little more, and parked in a
safe-looking neighbourhood within walking distance of a subway station. We took the subway downtown, and walked
around Old Montreal (a very vibrant and “happening” place, even on a Monday
evening), and had dinner at one of the many sidewalk cafes in the area. The subway then very efficiently got us back
to the station a short walk from our vehicle, and we drove back to the Wal-Mart
by 10:30, ready to crash for the night.
It was then that things started to fall apart. No sooner had we parked the vehicle than a
security guard informed us that this mall was not Wal-Mart property, and we had
to leave. So we followed our GPS to
another Wal-Mart about 15 minutes away, and got the same story. This guard was a lot less friendly, and
didn’t even want us to sit in the parking lot for a few minutes to look at a map and figure out
what to do next. It was now getting
late (probably too late to find a commercial campground), and we were getting low on gas. We
decided to head for the nearest Wal-Mart in Ontario, which was in Cornwall, but
changed our mind once we started driving.
By a convoluted process too painful to describe in detail, involving a
Wal-Mart in eastern Ontario that didn't exist, another one that was small and
didn't look very RV-friendly, and a GPS that sent us in an endless circle
between two freeway exits in Ottawa, we ended up at a Wal-Mart in Kanata (an
Ottawa suburb) at 2:30 AM on Tuesday. By
then Salty and I were the only ones awake, and it didn't take us long to crash.
Old Montreal
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