Alma and Fundy National Park Aug 8

 We started the day with a visit to Alma. A neat little tourist, and fishing town.

Typical tourist town with all of the souvenir shops , but the bakery had the best sticky buns I've ever eaten

I liked the name of this restaurant

Typical fishing boat

After we left Alma we hiked in Fundy National Park. You could spend a week here easily hiking and touring around the park.

We did a hike along the coast that was rated difficult. 1.7 kilometers each way and it took just over an hour each way. Good work out!

as usual it was a bit hazy from fog, but still beautiful

8 Kayakers teams were out getting a lesson. 

Fredericton Aug 7

We had lunch with Kevin Agar, in all the excitement we didn't even get a picture of us, but what an enjoyable time catching up. He gave us a tour of Fredericton, very nice city, 75k population. It is dominated by government and the University.

From Fredericton we travelled to Alma on the Bay of Fundy. We had a "wild campsite" chosen, no services, but when we arrived we discovered that we had to cross a covered bridge with only a 3.5 meter clearance and we needed 3.8. It was 5 o'clock, to late to fool around looking for another site so be booked into the a local campground. We got the last site available for $69.00.  Rich by our standards , but what the heck, it was the first night that we paid for camping since we left home, so no complaints.   

Our $69.00 campsite. It did come with full services. I guess we are just not used to civilized camping any more LOL

Gagetown Aug 6

A perfect quiet campsite along the Jemseg River

Picture is a bit crooked, but the location was perfect

 

Halifax with Lisa Bremner Aug 5

Lisa worked as an educator with us at Joico years ago. We had a wonderful visit catching up on the news and reminiscing about the old times. 

Bonnie, Lisa's Mom, Rose, me , and Lisa

We spent the day touring the Halifax boardwalk and the Maritime museum. Most of the shops along the boardwalk were closed because the cruise ships are not running.

The Maritime museum of the Atlantic is very interesting. It covers the wars that Canada fought in for a sailors point of view. It has a large collection of model ships built to perfect scale.

A great way to spend a few hours.

This is just a couple of examples

They also had a large collection of fishing boats and accessories,

Richard and Jaye Maheau Aug 3&4

We spent 2 days with Nat, Chad, and his parents in Waverly, just out side of Halifax

 

Shediac Aug 2

Quiet day to day, lots of rain 

We stopped in Shediac for lunch, the lobster capital of the world. The only problem was that we could not find any restaurants serving fresh lobster. Lobster is selling for $15.99 a pound , up from about $6.00 last year.  That is just too expensive for restaurants to serve. 

Another great camping spot at Fort Beaujour in Aulac south of Moncton

 

Bathurst Sunday Aug 1

Rolling hills along 132 on the way to Campbellton

Campbellton has developed the area along the river with beautiful walkways, an outdoor concert venue, and lots of places to just sit and relax.  The salmon artwork is the center piece.

artwork and garden along the walkway

The plaque in this park was written in 3 languages. English, French, and Gaelic

We stopped around noon for lunch and relax for a bit by the Bay of Chaleur.. Around 1 o'clock people started to gather for concert. We stayed for part of the afternoon 

Just out side of Bathurst is this 40 acre reserve. We hiked for an hour or so and then stayed for the night.

 

Rimouski Saturday July 31

Pointe-au-Pere  Maritime Museum Rimouski

The red building on the right houses the empress of Ireland, a sunken ship that was retrieved from the St Lawrence

The Onondaga was commissioned in 1967 and retired in 2000.  It was 295 feet long and displaced 2370 tons of water when submerged

90 crew members lived on this sub. The hallways were about 24 inches wide.
 No room for fat guys here

Sleeping quarters, 3 bunks high, 9 people slept in this tiny area. Orange suit was a safety escape suit. Once you put it on you had to be hooked up to oxygen.

The sub was divided into 7 compartments. Each compartment completely sealed from the others. You had to request to move from one to the other,  when a person moved the ballasts had to be rebalanced with water to keep the weight distribution perfect.

Control room

sonar room

Torpedo in the holing area

Torpedoes were launched through these tubes 

Open this link for more information

Complete history of the Onondaga

Before leaving Rimouski we bought a pound of scallops from this fish store. Rose doesn't normally like seafood but she ate her share this time. Cooked on the BBQ grill at our campsite along the Matapedia river,

This guy was fishing about 100 feet from our campsite

Riviere du Loop July 29

Village-des-Aulnais

Along highway 132 just before the town Village-des-Aulnais, is a stop off point with a lookout. This marble fixture was put in place so you could identify all of the communities around Baie St Paul on the other side of the river. Engraved in the marble was the name of the town with a line under it. You stood on the opposite side of the table and looked along the line. It would point at the town on the other side of the river. Very neat idea. Last year when we visited Baie St Paul it was one of our favorite  stops.

Kamouraska

We stopped to visit a pretty little town called Kamouraska. At the entrance is a park where we stopped for lunch and then climbed the lookout tower overlooking the St Lawrence, 

In this area there are mega dairy farms that would have hundreds of cows. There are mountains running parallel to the river , a few miles back so the land would be very fertile, at one time I am sure it was flooded.

This was a very busy seafood restaurant and seafood store

The bakery had line ups

The line ups were worth every minute. Warm multigrain bread

Riviere du Loop

We camped on the pier right beside the water. What a perfect spot, on one side the river and the other the harbor. Best of all it was free camping. 8 days on the road and we have enjoyed free camping all along the way.

The harbor

The ferry arriving

This will definitely be one of the highlights of our trip

Shortly after we set up camp for the evening this camper pulled up across the road.  The owner a retired sailor was not only a very proud owner but a great story teller. This complete set up is all 1975. The truck, motorcycle, and trailer. The truck is one of only 600 built. Quebec hydro ordered this long box flair side for the construction of the hydro electric project in James Bay. Flair side pickups all have short boxes. According to the owner 40 of the 600 built were sold to the public. He has what he thinks is the only remaining one. It is immaculately restored. The 13 foot trillium trailer is also a 1975 , perfectly restored. Its interior still has the original padded vinyl ceiling. 

The 1975 honda motorcyle was a rust bucket when he got it but it is perfect now. Since it is a 49,5 cc , less than 50cc you do not require a helmet or a license to ride it.  The throttle doesn't have a spring in it so it you take your hand of the throttle it doesn't slow down, That is the way it was made.

He even has a matching helmet for when he rides the bike

The best part of this is this is not just for show, He uses it to go camping  on a regular bases. When we met him he was waiting for the ferry to cross over to the north shore for a few weeks of camping. When he arrives the Honda comes out of the truck and that becomes his local transportation.