johnboystravelblog

August 11, 2019

Funny how things work out…  As I was preparing photos for the first post about things I saw in Québec province I found another group of photos from the town of Pokeshaw, NB, just west of Grand-Anse where I found the huge church with the bright red roof as I was driving towards the bridge to Québec province.

This is a huge rock out in the Gulf of St. Lawrence which is popular with bird lovers for obvious reasons.  There was an observation area which wanted a day use fee but I could park up by the road and, with my zoom lens, look for free.  I like free.

Those photos were taken while looking northwest.  As I was walking back to the car I noticed this photo op looking northeast:

I then continued on my way to Campbellton.  This was the view as the highway descended in to town.  This is part of my “go play in the road” collection, taken while I was standing on the yellow line (Shawn).

 

August 17, 2019

Off topic, I know, but this is a hoot.

When I travel I generally monitor a Raleigh TV station’s website every night just to keep tabs on what’s going on back where I live (Durham is only about a half hour from Raleigh and although we have our own TV station, thank you very much, I prefer this one in Raleigh).

I found this article, which I post unedited, and accompanying photo on WRAL.com.  They do not credit the news service (Associated Press, CNN, etc) they got it from so I can’t either:

BURIEN, Wash. — A Washington state trooper who pulled over to help what he thought was a disabled vehicle found something else instead: The driver had eight phones simultaneously playing the video game Pokémon Go.

The driver was stopped on the shoulder of Highway 518 in Burien, south of Seattle, on Tuesday evening.

The agency tweeted a photo showing a blue foam square, with the phones sitting in eight rectangular cutouts.

Trooper Rick Johnson is a spokesman for the patrol and said Sgt. Kyle Smith did not issue a ticket because he did not observe the car moving while the driver was using the phones.

But Smith asked the driver to put the phones in the back seat and move along, because stopping on the shoulder is for emergencies only.

And I worry about stopping on a busy highway in my SafetySam vest just to take a “hit run” shot of a great photo op!

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And since I’m going off topic, I have a time-sensitive RFI (or RFS, as it were…)

I bought two candy bars the other day, one because it was recommended in my pre-trip research and the second because it sounded good (and was).

I took that photo with the candy bars on a towel placed on the hood of my car while in line waiting for a ferry.  The people in the car waiting behind me, undoubtedly QP people but I didn’t check, probably thought I was some kind of nutjob.  Hey, “sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t”, which ironically applies somewhat to the Bounty bar.

Mirage, made by Nestlé, promises “Real Bubbly Milk Chocolate” (and special characters or not, I can’t make the letters in Bubbly dance like they do on the label.  If you look closely below the ‘M’ you may be able to see it…)

It wasn’t terrible but I don’t like to pay extra for air bubbles in my food unless it’s a beignet.

The Bounty bar, on the other hand (or in the other hand as I ate them at the same time – That’s a LIE Mr. Trump!!!) was made by a company not known to me but was like an Almond Joy without the almonds.  Not a Mounds, mind you, which is dark chocolate and one of JohnBoy’s favorites, but coconut covered with milk chocolate.  It was yummy.

I don’t always eat candy, but when I do….   to paraphrase the MIMITW who, regrettably,  isn’t used in ads any more.

Anyway – the people in the car behind me can think anything they like (zee crazy American, and look at zee crazy license plate…) as I was doing important blog stuff.

So my request (I almost forgot!) – any other suggestions for candy or other things I should try while I’m in Canada?  I’ve already had lobster rolls and poutine.  Don’t think about it too long….I’m only here for another 10 days.  If you have any, please post them as a Comment (left side of your screen at the beginning of each post) or share them with me privately via the “Contact” link on the Homepage.

Merci beaucoup!

 

August 17, 2019

I am posting this Saturday morning, though I crossed in to Québec province 5 days ago.  For the sake of simplicity I will henceforth (in this post) refer to it as QP.  And if you think I already forgot, I seem to be unable to add the accent in the Title of this post, even using my newfound WordPress special character tool.  UPDATE – Got it working with “cut & paste” from post text!

QP is enormous (shaded in blue on the map below):

(Photo credit: quebecweb.com)

At close to 524,000 square miles land mass it is the second largest province in Canada and is twice the size of Texas.  You can see how it dwarfs the Maritime provinces and even the Northeastern United States, perhaps even the whole east coast (I’d have to do the math…).

For the first few days I would be traveling on the Gaspé Peninsula:

My destination on Monday was the town of Gaspé, highlighted in pink in the upper right hand corner of the map above.  After two nights there I would drive to Rivière-du-Loup, highlighted in pink in the lower left corner.

The proper term for the Gaspé Peninsula is Gaspésie, which is French for “high gas prices”.  Noooooo, I’m kidding (not about the gas prices, unfortunately, but about the meaning of the name).

Gaspé, pronounced GASP-a (a hard, or long A), or GASP-eh if you prefer (see, that eh? comes in handy sometimes) is French for “a short, quick breath taken in through the mouth”.   Noooooo, I’m kidding again.  Gaspé is derived from the Mi’kmaq word gespe’g, meaning “end,” as in “we’ve reached the end of the land”.  The Mi’kmaq, as you may recall from earlier posts, are the indigenous people in many of the Maritime provinces, as well as on this peninsula and even down into parts of the US state of Maine.

Gaspésie is the blue peninsula located north of New Brunswick province, colored in light green in the first map above.

When I left Tracadie-Sheila, NB Monday morning I drove north briefly, then west along the entire north coast of New Brunswick until I got to the town of Campbellton.  There I took a bridge across the Restigouche River to the town of Pointe-à-la-Croix in QP.

I was surprised to learn that once I crossed the bridge I was now back in the Eastern Time Zone – even though Gaspésie extends all the way east above New Brunswick (on the map) which operates on Atlantic time- as do Nova Scotia, below New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, east of New Brunswick.  Gaspésie, on the globe, evidently slopes upward due to curvature of the Earth (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).

I noticed something along that drive getting to the bridge which will affect the “Three Things” about each province (lasting impressions, if you will) which I plan to announce at the end of this trip.  I have already formulated my 3 things for QP – Fast drivers, fast drivers and fast drivers.

Up to the day I drove west to enter QP the Canadian drivers were quite well behaved.  I pretty much drive the speed limit these days, especially in new places because I don’t know how generous the police are with enforcement, and the other drivers were pretty much content to do the same.  I even remember thinking, a few days after entering Canada back on July 12 that, gee, I always thought Canadians drove fast.  Well…… the day I drove over to enter QP car after car went flying past me.  Then it occurred to me – all those Canadian cars which always passed me on the I-81 and I-95 corridors in the US over the years probably had Québec license plates.  Monday the QP drivers all had their undies in a bunch trying to get back to QP at warp speed.  And now that I’m here it’s even worse!

Boy do they drive fast.  They are possessed.

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On another note, I apologize for not making more posts last night after my first day walking around Québec City.  A) My Fitbit tells me I took 23,802 steps yesterday and I was tired, and more importantly B) When I went to download my photos from the day to my laptop, which I do every night, for backup purposes as well as to post to the blog, I PANICKED when all the photos on my smartphone appeared to be gone!  I could see that they were there but my normal procedure to copy them to the computer ignored them.  I had this happen once before in Colorado and I was able to recover some of them on that occasion from the mysterious “Cloud,” which I still don’t quite understand.  I know what it is but the logistics of access baffle me.  After about an hour and a half of research trying to remember how I did it before (and I’m still not sure I ever got all of them), and trying to follow online instructions which I couldn’t replicate in real life, I finally figured out a different way to get them moved to a new folder on the laptop.

Whew, that was close!!

After I got that issue fixed I listened to the NASCAR Xfinity race from Bristol, Tennessee on my computer, then went to bed.  I had hoped to find a sports bar to watch the Cup race tonight (my Airbnb host doesn’t have TV service) and although my host gave me the name of a place which televises sporting events their website doesn’t mention NASCAR.  There is actually a store downtown which sells NASCAR stuff and I’m going to inquire there if they know of a place nearby which will show the race.  I thought it was going to be broadcast on NBC which, even though I’m in Canada, might stand a chance of being televised here but it is, in fact, on the goofy NBCSN (Sports Network) which many places  in the US don’t even carry.

August 11 & 12, 2019

Sunday I traveled north from Miramichi to the extreme northeast corner of New Brunswick (see prior posts about the very windy day, stalking birds in various spots, Acadian pride items and the lighthouse at Miscou Point). After visiting the lighthouse I drove west to the town of Caraquet, then returned to where I would be spending Sunday night in Tracadie-Sheila. The next morning I left to make the long drive north, leaving New Brunswick and crossing in to Québec province. Here are things I saw those two days.

When I stopped in Tracadie-Sheila Sunday morning I saw this large church, just up the street from my Airbnb. It is the church of St. Jean Baptiste and St. Joseph. I would see several huge churches in the next two days.

When I arrived in Caraquet I was a little concerned about traffic and congestion because it was my understanding that there was a large music festival being held as part of the Acadian heritage celebration currently underway in the region. I ended up stopping at the harbor and never made in in to the town itself so I didn’t have any problems or delays. This boat was just setting sail for a late afternoon cruise.

Next to the harbor was a small shopping complex with these two eating establishments:

Poisson means fish in French so there is obviously a seafood restaurant located here. A Crèmerie is an ice cream shop.

The announcement of the seafood place on the sign made me realize that I’d have to be very careful when ordering food. “I’d like the poison du jour and a side of pilates, por favor – oops, I mean s’il vous plaît.”

And let me make a quick jump ahead to today (as I post this), my first full day in Québec City. Up here almost all signs are exclusively in French. I’ve learned that the French word for tires is “pneus” :

Which means if I have a repeat of my tire problems in the next few days I’ll have to be very VERY careful when making my request. If I don’t speak clearly when I ask the mechanic to “please check my pneus” I may end up getting zee slap on zee face….

But I digress… (had to go for the cheap laugh)

After visiting Caraquet I took some back roads down to Tracadie-Sheila for the night. On the way home I drove through Paquetville where I saw this huge church.

It is St. Augustine Catholic Church. I had taken a few photos about 10 minutes prior to taking this one and there was a white car parked facing the roadway right in front of the building. The driver had to have seen me moving around with both cameras getting in position and taking photos, but would he move??? Of course not. I was still steamed about the incident with the goofy little car a few hours earlier but resisted the temptation to go over and say something or ask him to move.

I went down the road to a Tim Hortons to log on to their wifi and sent a photo to my friend Shawn and when I returned the car was gone.

Monday morning I retraced some of the steps I had taken Sunday and discovered this big church in the little town of Inkerman. It is the Catholic Church of St. Michel.

This time I drove past Caraquet and continued west on Route 11 towards Québec province. When I got to the town of Grand-Anse I stopped for several photo ops. As I drove in to town I was greeted by this eye-catching welcome display:

And as I was walking back to my car after taking the photo I noted the name of the boat:

OH NO. Not THAT Donald T. I hope!!! Mon Dieu!

Next I saw the house and mini-lighthouse-like structure painted with the colors of the Acadian flag which I included in an earlier post. There was also this large, human sized lobster trap (which I did NOT go in to use the picnic table inside). My original employer in North Carolina used to say “I was born at night but I wasn’t born last night”:

And finally this gigantic church, the Church of St. Simon and St. Jude.

I continued on up the road and crossed in to Québec province. I still had a long drive to get to my next stop in Gaspé.

August 16, 2019

No photos now.  I will hold them until I get caught up with posts showing how I got here.  I took lots and lots of photos and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I wrote this post in real time as I was way behind in posting and didn’t want my blog peeps to think that the ospreys I photographed in Lameque followed me back to my Airbnb and really had plucked my eyes out.

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I am in Québec City and the overnight rain is now moving east so I am getting ready to walk down to the “Old Town” area for my first day of sightseeing (and eating).  I have just prepared the photos for my last post from New Brunswick and will post them when I get home this evening.  My Airbnb host is leaving town after work tonight for a hiking and camping trip with his friends over the weekend so I’ll have the place to myself and, if not too tired (or full), will try to knock out a few more posts tonight.

And as you can see, my friend in Durham found a solution for my “accents” dilemma and I will incorporate them in future posts.  They will become increasingly important when I am in Québec province.  Including them may slow me down a little because they are not automatic and I must examine each word or name to see which accent to use and replace the regular character with the “special character”.  I may miss a few but I’ll try my best.

913am  Eastern time Friday

 

August 10, 2019

One last picture from the day I drove south from Miramichi and did the lower portion of the Acadian Scenic Trail. I meant to include this with the other photos from that day and since several folks have already viewed it I don’t want them to miss out.

As I approached the part of Bontouche outside of town and near the water I saw this:

Wouldn’t it be amusing if Thibodeau meant “phone home”….

Looks like their business name is missing a few l__ters.

August 15, 2019

I am writing this at 543am local (now back on Eastern) time Thursday in the bedroom of my Airbnb in Rivière-du-Loup, Québec. I arrived here late yesterday afternoon after a spectacular day driving along the Saint Lawrence River. The drive all the way around the Gaspé Peninsula is simply amazing.

I know I’m behind but I am seeing lots of things and will be posting lots of photos, eventually. My arrival at the Airbnb here was a little disjointed (the hosts are away – I didn’t get their message to that effect until I finally got online here last night) and the only person in the house was Luis, who, bless his heart, only speaks Spanish, of all things, and believe me I mean ONLY Spanish! Mon Dieu!

I’m lucky he didn’t summon the gendarmes when I walked in the house unannounced and he walked sleepily out of what I presume is his bedroom. He seemed to have absolutely no idea who I was or what I was doing in his living room. Non-understandable questions and hand gestures finally inspired him to show me to the guestroom upstairs and through detective work I was able to deduce the wifi password and finally get online. I was exhausted and laid down to briefly rest my eyes for a few minutes….. and woke up around midnight!!

BTW, I didn’t even learn Luis’ name or the fact that he doesn’t speak English until I got online at midnight and saw my host’s message.

I am going to shower and get ready for my big day today.  I hope to catch the ferry across the St. Lawrence and drive along the north shore in to Québec City.  My Airbnb hosts up in Quirpon, NL suggested many small towns on that side of the river (which will required some backtracking) and they said the drive into the city on that side is much nicer.

I am in Québec City 4 nights at the same place and it sounds like the host will have lots of local knowledge to help me hit the highlights.  I’ve been holding out at some other places but I plan to eat like a porc.

Tonight I plan to do laundry and while that is underway, study the maps I will pickup in town and plan my day for Friday.  I have a basic plan but will have to see what suggestions or alterations my host has.  Other guests have been very impressed with him and this is another example of why staying in Airbnb’s is so rewarding (if you don’t get shot as an intruder).

 

August 11, 2019

Sunday I drove all the way out to the end of Miscou Island, the furthest point northeast one may drive in New Brunswick, and there I found the above referenced lighthouse:

It was sooooo windy (this was the very, very windy day) that they actually have to tie down their lighthouse!!

This was also where I found another little painted rock:

I guess I should find out what this is all about.  Maybe it’s leading me to treasure!

I’ve always assumed that these were all hand-painted but this one may be decals.  I didn’t think so at the time, but looking at the photos I took I think they are.  I will scrutinize future ones more carefully.

This was also the place where I was confronted by the mime who shooed me away from his goofy little car.  Somehow I doubt that he was the one who left the purple rock.

As I was driving south from the lighthouse to get back to Lameque, where I took the osprey photos, I saw a house of a different kind.  This homeowner was constructing a rather large teepee (perhaps a future Airbnb venue??).

This is who is doing the work (if you want to get a quote).  Tell them JohnBoy sent you and they’ll say “Who?”.

And I also saw this authentic teepee on the site of what will be a new indigenous people cultural center:

 

 

August 11, 2019

Sunday was a travel day as I moved from one Airbnb to another but it wasn’t very far away and there was lots of time to tackle a “primary” scenic road in extreme northeast New Brunswick.

Before we said goodnight (or more accurately good morning, as it was well after midnight) after our long dinner and post-dinner conversation my hostess in Miramichi told me to expect two things after I left town and headed north.  One – that I would see lots more Acadian displays which, as you will see, was true.  Two – I would start to see and hear things almost exclusively in French, which also turned out to be true.

Shortly after I left town I saw something I certainly didn’t expect:

Wait.  What?  Did I take a wrong turn after I left Kouchibouguac or am I still feeling the effects of all the wine we drank?  No, it’s just a tiny little town on the road I was on.

When I stopped in Tracadie-Sheila to check out where my Airbnb for the night would be I saw this Acadian ear next to a hearing-aid store right up the road:

People show their pride in mysterious ways.

This next one had bizarre elements as well.  As I was driving up on Miscou Island after having seen the colorful boats and tried to take photos of hovering seagulls, I drove past a house on a small road with some unique Acadian stuff.  After seeing the display I turned around so I could park on their side of the road.  I went past their driveway so I wouldn’t block it and parked near the end of their house.  As I was getting the digital camera out I noticed something in my peripheral vision.  Past the edge of the house this giant bird moved from right to left to the edge of the fence and stopped, like it had heard me pull up.  It sat there watching me.

And as if that isn’t strange enough, the wind (this was the very, very windy day) was blowing left to right from this vantage point so it wasn’t like the wind pushed it to that corner of the pool.

I got out of the car and took my photos:

That is what I wanted to come back for.  It appears to be make of rope used on fishing boats.

And there was a small mat hanging on the house itself:

As I was walking back to my car (and I never set foot on their property, I was using the digital camera so I could zoom in from the road) people came out of the house and asked me, in French, what the hell I was doing taking pictures of their house.  I don’t understand French but that seemed to reflect their general mood and I can interpret arm movements.  I held up my camera and said “taking pictures of your beautiful things”.  The woman then gestured to the end of the house where that damn bird who evidently alerted them that I was out front was and said, in French, “Well what about THAT!?”. I don’t understand French but that seemed to reflect their general mood and I can interpret arm movements.   Again I said, ” I took pictures when I saw the bird appear”.  The man then tried to sell me some of the things (funny how they can magically speak English when they want your money) but I told him I was traveling for another month and lived a long way away.  I left before that damn bird could get my license number….

Here are a few more Acadian things I saw.  I’ve included two from the next day just to keep them together.  There won’t be any more for a little while but I suspect they will show up again later in the trip.

 

August 13, 2019

After the unfortunate events in North Sydney a little over a week ago I went out and bought yet another GPS unit for my car while I was out on Prince Edward Island. Because of where I go I can’t always use GoogleMaps on my smartphone (either no service at all or not a strong enough signal to drive the app). I like having a unit in the car to help give me accurate ETA estimates and, obviously, guidance to my Airbnb’s, restaurants and grocery stores while I am on the road or when in unfamiliar areas.

This time I bought a Garmin.

Here is a quick summary of my troubled past with GPS units:

GPS 1.0 – A Magellan. A gift from one of my brothers. Loved it but couldn’t update maps for free. Stuck with it for a long time but new streets and destinations made it less and less effective. Status – Obsolete. When I thought about replacing 2.0 before buying 3.0 I actually considered paying the money for a map update but when I looked on the website they didn’t even have map updates available for it any more. It wouldn’t have worked in Canada anyway….

GPS 2.0 – A TomTom. Never really warmed up to it. Maps wouldn’t update, despite two attempts and several calls to TomTom. Used it a long time but finally bought a new one to replace it. Not Canada capable. Status – In the trunk of my car as a backup (for the US only).

GPS 3.0 – Another Magellan. Since I liked the first one so much I thought I’d go back to that brand. Apples and Oranges. It’s not nice to hate, but I hated it. We had many knock-down, drag-out arguments and, at times, didn’t speak to each other for days – and on long days in the car she is the only person I have to talk to.  Despite constant threats I never did throw it (or any of the others) out the window.  Honest.  That would be littering.  Towards the end she didn’t have the correct time (off by like 47 minutes) or even know what frickin’ time zone I was in, neither of which I could correct via Settings.   No surprise that there’s no setting for time zone – IT’S A FRICKIN’ GPS UNIT – it’s supposed to know precisely where I am!!!  Of the three, the only one Canada capable.  Status – MIA, but I hope she irritates the person who has her now as much as she irritated me all these years.  Good riddance!

So far GPS 4.0 is getting great marks. I very much like the way she handles herself and I haven’t even read the manual yet so I should be able to tweak it and make it even better. Highest volume setting isn’t very loud (I don’t hear well) and the destination entry seems to be a little confounded but I may be able to tweak it.  Fingers crossed that this is the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship.