Category: Travel

Saguenay again

Posted on by

It is a cold, rainy day in La Baie today but we are back on Eastern Time. This is the final port before Quebec City and the start of our return home. I had expected to see more colour after 16 days but not much has changed. Here are a few photos for comparison.

This will probably be the final post of this trip. We expect to be home by Friday and back to a regular routine again by Monday. Thanks to all who followed along and to those who contributed comments. We have often told fellow travellers that we were members of the SKI club, meaning Spending Kids Inheritance.Yesterday we found people who were members of the KING club, meaning Kids Inheritance Nearly Gone.

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

Boston Turnaround

Posted on by

No, you haven’t missed a post. Sydney, Halifax, St John to Boston and barely a leaf changed colour. Those who came specifically to find fall colours must be terribly disappointed. One can’t rush mother nature. Having visited most places in the region on previous trips we have not repeated tours.

Our stop in St John should have been good for tours of the bay since a low tide coincided with our arrival and we remained long enough to see a full change. Even at our berth in St John the ship must have risen at least 20 feet over the tide cycle.

This morning Boston is bleak. Fog shrouds the city such that only the profiles of tall buildings defines the horizon. The rain is falling sometimes harder than others. In the open areas staff are busy mopping up rain water or pushing it toward drains.

We will need to visit US Immigration at some point today but on the basis of announcements we have heard the process is running about two hours behind schedule. Meanwhile room stewards on five decks are busy recycling cabins to receive passengers boarding. Until every arriving passenger and crew has been processed through US officials no-one will be boarding. Turnaround days are always interesting.

I will post a few more photos and hope to share some colour change with you on the return trip.

Gustave Flaubert

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

Edmunston, first stop in the Maritimes

Posted on by

We started the day too early. Somehow the first day of travel is more tiring than it should be so we fell asleep too early and Gail was awake before 5 AM which meant I would be awakened not long after. That made it easy to get to the 6:30 breakfast. After a refuelling stop we were on Highway 20 by 7:15. Highway 20 does not have the same kind of service centres as on Ontario 401 but the services were regular and well advertised. Today we shared the driving whereas yesterday I did it all.

After we passed Montreal traffic eased and once passed Quebec City, or Levis, the scenery became more interesting. There were farms and forests and eventually we could see mountainous terrain across the St Lawrence which was occasionally in sight. Gail took her second shift in the driver’s seat as we approached Rivière-du-Loup and I navigated the transfer to Quebec highway 85. Almost as soon as we started south on 85 things became strange and we found ourselves navigating country roads which seemed to take us further from Highway 85. I had some awareness of a construction project on 85 but was unable to find any information about detours before we left home. While Gail drove I began consulting both Apple maps and Google maps only to discover that their detour routes were not identical. When we finally reached Highway 85 again both Apple and Google located us in the middle of nowhere since the newly constructed highway was not up to date for either system. My solution was simple, follow that truck. That seemed to work. At our last rest stop before Edmunston we found a Quebec Information Centre where the attendant was only too pleased to show me how to avoid all the construction. The secret, he said, was to aim for Pohénégamook, Quebec then take Highway 289 north to Highway 20. We shall try that on our return trip.

I’m adding a few more photos today which can be viewed in the sidebar or in the East Coast and Maritime Cruise 2024 Photo Gallery. We will undoubtedly find a few more photo opportunities in days to come.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.

Photos Moving Around

Posted on by

This is the transition point so to make photos a little more accessible. Hopefully this note will reduce confusion at the risk of creating it instead.

Photos from the road trip west may be found under the Photo Gallery menu West Coast Road Trip 2022 item.

The sidebar will start collecting photos from the Rocky Mountaineer. These are also available in the Photo Gallery menu Rocky Mountaineer 2022 item.