Edmunston, first stop in the Maritimes

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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.

Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving

The first 497.4 km done

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Apple maps predicted 490 km in 5 hours and 3 minutes without stops. The actual 497.3 km took 6 hours and 12 minutes with three stops. All of the stops were at Onroute service centres. The first at Port Hope after a slowish trip through Toronto, the second at Trenton and the third at Odessa. Packing a sandwich for lunch really expedites lunch stops.

Highway 401 does not offer much of interest for photography but there was one head scratcher. As we were progressing eastward after lunch westbound traffic diminished to nothing and then we came upon the answer. Many flashing red, blue and yellow lights. One medium sized truck on the hook of a wrecker, a semi off the road in the ditch to the right of the highway, several OPP vehicles and a trail of debris littering the highway for several hundred metres. We were apparently looking at the aftermath of a fatal accident that happened late last night. I was able to find a news item on this accident. It is a bit ominous to see the highway void of cars.

Tomorrow will be a longer drive along the south side of the St Lawrence river. There may even be something worthy a photo.

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

There’s something about arriving in new cities, wandering empty streets with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I’m born to leave.

Here we go again

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Seems to me that is a song title. As it turns out there are a number of songs with that name but I’m partial to the Ray Charles song. Perhaps I’ll even add this one to my music library. We have that for entertainment on our drives. We also have XM radio to keep us company. One of our favourites is a channel called “Radio Classics” where the host, Greg Bell, rebroadcasts radio shows from the past. Another of our favourites is the comedy of Jeff Foxworthy. Anyone remember these?

After the road trip our journey continues with a couple of cruises on the Emerald Princess from Quebec City to Boston, return. Princess Cruises has gone techie, almost completely. Passengers are provided with an electronic device a little bigger than a quarter which is the key to our passenger stateroom and access to almost everything on the ship. From specialty coffee to shore excursions. We received our medallions in the mail today. They contain all of our personal information needed to authorize our boarding the ship. It was not certain that we would get the Medallions before we departed on the road trip but, surprise, surprise, here they are. For passengers who for some reason wish to display their device Princess sells wrist bands and neck wear into which the Medallion can be installed. The lanyard may not be elegant but it is functional. An interesting contrast is the fact that luggage tags are old technology. They are paper and printed from the computer. Not to worry, We add AirTag technology to our checked baggage.

Thursday morning we start this year’s journey. Our first stop will be Cornwall, for no particular reason other than it is not a long drive. We shall see if we arrive in time to investigate anything of interest. I shall try to find something of photographic interest to publish from Cornwall.

Commenting on posts

Thanks to those of you who have left comments on my initial post of the upcoming trip. I encourage you to make comments. Some of the friends recently added to my subscription list have sent their comments by replying to the email. I do receive them and if you wish the comment to be for my eyes only that is the way to do it. However, adding your comment to the end of the post contributes to everyone’s experience. Here is a bit of a tutorial on sharing your comments. Help adding comments to the post.

You can see small maps of our trip in the first two images along the right side of the home page and many other pages. If you have been to places along our route let us know about them. Clicking on them will enlarge the image.

Please do make comments. Feel free to ask questions. If you have any thoughts about things we could do on our trip, let me know. If you don’t have any comments when the post is first published perhaps return to the previous Journal post to read others comments. Should you wish to share my journal with others you know the subscription form is in the right column. Almost anyone can subscribe to the email distribution.

Viewing Photos

Having mentioned images, don’t overlook the menu bar at the top of the page. In particular, check out the Photo Gallery item. As the trip develops I will post photos almost daily and the most recent should appear along the right edge of the home page, below the maps. If you need any assistance navigating the photos there is a short tutorial available. Help navigating photos.

Horace, The Odes of Horace

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.
(They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.)

One more trip

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This is really a test to determine if my email distribution system is working. I suggest you “click” on the “Read the post” button and continue reading on the web site as the email is only a preview. Should you decide to stay with us I will try to provide a reasonably interesting narrative and a few photos. When you receive this you may decide you do not wish to follow our travels so there is a link associated with the email allowing you to unsubscribe. You won’t hurt my feelings by using it.

Having not used the journal for almost a year I never know what state the site is win after a years worth of software updates to all the pieces that make up a WordPress web site. It was a good thing I did. Things were not working well when I first logged in. Eventually, the problem was traced to my own computer system where my ad blocker was confused and categorized some of the WordPress pages as unwanted popups. Once discovered the solution was quite simple.

We weren’t sure we would be traveling again this year. The Alaska cruise last year was great, the airport experience, not so much. It seems that airport security is in such a state of paranoia that everyone is assumed to be a threat. We decided that any travel this year would be without airports. Since we had one of our granddaughters living with us during her working semester we chose not to travel until she returned to school.These circumstances led us to consider a cruise starting and ending in Quebec City.

Quebec City is within driving distance and we found back to back 10 day cruises between Quebec City and Boston. We found a Princess cruise starting September 27 and returning to Quebec City on October 17. This fit the bill perfectly. We had been using a Travel Agent at CAA Hamilton who, sadly, passed away just before our cruise last fall. We turned to our friends Chris and Marie who recommended a Travel Agent they liked and in no time at all we were booked. After we booked Gail had an idea. Why not start the trip early and do a Maritime road trip before the cruise. I took no convincing and began to plot a route with the major point of interest being the Cabot Trail. As of today accommodation is booked for a leisurely 10 say tour of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick terminating on September 27 at the Quebec City cruise port. Now all we need is good weather.

Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone’s home and backyard.