Saturday - September 15, 2007

Thanks everyone for the e-mails and phone calls wishing me a happy birthday, it was good to hear from everyone. We want to wish our new friend Jim a happy birthday today as he and I share the same birth day.

Wow what a difference in weather today! Last night it got really windy then started to rain during the night and this morning was one cold, wet, miserable morning and it stayed like that till mid afternoon. It poured rain the whole time we were driving and was quite foggy in spots, not much good for sightseeing. We arrived in Levis about 3 p.m. and just when we got here the rain stopped, the sky cleared and the sun actually came out – figures it would get nice when we get here but not for the drive!

After we got settled I got caught up a bit on my e-mail, blog etc. then we went out and picked up a few groceries and then went out for dinner. When we were here in July we found a really nice restaurant so went back again tonight – John had pizza and I had a Thai Chicken Stir Fry - yummy.

La Martre

Riviere au Renard

Tour Boats Around Rock

Friday - September 14, 2007

Today was another gorgeous day - very sunny but it was quite cool while driving – at one point it was 8C on the truck thermometer but then when we stopped later this afternoon it was 21C – go figure.

We had a very pretty, scenic drive, lots of ups and downs, then we would come into a bay and there would be a very pretty town spread out around the bay. After an hour or so of driving west on the south shore of the St. Lawrence we got to a point where the road ran along the base of the mountains right at river level – we were between the mountain and the river - beautiful.

We stopped for the night just west of Matane, so it will be a good run tomorrow to Levis. This park has wi-fi but we couldn’t get logged on using the Mac, I switched to the Windows part on my computer and could get on the internet but all my pictures and diary are on the Mac so I couldn’t update my blog. I did check e-mail etc. but no postings tonight.

Linda, Jim, Steve & Cheryl

Linda, Cheryl and I on Boat

Bonaventure Island

Seal

Another View of Perce Rock

Thursday - September 13, 2007

Today was a gorgeous day, the wind died down a bit, it was still windy but at least it was sunny so what more could we ask for.

Steve, Cheryl, Linda & Jim arrived just after 11 and they were really impressed with our spot here and the view, thought we had a real good one! John barbecued hamburgers and chicken burgers for lunch then we all headed into town and got a boat tour of Perce Rock and Bonaventure Island. There was a real good swell so it was a fun ride and on the far side of Bonaventure Island we saw a lot of seals and thousands of birds – quite a sight. Cheryl was saying that in the summer when the tide is out you can walk from town out to Perce rock and around, today didn’t look like a good day for a walk like that, the waves were rolling up on the rock pretty good.

John, Cheryl & Steve got off on Bonaventure Island to go hiking for a bit and Jim, Linda and I came back to Perce and did some shopping, had a coffee then came back to the trailer to wait for the hikers to return – all in all a really fun day. It was sad to say goodbye to them but hopefully we will meet up again somewhere. Jim & Linda go to California for the winter and are planning on going to Yuma next year when they leave California so we will be looking forward to seeing them there, Steve & Cheryl have a daughter who has just moved to London so hopefully we can meet up again when they visit London.

Tonight is really cold, down in the 40’s – brrrr!!!! Sure hope this doesn’t last too long as I am not ready for it!

Perce Rock

Trailer and View at Perce

Wednesday, - September 12, 2007

Well, the rain stopped but it sure was windy today. We left New Carlisle for Perce and had a good drive, we are now at Parc du Phere Perce, and boy do we have a view!! This is the first time we have wished we had a rear living room as our bedroom window overlooks the town of Perce and Perce Rock – a million dollar view.

After we got settled we drove around town, stopped at the library to use the internet, checked out the Visitor’s Centre, boat tours etc., stopped at the grocery store and then came back and did laundry – boring eh!

The wind has finally died down and hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day.

Tuesday - September 11, 2007

Well the clear sky last night didn’t last, today was one real crummy day – cold, wet and rainy – not a day to do too much.

Cheryl, Steve, Linda and Jim came to the trailer around 12:30 and we ended up just sitting here visiting and then Steve & Cheryl took us all out for dinner – we went to a nice restaurant in town and had a really good dinner – I had the special which was trout and really tasty. After dinner we went back to the cottage for the evening.

Tomorrow we are heading for Perce as the weather is supposed to be so-so but nice on Thursday so we decided the so-so day would be a good one to move on to Perce then have a nice day Thursday to do sightseeing. Cheryl, Steve, Linda and Jim are doing Perce on Thursday so we are planning on meeting up with them again.

Monday - September 10, 2007

Well, the nice weather is over, today was cloudy, rainy and very cool; we had rain off and on the whole drive to New Carlisle but fortunately it stopped shortly before we got here and didn’t rain again but stayed overcast.

A few weeks ago, shortly after we decided we would do the Gaspe on the way home, we had an e-mail from Steve and Cheryl (they live in White Rock, B.C.), who we had met our first year in Arizona, and it turns out that they would be here in New Carlisle at the same time as we would be going through so we arranged to meet up with them here for a couple of days. This is Cheryl’s home town so they come back every year for a couple of weeks holidays.

As we were driving into town we saw Cheryl walking down the street so pulled over and chatted for a minute. We told her we would go to the park in town and get set up then come back and see them. We are set up at Moulin Rouge Park right on the water looking out over Baie Chaleur. We went to their cottage and they have friends from B.C. also visiting so we had a really nice visit and dinner with them. It was great to see them again and as we said who would have believed that we would meet again in the Gaspe. Steve and Cheryl have a daughter who just moved to London in August so hopefully next year we can meet up again when they come to London to visit. They have a son in Montreal so leave their VW campervan at his place, then fly into Montreal every year, pick up the van and travel around a bit – great way to see this side of Canada.

When we left their place about 10 there were a lot of stars and it had cleared off so we could see across the bay to where we had stayed at Beresford, NB last night. Could tomorrow be nice?

We are now back on Ontario time so no more having to worry about the time difference when calling home.

Sunday - September 9, 2007

Today was another nice sunny day, but the high only reached 18, quite a difference from yesterday. Tonight we are at Beresford, which is just a bit north of Bathurst, N.B., we are in a park with a bit of a view out over the Bay of Chaleur – quite pretty.

Today was one of those days when we found it hard to get moving so it was after 11 when we got away from Amherst, the drive here was mainly on 2 land roads but was good, sometimes there was a fair bit of traffic and then other times it was quite light. One of our big complaints about traveling in Canada is finding a place to pull over for lunch or a washroom break, we have found that closed weigh stations are good and today we stopped for lunch at a church which had a large parking lot, but you really have to keep your eyes open for places to pull over.

After we got set up today we went for a walk around the park, it seems like it is quite a busy place but fortunately the summer is over and it is fairly quiet right now. The seasonal sites are very close together, certainly there is no privacy, it sure makes Green Acres look really nice. We tried to walk down by the water but it was too wet and boggy. There was really nothing to take a picture of so no pictures for today.