June 13, 2006

June 13, 2006

Edmundston, New Brunswick to Pont Rouge ( Quebec City ), Quebec

YEAR 2 DAY 361

 

Today was sunny and mild.

This morning I took Bo for an obedience walk, then we prepared for departure from Camping Saint-Basile. We drove into Edmundston, and found our way to an RV parts dealer that we had directions to. Not an RV dealer, just RV parts. An old shop, run by an old man, in an old town. He wrote all invoices manually. I was in there for about half an hour. He had none of the 4 items I needed. While waiting for me, Joanne noticed that we were parked behind the Red Cross. She took the opportunity to get rid of a pile of unwanted items, donating them to the Red Cross Thrift Shop.

We drove north on TCH 2, which became TCH 185 when we crossed into the province of Quebec. The landscape changed to rolling pastures, and dairy farms. Shortly after we entered the province of Quebec, we found a fromagerie, a small, boutique cheese maker, near the village of Notre Dame du Lac. WOO-HOO ! Fresh Quebecois cheese curds ! So fresh they squeak when you bite them. We love fresh Quebecois cheese curds.

We passed through the village of "St. Louis du Ha! Ha!". What the hell kind of name is "St. Louis du Ha! Ha!"? ? ? There must be a story behind that, n'est-ce pas ?

A short distance later we stopped at a grocery store in the town of Cabano. It is such a joy to shop for groceries in Quebec. Such great selection of items rarely seen elsewhere. Fresh croissants, pâtés, tourtières, tarte au sûcre ( sugar pie ... bought one ! ) quiches, lots of great cheeses. Quebec has a great dairy / cheese industry. And they're not afraid to eat well. Well, not exactly well, but certainly "rich". While Joanne put away the groceries, I made a couple of phone calls. First I called Dorel Industries in Montreal to see if I could get a part. I have a product of theirs from which I lost a part. Then I phoned Forest River in Goshen, Indiana, the manufacturer of Harvey. I wanted to inquire about the availability and cost of two new fibreglass panels to replace the two damaged by yesterday's exploding tire. Both companies were going to call me back later.

We continued north on TCH 185. At Saint-Antonin, I stopped at an RV dealer ( again ) still looking for the 4 items I needed, the most important of which was a new tire. They had only one of the 4 items I needed, but ... they had an item that I long ago gave up looking for, because nobody had it, and I believed it was no longer available. When we reached the south shore of the St. Lawrence River at Rivière-du-Loup, we turned west on TCH 20.

We had lunch in a very nice rest area on the highway. Quebec does not have a lot of suitable campgrounds for overnighters / travellers, but they do a real good job of putting nice rest areas frequently along the highways. I stopped at Canadian Tire in Montmagny to see if they had the correct size of trailer tire. They did not, but they directed me to a nearby tire shop. At Pneus Ouellet I finally got the right size, right load range tire. And it was only the sixth place I looked !

My nerves were raw today. I reacted, and over reacted, badly to today's small stressors. Often I have a bit of a delayed reaction to large stressors, like yesterday's exploding tire incident. I deal with a big problem quite well at the time, then melt down and deal very poorly with small matters afterwards. Today was like that. Sorry, Joanne.

We continued west on TCH 20 to Quebec City, then crossed over to the north side of the St. Lawrence at Quebec City. We're going to try approaching and crossing Montreal on the north side, to see if it's any easier or better than the south side. Once we crossed the St. Lawrence, we found our way to our chosen campground, Camping Un Air d'Été in the Quebec City suburb of Pont Rouge. We got set up in our campsite, then I wanted to be outdoors for awhile, to soak up some sun, and hopefully improve my feelings.

I chatted with the couple who pulled into the campground right in front of us. They are from Ottawa, and remember meeting me as the campground host last summer at West Hawk Lake. I barbecued supper. We took Bo for a long walk around the campground. We had a tennis ball play session with Bo. He, too, was suffering from too much rain, too much time indoors, not enough sunlight and not enough outdoor time lately.

I got bit by a small bug that left a noticeable hole in the back of my hand, with a swollen white spot the size of a dime around the bite, like a large "hive", and white swelling up and down a vein for an inch in each direction. Ouch ! While Joanne wentto do a load of laundry, I did today's accounting and journal entry. A couple of hours later, the back of my hand was red and puffy. Vile little insect !

DSK