Saint John - finally!

Tuesday 15th September
Phone discussions with André our friendly tow truck driver and now the guy who’s going to fix the Subaru’s transmission, inform us that reconditioned transmissions are hard to find but a used one with a year’s warranty is easily available. More phone calls to the warranty company, a trip back to the garage in John and Réjeanne’s car and the mechanic has the go-ahead and all we have to do is wait.

Wednesday 16th September
It was a beautiful day and John and Réjeanne were eager to take us into the city. By the time we got there it was time for lunch at L’Antiquaire, a very popular spot with down to earth Quebec cuisine.


Afterwards we took a look at where they kept their sailboat Bilbo (at an amazingly low cost) in a marina right downtown in Quebec City.

We took a walk along the boardwalk

by the Chateau Frontenac

With a spectacular view over the lower town and river.

We ended the day trip with a drive back along the river and a stop-in at a beer store with more kinds of beer than you could imagine. This is just one isle of many.

Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th September
We worked on sorting the RV and finances while John and Réjeanne worked on their house, specifically their kitchen which they were feverishly remodeling. Evenings were spent eating and drinking wine together, watching movies and old Dick Cavett shows with the likes of Janis Joplin.

Sunday 20th September
After a couple of days of rain, good weather was forecast for the Sunday so off we went in John and Réjeanne’s car to visit one of their favourite places on the North Shore. This is one of several (very shallow) inlets.

They have been to Cap-à-l'Aigle many times both on the boat and also camping near this little gem of a marina (one of very few).

Wherever there are rocks to rest a camera on you must have a group photo.

Monday 21st September
It was a week now since dropping the car off for repair and we did hope it might be ready – not yet!

Tuesday 22nd September
Another anxious day waiting for a call about the car but no it was still a work in progress. I was getting worried. It wasn’t at a Subaru dealer, just a small garage and we were wondering how competent the guy was to work on what is rather a unique automatic car transmission.

Wednesday 23rd September
Around 9 in the morning we got a call to say the car was ready so John drove us the hour or so back towards Montreal to pick it up.

Thankfully it was fixed just fine and the majority of the cost was covered by the insurance we took out when we bought the car.

One last night of merriment at John and Réjeanne’s.

Thursday 24th September.
We finally said our goodbyes (we will see them again in Indiantown, Florida in December) and struggled out of there close to noon. After filling up with gas and dropping by a free dump station we were on our way, finally, to New Brunswick.

To celebrate our wedding anniversary we dropped into the Cap Martin restaurant

for our favourite pizza. We’ve dropped in just about every time we’ve driven past, since Carol’s sister and her son discovered it in a snow storm one winter.
Using our Passport America membership we booked into the campsite in Notre-Dame-Du-Lac just before you leave Quebec for New Brunswick.

We got a spot right by the lake just before the sun went down. Lake Témiscouata is quite large (enough to have a ferry across it) and is quite beautiful.

Friday 25th September
Part of the reason of our timing in going to New Brunswick when we did is because Carol’s nephew and his wife were due to have a baby around the middle of September. Of course it was bound to happen before we got there with our week’s delay. When I logged on to the net there was an email from Tim, my brother-in-law, announcing the birth of his grandson the previous evening. Nathan James Place came into this world at 9lbs 15oz - whew!

After a beautiful sunny drive alongside the Saint John River we met Jean and Tim in downtown Saint John and they drive to the hospital to see mother Kim, proud father Teddy and baby.

Grand Aunty Carol was very pleased to hold the little (?) fella.

Afterwards, it was back to the Place’s driveway and The Big Easy’s resting place for a month or so.

Horses, storage and off to Quebec

Tuesday 18th August
We said our goodbyes to Fifth Depot Lake and Sandy (Ellen had left for Ottawa the night before). Ira and Ann intended to drive off in the direction of Toronto as they do each summer, while we headed east to work on our storage issues. So it was goodbye for a while to those two also.

Before heading to the storage compound we dropped in on Richard and Sarah in Prospect for a couple of nights.

Thursday 19th August to Saturday 29th August
It’s back to sorting our belongings in an attempt to rid ourselves of stuff we don’t need anymore and reduce our storage costs.

South of Ottawa, every Sunday there’s a flea market (Mc Haffie’s) where you can rent tables to put your stuff on. So our goal was to find as much stuff as possible to put up for sale.

Sunday 30th August
6 a.m. and we’re up and at it to finish loading the roof of the car with furniture and head down the highway to the flea market. It costs 25 bucks to rent a spot and 2 bucks a table which we easily covered with all our junk, especially after making a second trip to get more.

We were parked next to Fran DesLoges, a very nice lady who was selling dolls and things that fetched amazingly high prices.

The weather co-operated for the first part of the day but deteriorated in the late afternoon when we got a total downpour and were completely soaked for the ride home.

At the end of the day we’d made a grand total of $53 profit (excluding travel costs) but we did get rid of a lot of excess things.

Monday 31st August
A day of recovery and unloading all the things we didn’t sell.

Tuesday 1st September
At least once a week, it’s necessary to dump our waste products and fill up with fresh water. Rather than pay $15 just for that privilege of pumping out, for a few dollars more we prefer to stay in the camp site for the night. So we headed over there for a night of luxuries like heating and showers.

We also had our friends Richard Felicity over for an extended lunch.

Wednesday 2nd September
Instead of heading back to the storage, we are headed off to Smiths Falls to take advantage of an invite to Lena and Peter Hill’s farm. Carol met Lena at Telemus where they both worked when we moved to Ottawa from Montreal. They lived in Kanata all those years raising their kids, Shannon and Ryan, while dreaming of moving out to the country.


They have 50 plus acres of trees and grassy land with horses

and everything you would want in a country setting.

We parked The Big Easy next to the horse paddock and settled out on the grass for afternoon refreshment with the Hills.


Thursday 3rd September
Time to saddle-up once more and go horse riding. Carol declined the offer but Lena and I rode round the property for a couple of hours.


It's been a while sonce I rode and I paid for it over the next few days.


Peter works at GDC where I used to work many years ago. However, he's taken to the gentleman farmer role as though born to it.


To round out the day I got a ride on their ATV and also got to tear up the scenery solo.


In addition to the horses they have two beautiful cats - one of them shown below. Riley was too skittish to photograph.


They also heat the house with a wood stove. However, not like any wood stove we've seen before.


It heats the house via a boiler that circulates hot water to the house through underground pipes.

Friday 4th September
Time to move on back to the storage area, so it's goodbye to the Hills and on down the road.

Saturday 5th September
A day of sorting out what we're going to try and sell at the next flea market.

Sunday 6th September
Up early once again and down Hwy 31 to Morrisburg and McHaffie's flea market.
This time it's a holiday weekend and the weather is great.


However, at the end of the day we did about as well as the previous week.

Monday 7th September
The great sort-out continues.

Tuesday 8th September
Back to the camp-site again for the usual ablutions.


Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th September
Time to build some shelving so we can move what's left of one of our storage lockers into one half the size.

Friday 11th September
Only a few days left now before we planned to leave to go east so we head off to Richard and Sarah's to park in their driveway, collect our mail and say goodbye.

Saturday 12th September
Back to the storage (by car) one last time to finish moving things into our new condensed space.


Sunday 13th September
Finally time to leave Ontario and head to Carol's sister's place in New Brunswick so with The Big Easy in the lead and Carol following on with the Subaru we lumber on down the road to Montreal and our first stop at Ken and Cheryl's.

When Ken checked with the city about parking the RV in the road he was told that was not permitted. We would never have fitted The Big Easy on their half of the driveway but fortunately they have a good relationship with their neighbours and once they'd moved their car on to the street we had room.



Monday 14th September
Onward again to Quebec City where we have an invite from John and Rejeanne who we met while sailing down south last winter.

However, things were not to go that smoothly. When we were about fifty kilometres from Quebec City on the north side of the St. Laurence we pulled off the autoroute to a gas station and rest stop. Carol said she thought there was something wrong with the car and when I checked it out sure enough there was something seriously wrong with the transmission.

What to do? Carol had the presence of mind to check our Good Sam RV roadside assistance to see if it covered our cars too. Yes it does, so we called for a tow truck which hauled it out to a local garage that confirmed that this was no minor problem.

We left the car there and continued on in the RV to John and Rejeanne and the driveway of their newly purchased home and a warm welcome.


We suspect we might be here quite a bit longer than expected.