Friday, September 10, 2021

Home from PEI after a great trip

Approaching the PEI bridge to New Brunswick


Remnants from the Ida storm gave us, and a lot of other people on PEI, a few wet windy days, unfortunately spoiling the Labour Day holiday weekend for a lot of people. Luckily for us retirees, every weekend is a long weekend.

On Thursday afternoon Ida dropped record rainfalls on PEI. One of the heaviest areas was where we had recently been camped in Cavendish on the North Shore National Park. We were sure glad to be under cover at Cathie's sister's place in town!

Full (normally dry) ditch in foreground, road in the background, from N&P's porch

After Thursday and Friday the weekend continued with light rains off and on. We had some good family times until starting for home on Tuesday.

Covid screening still active upon PEI entry

Over the Bridge to New Brunswick, Adieu PEI

A stop at a much older bridge at Hartland NB

It's almost 1/4 mile long, over the St John river


 

We had arranged to camp with my cousin Alan and his wife Ruth in a campground in Riviere Du Loup Quebec. They are on their way on a trip around the Gaspe peninsula, and we were able to coordinate an overnight visit during our respective travels:


Alan and Ruth's truck camper

The park had one nice spot for a view out over the St Lawrence river:


 

Our travels on Wednesday had mostly good weather, with a few showers interspersed. Our target was Perth Ontario, for a visit and overnight stay with my sister Beth and her husband Sandy. We made it, with (as usual) some traffic issues getting around Montreal. Rain, construction and heavy traffic (yes, on a Wednesday morning about 11 am) gave us a few scary moments, but we made it through ok. No pictures of that though, just an earlier one along the way:

A nice partial rainbow

Once through Quebec we stopped in Lancaster Ont as usual, to fuel up the van and ourselves. Then we continued with a much nicer drive through rural eastern Ontario to Perth.

Along the way we saw a sign for a Hill 70 Memorial, so we stopped to have a look.  Hill 70 was the site of a WW1 battle between Canadian and German troops. There is a newer memorial at the battle site in France, and also this one , here in the little town of Mountain Ont, a very tasteful memorial in a 22 acre town park:


We also stopped at the Upper Nicholson Lock on the Rideau canal, a very pleasant spot for a visit on a nice (now) sunny day:







We've become more interested in canals recently due to watching several Youtube videos on Narrowboats, a very nice antidote to most of the news these days. If you're at all interested in something like slow-paced RVing on the water, just do a Youtube search for "narrowboats", you're sure to find something you like.

We did make it ok to my sister's place for our short visit. Beth is currently laid up with a broken kneecap (ouch!) but is getting around well on only one crutch now.

We decided to avoid Toronto for the final stage home, so took a northern route (the Day 3 map below). It took a bit longer, but we were glad to skip the usual Toronto 401 zoo, and very relieved (and tired) to be home. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip as usual, visiting far-flung relatives has been made extra special these days.

Homeward bound, Day 1:


Day 2:


Day 3:







 

4 comments:

  1. Another nice memory trip for you folks under your belts. Always nice to be home too. I don't blame you for detouring around Toronto. We have been known to do the same thing many times.

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  2. Sorry UR last few days were wet ones!!!
    Good to be away ,,,but Nice to be home,,,,and glad u got to visit family,,,
    A nicer ,longer trip around lake Simcoe but worth it,,,,

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  3. Sounds like you had a great time in PEI. Glad the Covid stuff is over enough you can head out there camping. I see your typical long days driving, glad you have the energy for it!

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  4. Good to have you back in Ontario safe and sound!

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