Canada

Cape Jourimain Lighthouse & Confederation Bridge

/ dadartphotography / Leave a comment
Confederation Bridge_20220713_DAD9841
Cape Jourimain Lighthouse (New Brunswick)
Confederation Bridge_20220713_DAD9837
Becky & Paula pose for a quick photo before fast-walking back to the car to avoid being devoured by mosquitoes. Paula is a friend we enjoyed traveling with. She was part of the caravan group and was always ‘on the search’ for lighthouses.
Confederation Bridge_20220713_DAD9842
An old photo of the original development. All that’s left now is the lighthouse.
Confederation Bridge_20220713_DAD9833
8 mile long Confederation Bridge; opened 1997. It connects two Canadian Provinces (New Brunswick and PEI). There is no cost to cross entering PEI but they get your $50.25 when leaving to go back to ‘the mainland’.

Île Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock National Park: Percé, Quebec

/ dadartphotography / Leave a comment

This was the first point in our trip that I was really overwhelmed and astounded by the natural beauty. I felt like we were part of a “National Geographic” expedition. The town of Perce is similar to Bar Harbor; very touristy. Perce Rock is unique and cool but the boat trip out to Île Bonaventure (Bonaventure Island) Migratory Bird Sanctuary is an experience of being embedded in wild nature. Don’t pass up the boat trip.

Perce Rock and Bonaventure Island_20220708UNTITLED_PANORAMA-1
Percé Rock (Pierced Rock)
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9333
Taken from boat ride to Bonaventure Island
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9619
Lobsters
We had a big Lobster Boil. Lobsters are delicious but a lot of work to get to the meat without the right hardware. We enjoyed having lobster pretty much whenever we wanted and at very reasonable costs. We were getting tired of it by the end of the trip.
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9582
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9580
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9530
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9471
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9460
Video’s from boat and from hike on Bonaventure Island
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9697
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9665
Bonaventure Island_20220709_DAD9671
Northern Gannet’s nesting. Adults have about 70″ wingspan
Birds
Bonaventure Island_20220709UNTITLED_PANORAMA-3
Bonaventure Island_20220709UNTITLED_PANORAMA-4
In 1971, everyone living on Bonaventure Island was evicted (about 36 family’s). Some of the homes are still there.
Bonaventure Island_20220709UNTITLED_PANORAMA-6
Percé Rock from Bonaventure Island
Bonaventure Island_20220709UNTITLED_PANORAMA-5
Boat captain pointed out that Percé Rock looks a bit like a “horse standing in the water, getting a drink”
Horse Drinking
Pizza
Soup

We went exploring little towns along the coast and found a wonderful little restaurant/craft shop. I ordered a pizza and Becky ordered chowder. Both were different than we expected but delicious. Pizza was brie cheese, bacon, and arugula. I wish I had a picture of Jennie’s grilled cheese sandwich. She generously let us taste a bite. Best grilled cheese we’d ever had. I was 67 years old when I learned there is something called “bacon jam”. Brie cheese and bacon jam make an amazing grilled cheese!

Pointe-Au-Pere Lighthouse – Rimouski

/ dadartphotography / Leave a comment
Pointe-au-Pere Lighthouse_20220705_DAD8964
Pointe-Au-Pere Lighthouse. This was our first stop on a ‘travel day’ from Quebec City to the town of Perce and Bonaventure Island (on the very eastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula). July, 2022
Pointe-au-Pere Lighthouse_20220705_DAD8961
Pointe-au-Pere Lighthouse_20220705_DAD8959
Interesting rocks in this area. Many were thinly layered and brittle/crumbling.
Pointe-au-Pere Lighthouse_20220705_DAD8988
Garden and Lighthouse_20220706_DAD8991
Others rocks were smooth and wonderfully patterned – like an expensive pillowcase

Genesis 28:11 describes Jacob using a rock for a pillow. This would have been a great one…

Garden and Lighthouse_20220706_DAD8992
Garden and Lighthouse_20220706_DAD9003
Canadians love their lighthouses. They even build little roadside models of them. Here Jenni & Roni, pose with a model of the lighthouse we will see at our next stop (along the way to Bonaventure Island at Perce).

2022: Eastern Canada & Newfoundland Trip

/ dadartphotography / Leave a comment

(Also called Gaspe & Atlantic Provinces by Adventure Caravans).

In June of 2022, two months after retiring from Schmidt Associates; Becky and I set out on a two month adventure. We took the RV 6,434 miles, over 71 days, from June 19 – August 29, 2022.

We (Duane & Becky) traveled in our 2021 Thor Axis 24.1 RV and Becky’s sister and her partner (Jennie & Roni) traveled in their Winnebago View V RV. We met-up in Indianapolis and traveled together to Niagara Falls and Acadia National Park before joining up with an Adventure Caravan group at “The Pumpkin Patch RV Resort” in Hermon, Maine (near Bangor). There we met a bunch of new friends for 2 months (the 59 day tour package was called “Gaspé & The Atlantic Provinces“. After introductions and a few days prep at “The Pumpkin Patch” we headed north for our first stop; Quebec City.

Map above: the first month’s travels on “the Mainland”

Map Above: the second month’s travels “on the rock” in Newfoundland. The straight black line isn’t accurate because the actual route the ferry took from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Argentia, Newfoundland; curves south under St. Pierre and Miquelon but I couldn’t get it to map the curved ferry route.

There is basically one main road in Newfoundland; The Trans-Canada Highway (1). It goes from Port aux Basques to St. Johns.
The road north on the “Great Northern Peninsula” to St. Anthony is called “The Viking Trail”, Route 430.

Twillingate_20220808_DAD3240
We saw this sign all over Newfoundland. They have terrible roads and they own it. We saw LOTS of potholes. They also haven’t figured out how to transition from a road surface to a bridge surface; anytime there was a bridge we learned to slow way down because there was usually a ledge either up or down at the transition.

We also saw lots of “Beware of Moose” type signs. There are supposedly more moose than people in Newfoundland. We looked for a month and never saw one…

If you want to keep going with posts in chronological order, scroll down a bit until you see Niagara Falls, Buffalo, NY →
click that and following “right arrows” to keep going →