Days 37 - 46

Day 37
September 22, 2010
Montreal

We began today with a Pancake Breakfast put on by our tour staff. The pancakes were accompanied by a Friendship Salad. Each couple on the tour provided 2 or 3 cans, or pieces of fresh fruit. These are combined to make a large fruit salad. After Breakfast, we had a travel meeting for our travel day tomorrow from Montreal to Quebec City. This will be our longest travel day so far, at 178 miles. After the meeting, we had a free day. We went shopping for a few grocery items we needed, then after lunch, we joined with a Canadian couple from London, Ontario and went for a ride in the outskirts of Montreal. We drove to the Richelieu River and drove north through small communities that lined the river. The river was on one side of the road, and the homes were on the opposite side, with vast farm land behind the houses. We drove about 30 miles to the town of Tracy, where we crossed the river and returned down the road on the other side of the river. On this side of the river, all the homes lined the river bank on one side of the road, and the farm land was on the other side of the road. We returned to camp for dinner, then we had a game night. We had two tables where we played Mexican Train.

Day 38
September 23, 2010

Even though we had a long travel day today, the first rigs didn’t leave camp until 9 am. We had to drive through Montreal, and the morning traffic is terrible. To keep rigs spread apart on the road, we depart 3 rigs at a time, every 15 – 20 minutes.. Our drive today followed the western shore of the St. Lawrence River. We drove through several small towns with very narrow roads. At one point, we ran into a detour around a construction project. This detour was very challenging to say the least. It went through a residential area with very narrow roads, with homes built right to the edge of the road. We had to make a right turn. To make the turn, I had to hug the left side of the road, the make a hard right turn. Turning as tight as I could, I still almost hit the stop sign on the other side of the street we were turning on to. If that wasn’t enough, a short way down the road, we had to cross a long narrow bridge. It was probably as wide as 1 ½ lanes of a normal road. As we approached the bridge, we slowed to make sure that no one was coming the other direction. Seeing no one, we proceeded, followed by another motor home and a couple of cars. As we got about ¼ the way on the bridge, a car approached from the other direction. He hesitated, then came onto the bridge. We all pulled over as far as we could, and as this guy approached us, he stopped, and wouldn’t pass us, so we had to continue on. We probably had no more than 8 – 10 inches on either side of the motor home. After everyone arrived in camp and got set up, we had Social time followed by a potluck dinner.


Day 39
September 24, 2010
Quebec City

We had rain almost all night, and it ended up raining all day. Not good for our tour today. We started out at 8:30 this morning for our bus tour of Quebec City. The group was split up into two small busses to make it easier to navigate the small streets. We spent 3 ½ hours seeing the sights through the rain. At 11:00, the busses let us off at the Hotel Fronteac. We were on our own until 2:45 PM. The Hotel is right on the waterfront of the St. Lawrence River. It was 49 deg, raining & windy. We all decided that our best bet was to find a nice restaurant to get out of the weather and eat lunch. Our first choice, seeing that we were at the Hotel, was to go to their restaurant. Fortunately, all the restaurants post their menu outside the door. The cheapest meal on the menu was $24.95 each. We opted to go about a block away and found a very nice restaurant that was a lot more reasonable. After eating a slow lunch, and figuring that they were about ready to kick us out, we decided to leave our comfortable digs and hit the streets, We wondered through several shops. The rain had let up a little. A little before 2:00, we headed back to the hotel and wondered through their shops until it was time for our groups tour of the Hotel Fronteac. At 4:00, our bus picked us up and returned us to the RV Park. Everyone went to their rigs for dinner. At about 7:00, a few of us went up to the Activities room and played Mexican Train.

Day 40
September 25, 2010
Quebec City

Another night of rain, and on and off rain all day. It did get up to 51 deg today, and not much wind. We boarded our bus at 9:30 this morning for a tour of the Beauport area, which is on the west shore of the St. Lawrence River, and North of Quebec City. Our first stop was at the Falls at Mt. Morency. There are two falls. He larger is 272 ft. high, which is 95 ft. higher than Niagara Falls, but they are not as wide. There is a bridge across the falls at the top where we walked out and were able to look down on the falls below us. We had a great view of the St. Lawrence from there, even though it was raining. From the Falls, we went over to Orleans Island. This island sits in the middle of the St. Lawrence, and is 3 miles wide and 22 miles long. There are nine villages on the island. Some are strictly residential areas. Others areas are mainly farms. There is no large commercial activity on the island. There are small grocery stores in each village, along with bakeries, fruit & vegetable stands, etc. We stopped at a small shop that made chocolate candy, and sold sandwiches and Ice Cream. After this stop, we headed back to the mainland and stopped at Arthur Gillis Copper Museum & Boutique. This man was a famous Copper Artisian. He has designed and made items for Many large churches, homes of famous people, and corporations, all over the world. From there, we went to Chez Marie, a small bakery that makes all their own Bread, Rolls, Muffins, etc. We were given a chance the day we got here, to order bread from this bakery. The bread is baked in a wood fired oven outside. The bakery is in a building that was built in the 1650’s. The lady baked our bread this morning, and it was ready for us when we arrived. Our last stop was at the Sainte Anne de Beaupre Basilica. This was huge. The main Sanctuary seats 2200 people. It was very pretty. There are also two smaller chapels in this building, that are below the Main Sanctuary. One of them was also huge. Don’t know how many people it seats, but it looks like several hundred. From here, we returned to the RV Park.


Day 41
September 26, 2010
Quebec City

We started out today with an omelet breakfast put on by our tour staff. After breakfast, we had our travel meeting for tomorrows travel day to New Hampshire. The rest of the day was free time up to 5:15 pm. Although we didn’t have any rain today, it was cold, windy and cloudy. The high temperature was 51 deg. A lot of folks did laundry or just relaxed. We took a drive through some areas that we hadn’t been to yet. Along the way, we drove past a shopping center where a fire department ladder truck was pumping water out the nozzle on the ladder. As we got closer, we saw cars driving through the spray. Then as they drove further, other firefighters were using fire hoses and washing the cars in an assembly line fashion. They were dressed out in full turnouts. Turns out, these were actually Firefighters in Training, earning money for charity. We then went back to the rig and relaxed for a while, then at 5:15, we gathered and car pooled to the Concorde hotel by Old Quebec City for dinner in a rotating restaurant on the 26th floor. We had a great view of the Old City and the St. Lawrence River. During our time there, we made one full revolution. What was day light when we started was dark when we ended.

Day 42
September 27, 2010

Today, we traveled from Quebec City, Quebec to Colebrook, New Hampshire. When we started out, it was 48 deg., and cloudy. As the day warmed up, it got up to 66 deg., the warmest in a while. We actually had quite a bit of sunshine as the day went on. The further south we came, the more the fall colors were showing there stuff. Every where you looked, as far as the eye could see were many shades of green, gold, yellow, and red. We passed through customs and after the usual round of questions, the agent wanted to look inside the motorhome, in one of the basement cabinets, and in the back of the Saturn. This is a small and not very busy border crossing, with two agents, so they apparently do more in depth inspections than the busier crossings. After arriving at the RV Park in Colebrook, we got set up, and once everyone had arrived, we had social time with a campfire. Unfortunately, it began to rain after about an hour, so every one picked up and headed for their rigs. It looks like we are in for more rain every day this week.


Day 43
September 28, 2010
Colrbrook, NH

Today was a light activity day. As there was nothing planned this morning, a lot of the group took the opportunity to sleep in. A few took rides around the area. It was warmer this morning than it has been, which was nice, but we still had a cloud cover. At noon, we all carpooled over to the Balsams Hotel for lunch. This is a very exclusive hotel that sits on the shore of a small lake, and has a backdrop of the hills, where the colors are rapidly changing. We had a fantastic Buffet Lunch. This hotel is where the first voting occurs for Presidential Elections. We were able to visit the room where this voting takes place. After lunch, we took a ride along the Androscoggin River in eastern New Hampshire. It was a very pretty drive through the forest of Fall Colors. After the drive, we returned to camp. We had our usual social time while it was trying to rain. We also had our travel meeting for tomorrows drive down to Twin Mountains, NH.

Day 44
September 29, 2010
Twin Mountain, NH

Today was a travel day, but a short one. We traveled only 58 miles from Colebrook, NH to Twin Mountain, NH. We were all at our destination by 10:30, AM. After lunch, we all went into the town of Littleton, NH, where we visited Chutters, which has the longest Candy counter in the US. They also have other souviner type items for sale. We then walked through town to the Grist Mill on the Ammonoosuc River. The rest of the day was free time. We have paired up with a very nice Canadian couple. We both needed to do some shopping, so we went to Wal-Mart. Our Printer crashed, so we bought a new one. After shopping, we took a short drive along the Ammonoosuc River. When then decided to pass on this evenings social time and went out to dinner. After we returned to the RV park and played Candy Bar Bingo with the group. The prizes were candy bars.


Day 45
September 30, 2010
Twin Mountain, NH

Today, we traveled to several locations in the Littleton, NH area. The bad news was that about the time we left to RV Park, it began to rain. This is part of a storm that is expected to drop 4 – 5 inches of rain today and tomorrow. Our first stop was Polly’s Pancake House for breakfast. We had a choice of four different items. After a great breakfast, we went to Sugar Hill, NH where we visited a museum of local history. Then, we went to Hammond Cheese. From there, we went to Bath, NH, where they have a large covered bridge. There was also an Ice Cream shop where quite a few of us stopped. Our last stop of the day was to The Rocks Estate. This 1400 acre estate was built in the 1880’s. They hired a landscape architect to lay out the farm. This is the same Architect that designed Central Park in New York City, and also the Sherburne Farm in Vermont that we visited earlier. The farm is now owned by an Environmental Preservation Society. They conduct animal and plant studies. It is also an educational center. Fortunately, all our activities were inside, so we only had to deal with the rain when getting to and from the car. After returning to the RV Park we had dinner, then several of us went up to the club house to play Mexican Train.

Day 46
October 1, 2010
Twin Mountain, NH

Over night, the rain was not too bad, but we had a lot of wind. As we were getting ready for today’s activities, the Wagon Master called to say that everything was off for today, as is has started to pour, and is supposed to last all day. Most everyone just stayed in their rigs, but a few ventured out for lunch or shopping. We had our usual social time and discussed plans for the next few days. We were supposed to travel on Sunday, but every one voted to stay where we are until Tuesday, and skip the campground we were going to on Sunday. Both travel days were short drives, so the one drive will only be about 80 miles. This way, we will be able to do the activities that we missed today. After the meeting, we had a potluck, On this evenings news, they said that the town of Bath had flooding yesterday afternoon and they shut down the covered bridge that we drove through yesterday morning. The rain has pretty much stopped as we are getting ready for bed, and it’s supposed to be mostly clear tomorrow.