the fortress of art
categories: edmundston or bust
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beards
categories: edmundston or bust
Sporting my traditional [insert city name here] or Bust beard I came across an article in a Brooklands Road Test Book - Volkswagen Bus-Camper-Van, which contains reprints of old automotive magazines reviews, that made me laugh. This is taken from the March 1970 issue of World Wide Car Guide from the article titled 1970 VW Bus… Practical for 7.Â
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Bus and Campmobile owners soon acquire downshifting skills, patience, and a talent for ignoring those behind them on the highway. And for some reason the odds are at least even that the head of the bus-owning household will acquire or already has beard. If you don’t believe this, count them the next time you’re out for a drive. The purchase of one of these vehicles is a form of escape or rebellion, if you will, from the hurly-burly, as much so as a farm in Vermont or a shanty on the desert, and perhaps that accounts for the beards.
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Looking at self in mirror… How true this is even 35 years later.Â
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destination: home
categories: edmundston or bust
Trip Photo Blog (constantly updated)Â
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Before leaving Quebec we decided to stop off at one last park for the night. We chose La Mauricie - a national park. It reminded me a lot of Algonquin Park in Ontario, a mix of interior and tent/trailer sites. It was a short drive there - barely enough time for Alex to have his nap!Â
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On the recommendation of the park check-in guy (I think his name was Alain) we decided to explore the park a bit before settling at our site. Sidebar: The one crappy thing about any RV is that once you set up camp, you’re pretty much there until you leave - unless you’re towing a car or other mode of transport behind you - all we have in Buddy in Alex’s umbrella stroller, whihc won;t fit the three of us. We took a short hike to see some moose and a long winding drive up a hill to the highest spot in the park. No moose, bears (there was a warning posted at the entrance), dear or any other 4 legged wildlife to be seen, until… later that evening.Â
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We found our site and set up camp. As usual there were only 4-5 other campers in the park. There was a super-cool playground for Alex right beside the washrooms, so we let him have some fun while we relaxed. We contemplated spending two days at Mauricie, not do do or see anything, but to just relax - being on the road everyday and setting up/packing up was getting to be tiresome. Instead, we decided to keep going, but come back one day early.Â
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The bear warning had us a bit worried so we made sure the campsite was “secure” before we went to bed. I took our garage to the bin at the entrance (thought it might be safer than keeping it in the bus). Opening up the large green bin I was startled to see a racoon had taken up residence inside - it was about two feet away from me starting at me as if to say “Hey who turned on the lights?”. It was probably in paradise.Â
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On Wednesday we were off to Ottawa. Our second visit with Kif didn’t really work out all that well. She had to work late Wednesday night to write a speech for her boss, and didn’t make it home until 9:45pm. We deciced to just hang out in the Byward Market and walk around. We ended up at Kif’s at 7:30pm, let ourselves in and hung out with her cats Bucky and Jojo. Alex loves Bucky, and insisted on chasing him around until he could give him a big hug. Â
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We managed to catch the first episode of the Apprentice: Martha Stewart before putting Alex to bed. Ahhh, TV. I’ve missed you. Sorry for the summer of neglect, but now that you have all new episodes for serve up we’ll be best friends again. Around this time I knew the vacation was over. Any chance of camping out near Kingston, spreading the Ottawa to Guelph drive over two days was dead. Thursdays destination would be home!Â
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And so it was. We pit stopped at MEC on the way out of Ottawa, grabbed some fresh bread for P+J sandwiches in the bus, and pointed Buddy towards Guelph. 6 hours later we were home, having seem more of Canada and understanding more of what it was to be Canadian. We checked two more provinces off the list - we’ll be back to the east coast soon to see the others.Â
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Where are Alex, Julia, Chris and Buddy off to next? Not sure yet, but you’ll be the first to know.Â
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rachel
categories: edmundston or bust
Trip Photo Blog (constantly updated)Â
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[guest editor - Julia]Â
We entered Quebec City without much of a plan, figuring that we’d find le vieux Quebec and the Chateau Frontenac fairly easily. Good thing was that this was true. We took one of the main roads in, and were surprised to find that Quebec City has a lot of nice trees and even the more modern part has a nice feel (for the most part). Then we arrived in Old Quebec City, and were instantly enamoured with its old old old buildings, the narrow streets, the hills and basically the overall vibe.Â
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We found the Chateau and were not disappointed. Of all of the old Fairmont hotels we’ve stayed at (thanks Trish), this was the nicest. It has a grand lobby with nice old paintings on the ceiling, and lots of good details that you just don’t see anymore and would be impossible to reproduce today.. The outside made it look like a fortress into itself, and the antique wall lights and vaulted brickwork in the passageways outside transported you back in time.Â
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After a quick break, and fix of high-speed internet where we posted our last blog posting, we set out to see some stuff. A few of the streets are cobblestone, giving Alex a fun bumpy ride in his stroller. From the sound of his giggles, he didn’t seem to mind. There are lots of horses and carriages for hire, making Alex exclaim in his loudest voice, “DA!” He now does the same thing when he reads his book, getting all excited on the horse page. Ducks, fishes, horses. These are Alex’s favourite animals.Â
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Ok, back to Quebec city. It’s very touristy, and as a result, everyone is pretty bilingual, which was a good surprise. We had some dinner, Alex is in a “highchairs are for babies, and don’t try to feed me unless it rocks” phase, so that has made for lots of interesting (not so relaxing) dinners. Afterwards we walked around some more, there are lots of shops to look into, and lots of great outdoor art, in the most surprising places. Tiny alleyways are fronted with modern sculpture, and tiny sculptures are affixed to great old buildings. Window boxes full of plants are everywhere. It’s just a little thing, but it added a lot to the feel of the streetscape. [Guelph has a program like this, to encourage window boxes, but it’s not used nearly enough.] Chris took a lot of photos of the architecture, and urban spaces. The 4′ door heights can’t be described aptly enough in words.Â
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On our second day, we got crepes a the Maison du Crepes, near the hotel. I got a vibe that Alex’s toddler antics weren’t that appreciated, so we ate pretty quick, and then left. Next time we’re in Quebec, we’ll find a nicer place, with better crepes. As it was only 9am, we walked around the fortress walls, ending at le Citadel, which is an operating military base. We took the tour, and had a fun hour or so exploring, and seeing the great views from the cannon outposts. Alex really loved the tour as well, he even gave our guide a little wooden stick to keep as a souvenir. We met the largest cannon at the fort named Rachel.Â
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We walked around some more, Alex slept in the stroller, giving us a well-deserved quiet lunch at St. Patrick’s Pub. We did some more looking around and then headed back to the hotel for a break, another nap for Alex, and then some swimming in the hotel’s lovely indoor pool. There was a little girl there, and Alex, (Mr. Fearful of large water) loved this, she blew water at him, and he thought that this was a riot. He even jumped in from the edge. We all had fun, and then we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner… Alex though was tired, and fell asleep on the bed. We had to pry him out 2 hrs later, as it was 7:30 and we were starving. [Alex has not had 3 naps in one day in about a year, so we think it was catchup for all of the car naps that got cut short.] We had intended on going on a carriage ride, thinking that Alex would love this, but after dinner, he was tired again, so we called it a night. There will be other horses, other times.Â
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With Mr. Sleepy-head / dry-in-bed-after-swimming-crazy-hair-head in tow, we headed out into Quebec City at night. It was again beautiful, but a new experience to see the lights and a beautiful orange harvest moon. We got some food, were underwhelmed, as we could have probably chosen a better restaurant, and then headed back to the hotel, as it was getting late.Â
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On our final morning, we went all out and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. They have a really nice buffet, that we caught the tail end of. Alex enjoyed the high chair, for the most part, and sorted his fruits out from his grains, and ate some of the food in his bowl, speaking to us in the best French he could muster.Â
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In our excitement about old Quebec, we didn’t even get to see anything outside the city walls, other than the drive in and out, but it’s a place that we’ll definitely visit again. It ranks in the top 5 of all the Canadian cities we’ve visited.Â
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du reford au bic
categories: edmundston or bust
Trip Photo Blog (constantly updated)Â
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Before we stopped in Rimouski, we decided to visit Reford Gardens. I’m not one for flowers, but this was a garden like no other. What started out as “summer home” gardens for Elsie and Robert Reford in the 1920s have evolved into a gallery of traditional and modern landscape architecture. Most tourist gardens tend to be ‘old-school’, but the Reford Gardens is the best of both old an new. The old - luscious landscapes, with deep greens and bright colour accents from rare and indigenous plants. The new - abstract expressions of human build form and nature juxtaposed in what could easily be called modern art. It was all quite amazing. Â
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Alex loved it. He walking around in the wooded gardens, over bridges and in the old family summer home. We were always ahead or behind a seniors tour - so he quickly became the centre of attention. To him the modern gardens probably looked more like playground equipment, but he explored each in only the way a child can.Â
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We ended up spending 2 hours at Reford Gardens, which made us late for Rimouski. The bus was filling up with dirty laundry, so we decided finding a laundramat was more important than finding a camp site. After a few drives up and down the main street in search of a laundromat, we asked the concierge at a local hotel and he pointed us in the right direction. With washer loaded, we headed out to grab a bite to eat. Downtown Rimouski is a hoppin’ place on Saturday night, so it took us a few tries to find a restaurant with seats. We ended up at an “Italian bread bar” (Pucini’s) - DIY toasted bread on the grill with every meal. Its a concept I want to import back to Guelph. The lasagne was like no lasagne I’ve every had before - but the best I’ve every had. Despite having a cute French girl his age at a neighbouring table, Alex was sick of sitting and insisted on eating from our laps or running around the restaurant. Â
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With laundry done, we headed to the other side of Rimouski to Bic National Park to find our campsite for the night. By this time it was 10pm and the campground would be closed, something we knew all too well from our BC or Bust trip - if you arrive after close, the sites are self-serve and you can pay in the morning. Like most of the parks we’ve stayed at it was pretty much abandoned. We were knackered - so we pretty much set-up the beds and jumped in them.Â
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Sunday morning we got a chance to see where we were - between the weathered fog covered mountains and the St. Lawrence. It smelt and sounded like the sea. Before we departed we drove around. The shores stretched to the water and were filled with muck, rocks and birds - it must have been low tide because the large basins we could see were empty. The rocks along the store were unique - sharp looking, but frail once you touched them. Even though we never made it to Halifax, I imagine it a lot like Bic. Â
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On to Quebéc (referred to here just as just Quebéc, not Quebéc City). Â
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Random observation: the curbs in most of the city’s in Quebéc are made of granite or quarts granite. Not sure why cement won’t do - maybe they use diamond tipped snowplow blades here.Â
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the wheels on the bus
categories: edmundston or bust
Trip Photo Blog (constantly updated)Â
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After falling asleep thinking we were the only humans in Frontenac Provincial Park, we were surprised to meet people at the showers in the morning. It was so quiet at night there, it was creepy. The sound of a loon, the rustling of a red tailed squirrel and the chirp of a bird (sorry I’m not up on my bird calls) was all to hear.Â
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We got an early start and did a quick tour of the park before leaving - no much to see, but now I know what a brand new provincial park looks like. We took back roads to Edmonston, passing through so many towns starting with “Saint” I lost track. It seems each town is measured by the size and prominence of their catholic church - usually the tallest building in town. Its the first thing you see when coming up to a town.Â
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The landscape in Quebec’s Eastern townships is hilly - not rolling, not mountainous, but somewhere in between. Buddy got a work out hauling us up and dragging us down the seemingly endless hills. We stopped at Saint Marie for lunch at a quaint little bakery and ate outside beside, what else, their church. By now my French is getting better… “Je suis désolé. Je ne parle pas français. Parlez-vous anglais?”. Julia at least tries to have conversations with people in French, but they talk so bloody fast!Â
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We rolled into Edmonston, our final destination, around dusk on Friday night. Why Edmonston you ask? No reason - it was just as far as we could drive given the amount of time we had. There’s not much of anything there, but the campground has its own car museum!Â
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Just after setting up camp I heard a familiar diesel humm and spotted Diego through the trees. Our friends, Kate and Chris and their travelling pals from England had randomly picked the same park to camp at for the night. I flagged them in to a neighbouring site and we laughed about how the world was such as small place. Alex knew Diego at sight and came running to say “hi”.Â
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Our friends joined us for a campfire that night and to chat about the last few days. The park warden also dropped by our site later, since there were no other campers to chat up, and he told us Saturday night was the last night the park was open. Lucky us - since there wasn’t another campground for miles.Â
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The next day we decided to take a tour of the car museum before we left. I had read on the net about the Bricklin SV1 they had. It wasn’t a stellar example by far, but the first one I’d seen up close. Interesting how the colour of the paint had faded differently depending on what surface (metal, plastic, fibreglass) it was painted on. Alex had a blast waking around the museum, but was a handful because of his ignorance of the “DO NOT TOUCH” signs.Â
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There were a few other interesting vehicles there - a battery powered car from 1918, one of the first Cadilacs, a car made in Toronto by CCM (the bicycle company) and a REO Speedwagon. A WHAT? Yes, its true, now you know where the band got their name.Â
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We said goodbye to our friends - maybe we’ll see them again along the way. Julia, Alex and I still had to pack up. It had rained the night before so we left everything that was wet out to dry.Â
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We made a quick pitstop in Edmonston for some Tim Hortons and internet access. War driving is fun, when you strike gold quickly. After a few loops of the downtown, we got nothing but weak signals so we left for the highway. On the way we found a signal from a manufacturing plant just off the highway. A quick detour to their parking lot and we had fast internet… that is until Alex decided to wake up from his 30 minute nap. Poor Alex - time to make the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round all the way to Rimouski.Â
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me and my shadow
categories: edmundston or bust
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Trip Photo Blog (constantly updated)Â
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[guest editor - Julia]Â
Yesterday we drove back to Tremblant with our friends and went on the luge run. It was wicked fun. Chris is Mr. Danger, while Julia is more Ms. Control. Both of us had super fun though, and Alex watched from the bottom in wonderment. It was pretty cool to have our little green Nansen ski run turned into something even more fun in the summer. We got some dinner on at the Diable pub, and then headed home for Racoonville, aka Mount Tremblant Provincial Park, some 70k away from the resort. We had moved the bus back away from the trees, and strategically angled the awning, thinking that we had the racoon problem under control…Â
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Hours later, Julia was awakened by a crazy racoon trying to climb in the louvre windows. He was clawing at the screen, trying to squeeze his body between the panes of glass. She simultaneously woke up Chris and started to shut the window, with the racoon was still hanging on with his paws getting stuck in the louvres. We finally started hitting against the screen, and he scurried off of the bus. How the the racoons got onto the bus is another thing all together, it seems that racoons can climb across any surface, even vintage green vertical metal - lucky the paint job on the bus is nothing to write home about. Â
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We got a relatively early start the next day, and headed off for Trois-Rivieres, where we would cross the St. Lawrence, in our pursuit of Frontenac National Park. Trois Rivieres, it seems, is the marijuana capital of the east. It’s quite possible that there is only ONE river here, but that everyone just thinks there are three. People walking, driving, biking, working, they were all smoking pot. We had a nice lunch, and then headed out for the rest of our drive.Â
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Poor Alex, he didn’t know that we would be in the car that long, but he was pretty great, by the time we pulled into the campground, it was 6:30 and he wanted to run around. So he tooled around with his flashlight and dad’s 30 lb axe while we set up camp. Afterwards we walked to get some water, and Chris held the flashlight behind Alex, the resulting shadow resembled that of an an alien,straight out of Area 51. Alex was amazed. We think this is the first shadow he registered in his growing brain. He bent down to touch it, but was confused as it changed shape. This little game continued for a few minutes of our walk. It was pretty cool to watch. Â
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Frontenac National Park rocks. Tonight we’re the only campers in the park, so it’s totally peaceful, though Julia thinks it’s a little creepy. It’s been recently upgraded or something, as all of the camping pads are new black gravel, and the new washrooms and showers are the BEST we’ve ever seen in our adventures east and west in Canada. Julia has a whole ranking system for camp washrooms, the washrooms at Buses of the Corn are the benchmark for the lowest of the low, and now, Frontenac’s facilities take the prize for best of the best. We’re hoping for no visitors tonight. Â
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ottawa, tremblant and racoonville.
categories: edmundston or bust
Julia, Chris, Alex and Buddy are officially on vacation!Â
 
Trip Photo Blog (constantly updated)Â
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Like a bat outa hell we left Guelph around noon on Monday. A gruelling, relationship-stressing, drive in to downtown Toronto to pick up an umbrella stroller we had ordered, delayed us an hour or so, but we made it to Ottawa by 7pm Monday night.Â
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We spent our first night at Kif’s. Kif is doing well and is starting a new manager (ie. attending lots meetings, doing little work) job at the Transport Canada. My old friend from university - Steve Belan stopped in and we walked Kif’s neighbourhood while we caught up on the last 10 years.Â
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Alex decided wake up time was 6:45am (usually he lets us sleep until 8:30 ) so we got an early start. We stopped into the Byward Market to grab breakfast and grab some fresh fruit and corn for the next leg of our journey. I wish Guelph had a daily market like this - you’d never need to go to the grocery store.Â
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The drive to Tremblant was long and bumpy. Buddy was running like a top, so no stress there (see BC or Bust). We arrived at the mountain around noon and walked around the base village - yes Mt. Tremblant is as nice in the fall as it is in the Winter.Â
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The Sunday before we left we found out our friends Kate and Chris we also heading out east, so we co-ordinated via cell phone meeting them at Tremblant Provincial Park. They got lost on the way and finally arrived at an adjoining campsite just before 8. We had arrived at 5, which gave us time to set up the campsite, feed some friendly ducks and take a swim in the lake. The campground is deserted - so the neighbouring beach became our private beach. Alex had a blast splashing in the water on shore. The campsite was a 10/10 - so far…Â
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Kate, Chris and friends from England travelling with them (Benji and Carol) brought a lasagne so we had supper shortly after they arrived. Of course no campsite is complete without a campfire and we remembered to buy a bag of wood on the way in.Â
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Some time around 9pm our second visitors arrived - two little racoons. They we’re interested in what food we had brought and were quite entertaining at first - coming within a foot of you and getting in Alex’s portable highchair. We were smart enough not to feed them, and at the time, they did seem pretty cute…Â
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We called it an early night and climbed into Buddy for a well deserved rest. About 11:30pm our friendly racoons decided to try to join us in the camper. They had climbed a neighbouring tree, dropped on the awning and climbed on the roof over the cab. They proceeded to knock Alex’s car seat and backpack off the roof and started to try to scratch their way through the canvas. We were crossing our fingers hoping the 25 year old canvas was tougher than our friends’ claws. I made a big noise and slapped the canvas. This sent one of them flying off the roof and the other scrambling down the windshield, getting caught in the wipers and antenna on the way down.Â
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It was a harrowing experience to be repeated at least three more times during the night. Needless to say we didn’t get our well deserved rest.Â
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Today we woke to find the campsite in shambles. We had forgotten to contain a bag of garbage and it was picked over by the racoons. After a quick swim in the lake we forgot about the adventures of the night before.Â
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Alex decided to change the position of the van on the site - maybe so the racoons couldn’t get on the roof. Unfortunately he didn’t tell mom or dad before he released the parking brake. Lucky mom’s shoes stopped it after a few feet, avoiding a bus in the lake. Alex is now banned from the cab AT ALL TIMES!Â
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We’re on our way back to Mount Tremblant with Kate, Chris, Benji and Carol. Another update in a couple days. We’re spending two day here and heading for Frontenac Provincial Park tomorrow.Â
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[currently listing to: The Best of the Smith’s - Part 1 in “Diego” - Kate and Chris’s ‘82 Southwind RV]Â
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