SUNDAY 10 July

Because of our location and time zone, sunrise here was not until 5:30 AM and we managed to sleep in until 6:30 AM.  The only thing on our agenda for todays was chores and errands, so we had a leisurely morning to enjoy our coffee.  When we got around to it, breakfast was vegan sausage and eggs, with orange-cranberry bread and orange juice.

The salmon fountain in Campbellton, NB. The waterfront along the Restigouche River east of the bridge is beautifully developed with this fountain as the centerpiece. Salmon are integral part of the culture here.

We took our laundry over to Paul and Nancy’s rig and Linda started the first load.  We then went for a walk on the path that ends at the west end of the RV park and heads east towards the bridge.  This path, the Restigouche Esplanade, runs along the Campbellton waterfront for a long way, to the river side of a divided boulevard.  We walked perhaps a half mile (???) from Camp and then back, but it went much farther.  We came across a fountain featuring a large metal salmon.  The adjacent road was closed and had activities drawn on it.  Several artists were painting the salmon fountain.  There was a bandstand, but no band, and couple of really large red chairs.

A city worker was emptying trash containers and took time to chat with us about the city and the surrounding area.  He confirmed that there are a LOT of Moose in this part of New Brunswick, from here all the way to Moncton (and the Celebration Bridge Prince Edward Island).  The challenge won’t be seeing them, it will be not hitting them with a vehicle.

One of two “big red chairs” near the salmon fountain, with Linda for scale.

Linda and Nancy made a run to the local IGA and scoped out our departure route for tomorrow.  I had spent much of the day working on the blog, but while they were shopping, I decided to tape up the plastic u-channel trim in the front left bay of the trailer.  This trim covers the edges of the opening (for the bay) where two pieces of body panel meet.  The panels are riveted together, as is almost everything on the trailer.  Two of the rivets (upper left corner) had failed and the panels had pulled apart.  The gap at the corner was about 3/8”.  The trim was designed to surround the edge when the panels were clamped together with no gap and would not fit this area.  I was going to tape the trim to the ceiling temporarily, but decided to just fix the panels instead.

I had a small drill (it’s a tight space to work in), a rivet installation tool, an assortment of aluminum rivets, and the proper drill bits to go with the rivets.  It turned out to be a relatively simple matter to drill out the old rivets, squeeze the panels together with the pliers on my Leatherman tool, and install two rivets.  (This would have been a bit easier if I had used my channel-lock pliers, but they were in the tool box in the bed of the truck and I did not feel like digging them out.) As long as I was at it, I drilled a new, larger hole and installed an additional, and much larger, rivet in the corner.  I then worked the u-channel trim piece back on, called it good, and put everything away.

When Linda returned, we had a quick lunch that finished off the last two vegan hotdogs and an apple.  Quick, easy, tasty, and got stuff out of the refrigerator.

We used half a tank of gasoline on the drive yesterday and I like to start out on travel days with a full tank to avoid having to pull into a fueling station with the travel trailer.  The nearest filling station was an Ultramar.  We had seen these throughout Quebec but had not used one yet.  It was pay-at-the-pump, VISA accepted, menus in English.  The three grades of gasoline were 87, 89 and 91 octanes for 1.99$/L, 2.02$/L, and 2.06$/L respectively, but the 87 and 89 were 10% ethanol while the 91 did not contain ethanol.  I thought the engine had been idling just a bit rougher than normal, so I topped up with the 91-octane product.  If nothing else, it was the same price we had been paying (or less) throughout Quebec.

We spent some time considering our route for tomorrow and decided to forego coastal scenery in favor a more direct and faster route:  Hwy 11 as far as Bathurst, Hwy 8 to Miramichi, and Hwy 11 to Saint-Edouard-de-Kent, our next destination.  This meant we would miss the section of Hwy 11 that runs along the edge of the Acadian peninsula, but would add several hours to the trip.

Sunset over the Restigouche River from the RV park.

For dinner, Nancy made vegan Brazilian stroganoff using mushrooms and pickles.  Yummy.  We had maple sap wine from Domaine Acer with dinner and then small glasses of Inniskillin Ice Wine by the campfire while the sun set over the Restigouche River and the mountains beyond.

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