SATURDAY, 02 July
I was up and 6 AM and Linda was up shortly thereafter. I know that might sound crazy, but the sunrise here at the moment is 04:40. Linda is usually in bed by 10 PM and me by 11 PM, so we have both had our quota of sleep by this time in the morning. It’s also a great time to get online and take care of blog posts, play games, or research things. Quiet hours at the Bas Saint-Laurent KOA Resort are 11 PM to 8 AM, and we see few, if any, people out and about in the morning before 8 AM.
My objective for the blog of one post for each location where we camp, with a few photos and even fewer words, has not worked out. The fact is, it’s not my “style” and, to the extent that the blog is a travel log for us rather than entertainment for an audience, the short form approach does not work for me. Besides, now that I am getting back into the rhythm, I am remembering how much I enjoy doing it, especially when seeing new things and getting to photograph them.
Paul in front of the bagel stand in St. Simon, QC
The weather forecast for today was a bit tricky, but we decided on a mid-morning departure even with a chance of rain between noon and 2 PM. We took the F-150 again, and dropped off our laundry basket when we picked up Nancy and Paul at 10:30. We headed to QC-132, and turned left/west (ouest) into St. Simon. Our objective was to find the Bagel Vending machine, which we did, right next to a small open-air market (March). We got the photos we came for, but took a pass on the bagels.
Yes, that is a bagel vending machine
Our main destination for the day was the Parc national du Bic (a Quebec provincial park) back east on QC-132 just past St. Fabian and St. Fabian-du-Mer. I missed the turn into the main entrance and had to find a place to pull off and turn around. There was a line to get in and when we finally got to the window, the ranger, whose English was marginal, said we could not come in. Nothing personal, mind you, it’s just that we did not have a reservation and the park was “fully booked.” Well shucks, we certainly did not see that coming.
Park Bic. Trees upper left are on the island, part of Parc national du Bic.
Paul was able to locate a nearby location named Bic Park, so we headed there. A small twisting road took us along the edge of a golf course to a small parking area, beyond which we could walk to the St. Lawrence River and an island. The tide was out, so we were able to get to the island along an elevated isthmus. The high tide mark was obvious from the detritus line, at which the isthmus would still be above water, but just barely.
Not sure what this is. I called them Sea Grapes.
The island turned out to be part of the Parc national du Bic. A sign said it was a protected area and seemed to indicate that we could not hike into the woods. Not that we could have anyway as they were very dense. We walked around the edge, both above and below the high tide mark. Besides lots of rocks, there was evidence of crabs and mussels, but a sign on the way in said not to harvest them due to contamination.
Linda at Park Bic (lower left corner)
By this time, we were all ready for a bite to eat, so the search was on for someplace with vegan options. It looked like Rimouski was our destination and I headed there. A Korean restaurant appeared promising, but we ultimately decided on a Copper Branch location on the north/east end of town. When we got there, we discovered a Thai restaurant and a “Risto 9” restaurant. Having had a good experience in Ottawa, we stayed with our Copper Branch choice. As before, three of us had an Asian Poke bowl.
Bruce at Park Bic
The drive back to camp took us through a residential area before getting to the A-20. Just before getting back to the KOA, we detoured into the small town of Saint Mathieu-de-Rioux to have a look before leaving the area tomorrow.
Back at camp, we stopped at the office on the way in and Paul bought a bundle of firewood for this evening. We then them at their rig and returned to ours, where Linda had planned on taking a nap and I had planned on working on photos and the blog. But sometimes life has other plans, and a mishap with a bottle of Sandeman’s Ruby Port had us spend the next hour or so cleaning up the mess. But these things happen, and when they do there is nothing to be done about it except to deal with it, which we did.
By this point there was no time or interest in cooking dinner, so we had vegan hotdogs and potato chips. We then had a phone chat with Brendan, Madeline, and Sadie, but mostly Sadie, just ahead of their departure in the morning for a northern Michigan get-away. The girls sang happy birthday for Ama, and then Sadie sang a song she made up. It took quite a few minutes, but it was charming. Nancy arrived (in her car) with our laundry just in time to catch the end of the song and then to take us back to their site. We brought the blankets from our beds, which had wine spots, to lauder while we sat by the fire and finished the bottle of Madeline mead from Schramm’s. As the sun set, the air cooled, the sky lit up with color, and the fire was warm. When the fire and light had faded, we walked back to our rig with our blankets. We folded and hung laundry, made our beds, had a few cookies (more than usual) and went to bed.