TUESDAY 05 July

We are at 49.124… deg. Latitude and –66.511… deg. Longitude (W3W=constraint.magpies.fairly).  That puts us farther north than we have ever traveled by land and somewhere near the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone.  We are here only two weeks after the summer solstice, so the sun rises early in the northeast, travels high overhead, and sets late in the northwest.  At this location, it rises over water and sets over water.  With the right cloud conditions, the sunsets are beautiful.  The sunrises probably are too, but we are not up in time to see them.

My first awareness this morning that it was not completely dark outside was at 03:22, but I suspect the first glow of morning occurred sometime before that.  The winds calmed down a bit overnight, but started up again with the appearance of the sun.  By early afternoon they were steady out of the west at 20 MPH.  We don’t know if this is typical, but persistent wind seems to be a feature of this location.

For breakfast, Nancy made baked vegan French toast.  She prepared it the night before using Just Egg and other ingredients poured over 1” thick slices of a freshly bough baguette from Metro market and topped with sliced apples.  The assemblage soaked overnight in the refrigerator and then baked in the morning.  She also made an apple/almond caramel sauce.  The French toast was paired with Mimosas, made with orange juice and the sparkling Maple syrup “wine” from Domain Acer.  We ate outdoors in the cool air and warm sun so, basically, a simple camping breakfast.

We then turned our attention to chores, Paul and Nancy are full-time RVers, and we are temporarily the same while traveling.  We had a big day yesterday, so errands and chores were on tap for today in advance of another travel day tomorrow. As retired people on an extended travel adventure, we are not on “vacation” and are not trying to cram every day full of activities.

We paused to chat with our other neighbor, Guy, a thoroughly charming fellow.  He was cutting up some bread and I asked if it came from the Metro market.  He said they shop there but this bread came from L-Hotel Cie, just across the street from the Patisserie and Boulangerie, which was also very good.  Guy is a retired air traffic controller.  He and his wife reside in Montreal, but had been at Camping Ancre Jaune for the last six weeks while he working as an aerial surveyor on a crop-dusting plane flying out of the Saint-Anne-des-Monts airport, which was just across QC-132 from our campground.

 

 

Our chores included straightening up and cleaning the interior of the trailer (Linda), dumping the waste water tanks (Bruce) and cleaning the truck (Bruce).  The truck bed, and everything in it, had a fine coating of grey dust as a result of our drive around the east end of Parc national de la Gaspésie.  I emptied out the entire bed and Linda help dust of everything.  She and Nancy then headed to the Metro market as grocery shopping was her major errand of the day.  While they were away, Paul cleaned the inside of their coach and I cleaned the truck bed, interior floors, and dashboard and dumped the waste water tanks.

Mid-afternoon we walked to a nearby sculpture park.  The sculptures were all made from driftwood, and were very interesting.  They were spread out in a way that did not allow me to photograph the whole place.  The wind was still strong from the west, but the sun was warm, which was a pleasant combination.  Linda knew we could walk all the way to the center of town on sidewalks and a boardwalk, so we kept on going.  We eventually turned back and came up QC-132 looking for the Marie 4 Patisserie and Boulangerie.  Once there, we each had a cup of coffee and split a small vegan brownie with raspberry puree and vanilla cream.  We bought two more to take home for dessert after dinner.

I wanted to wash the grey dust from yesterday’s drive around the east end of Parc national de la Gaspésie off of the truck.  There was an auto wash not far away so I drove over there.  It was a coin operated self-serve (pressure wash) facility in a separate building that was part of the Esso fuel station and pizza restaurant complex.  The machine took Loonies (1$) and twonies (2$) coins.  We had been collecting them along our way, but I did not have any with me, so I returned to camp.

For dinner, Linda made vegan fish stew.  While she was preparing it, I returned to the car wash and rinsed off the truck, but not before stopping at L-Hotel Cie and buying a loaf of orange-cranberry bread.  I got enough high-pressure spray to do the entire truck once for just one twonie, and concentrated on the wheel wells, wheels, tires, and windows.  As long as I was there, I topped up the fuel tank.  I knew I had not filled it yesterday, and it took another 25 liters.  The price was 2.06$, which the best I’ve seen since entering the Gaspe peninsula.  For the second time on this trip, the pumps did not take credit cards.  The young man inside the building spoke perfect English and confirmed that I filled first and then paid.  And they took American Express.

The vegan fish stew was outstanding.  We had this same dish on Christmas Day with the family’s Italian themed Feast of the Seven Fishes.  It was excellent then, and excellent again.  We had slices of fresh baguette and a Pelee Island un-oaked Chardonnay with the meal.  Linda split the two vegan brownies for dessert.  All-in-all, just another simple camping dinner in a lovely place with good friends.

After dinner, I put the stinger in the truck receiver and positioned the truck in front of the trailer hitch, ready for docking in the morning.  We also disconnect all of the fresh water apparatus and stowed it away.  All that left for tomorrow morning was to disconnect the shorepower, raise the stabilizer jacks, connect the truck to the trailer, and remove/stow the wheel chocks and levelers.  Rain was forecasted for overnight through the morning, so this would minimize the time required to finish our departure routine.

 

Last, but not least, we went to the beach to walk and watch the sunset.  As we headed west down the beach an older gentleman walked out towards us from the first house adjacent to the campground.  We thought he was going to tell us this was private property, which it is not, but he must have heard us speaking English and just wanted to talk.  He was a thoroughly delightful fellow, who winters in the Ft. Lauderdale area of Florida, and just wanted to chat with someone in English.  We picked up some good tips from him about things to see and do in the Gaspe and Perce area.  I photographed the sunset until the light was fading and then we returned to our rig for the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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