We made it out of the woods, so to
speak, and were back on the road headed to Montreal. First order of business was crossing the border. Being in an RV and carrying essentially our
whole life with us, we weren’t sure what we’d be met with at the border. We clearly were carrying more than the
written allotment of alcohol – we had a three month supply! – and we heard lots
of tales of searches over fruits or vegetables being on board. Well, there was no problem with customs! A lot of questions but nothing that caused
concern and we happily got back on the road.
Montreal was not a long drive from
Burlington but between the border crossing and the traffic it seemed an age to
arrive! The roads leading to the bustling
city were ALL under construction.
REALLY! Look it up. Montreal is undergoing a massive
infrastructure project and I swear EVERY major road was being rebuilt from end
to end. Traffic slowed to a crawl and in
our monster of a vehicle it was more of a challenge than ever.
We had arranged to stay at a
property to the northwest of the city but, having taken too long to get into
the city itself, we found the closest WalMart and called it quits. I have to say that WalMart is proving to be
invaluable on this particular trip.
Without state and national parks at every destination, they provide a
great, free and safe stopover at a moment’s notice. This one was perfectly located right on a
major metro line and we wasted no time.
The big excitement of Montreal was
meeting my dearest friend Patricia and her husband Jay there. Of course, we had already missed over a day
of our planned rendezvous. We got into
what we thought was the heart of all things Montreal but had missed our mark by
a couple stops. Getting out into the big
city with no idea where to go or what to do, we set our sights toward the
waterfront. We did finally make it to
the old city where all the city’s charm lay.
Patricia and Jay were having
dinner with friends in a restaurant nearby and we dropped in as they signed
their checks. We all took in the city’s
beauty through the evening, stopping for ice cream, wandering the waterfront
and peeking into little shops along the way.
Parting ways with their friends, we further enjoyed the music in the
streets and made our way to the Notre Dame cathedral, always a sight at night.
Getting back to our “home at the
Mart” was an easy subway ride and we called it a day with an early start
planned for the morning. The plan was to
find a wonderful French café for coffee and chocolate croissants. After a relatively peaceful night, we jumped
back on the subway and headed for a neighborhood said to be “the right place to
go”. It didn’t quite turn out that way
and we walked a seemingly endless distance before ending right back in old
town!
We do find that big cities are
just not our thing on these trips. With
parking difficult, reasonable campgrounds harder to come by and no alternate
method of transport than our big rig, cities are filled with more obstacles
than fun. The big event planned for our
time in the area was a balloon festival happening 30km outside of town. With that in mind, we gave up on maneuvering
the city and got back on the road. Yup,
right through all of the nightmare construction and crazy traffic, we
backtracked to what we hoped would be a highlight of our journey.
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