Points Beyond Aug 18 - 20

We had a final breakfast together and got Randy and Theresa on the road before breaking camp.  With a lot of housekeeping to do after guests and heavy rain, we had our hands full for a while.  Once everything was dry and back in place, the water tank filled and the “other” tanks emptied, we headed out.  Because we had no idea where the next week would take us or what we’d encounter, we made a final stop at Costco.  We also had to go BACK TO IKEA and grab some goodies Theresa had introduced us to and we took advantage of their great café prices, having lunch and another sinful sundae!

Then we headed north.  There’s no direct route between Quebec and the eastern coast.  Maine’s un-navigable landmass is in the way and we needed to head north until we made it all the way above Maine before taking an easterly turn.  Rob wears out on driving after a couple hours which took us to Riviere du Loup – and another parking lot for the night.

Crazy thing, the parking lot was FULL of RV’s!  It seriously looked like a motorhome dealership!  There was a country music festival going on in the adjacent lot and apparently WalMart was the place to stay!  The only way we stood out was our SC plates and pretty much everyone stayed to themselves. 

We took advantage of the area and biked over to a park touting a good hike and a waterfall.  A very hilly area along the Saint Lawrence Seaway, it was a fun and challenging bike ride.  The park was great with a spiderweb of trails to explore from a cedar forest to a field of wildflowers.  The waterfall was in fact a controlled water source but was beautiful nonetheless.  After our energizing hike, we biked the area a little more, enjoying the fog over the seaway and the beautiful mountains lining the western shore before returning to our parking lot seclusion for the night. 

This trip is so unlike our last.  In our entire five months on the road previously, we stayed at commercial campgrounds twice and WalMarts twice.  It makes us appreciate the abundance of parks I didn’t realize were so unusual.  City, County, State, National Parks, not to mention all of the other BLM and ACE properties we stayed at … wow.  But we also weren’t following a path of rendezvous in specific locations either.  No matter, this is new and different.

Needing to get across New Brunswick without any major attractions along the way, we chose Grand Falls as our next destination.  Stopping along the way at a local Fromagerie, we tasted and bought some yummy cheeses to take on the road.  Being ever closer to the New Brunswick border, we even heard English spoken a time or two!  The biggest difference was finally seeing road signs we didn’t have to guess at!

Grand Falls is an interesting little town.  Essentially desolate, we saw only a handful of people in the entire downtown area with near all of the stores on “Broadway” being closed midday as well.  The falls were even quite ugly on first sight.  With a hydro electric dam holding much of the water back, the downstream side looked like a lunar landscape – an unpleasant jumble of large rock.  And then we got to the gorge.

The water volume at this time of year is near its lowest point but the falls apparently flow with 90% the volume of Niagara Falls during the spring runoff!  The gorge was something to behold with the minimal but still flowing water feeding a deep canyon of carved rock that meandered through town like a serpent.  We followed the trail of lookout points over a several mile stretch, taking in all of the unique views at every turn. 

With storms in the forecast for the evening and night, we headed back to our home away from home.  Seeing a berry stand on the way, we found the most luscious fresh fruit imaginable and bought some fresh picked raspberries.  These were like I remember picking at my Wisconsin aunt’s pick your own berry farm as a child.  Sweet and flavorful like I haven’t had since then, Rob (who has never been a raspberry fan) was even sold!

Tucked inside with the storms having arrived, I made a full menu for dinner, steaming up the windows.  As we sat for dinner, the sun peaked out as the rain continued and I just KNEW there had to be a rainbow.  Mother nature did not disappoint!  A day of nature’s best, the sky was filled from end to end with a richly colored full expanse.  I guess Mother Nature doesn’t need a campground to make her magic!