13th
June 2016
Rain, ferries,
and border crossings.
It did not stop
raining for a second all day yesterday, ad when I woke up this morning, it was
still raining ! Troopie is so much
easier than it was when it rained when I was in Alaska in the Elise, but even
so, it is still a small vehicle to sit inside all day ! Anyway, got everything done, and this morning
managed to get everything packed up even though it was all wet, and by 9.30 I
was headed out. Or was it 8.30 ? I think the clocks went back an hour
yesterday ! Stopped in at the shop which
luckily sold top ups for my pay as you go phone on which I had used up all the
credit yesterday, and headed off down the road to Quebec city.
This part of
Canada / USA is really small scale on my map book that covers both countries,
so it is hard to see quite which is the best way to go – Especially when you
are on a gap between two pages ! I had
been asked a couple of times by my Tom Tom about “Do you want to include Ferry
Crossings on your route ?”, and I had thought it meant crossing the St
Lawrence, so I was kind of surprised when at about 10 am I come down a hill and
find the great big Riviere Saguenay in front of me – And no bridge ! Just ferries ! Oh well, at least there
Off the other
side and then the road went all the way to Quebec alongside the ST Lawrence,
although you don’t see much because of all the trees beside the road. After stopping for a bite to eat in the
drizzle, I finally came over a hill at about 1 pm and could see the tall
buildings of Ottawa city ahead, and over the next hour the traffic got busier
and busier, and, surprise, it stopped raining and looked as though it might
even fine up a little !
We came to the
bridge over the St Lawrence - One newer
bridge called the Pierre Laporte bridge that was apparently finished in 1970,
and beside it is a very Isambard Kingdom Brunel type bridge, but it was hard to
see much of it or whether it is still in use as I drove across the other
bridge. I found out later that this
steel bridge is called the Quebec Bridge, and was first started in 1903, but in
1907, nearing completion, it collapsed into the river, killing 75 workers. A second design was then started, but in 1916
Once across the
river I just head straight down the road towards the US border into Maine, and
some of the scenery was quite European (after all the spruce trees of the past
few thousand kms !), with fields and hedges – And even a bit of blue sky and
sunshine ! I came to the border and as I
had thought from the map, I had picked a nice small one where there was no
queue at all, and the guys were more interested in my trip than looking at any
of the contents. Once they new I had no
oranges or citrus fruit, and no firearms, they didn’t even bother to look
inside, but just wanted to buy my car off me !
Pick your border crossings carefully and it is much easier !
Just a few miles
into Maine I had found a Moose River campsite on my maps.me, so I headed for
it. Absolutely NO signs anywhere, so I
just followed the small roads indicated on my map, and hey presto – There was
this delightful little camp site around a river, mostly used at weekends by fishermen
and people riding quad bikes, so mostly empty tonight ! Still a bit of rain, but the forecast infers
that it will be getting better tomorrow, and then 4 or 5 days of sunshine. Could be just right for a visit to Niagara !
Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6295816734869433489?authkey=Gv1sRgCISisZfb1ZCHWg
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