St. Johnsbury, Vermont

2/9/14 - St. Johnsbury, Vermont

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It was a long drive from Palmyra, Maine to St. Johnsbury, Vermont - almost 6 hours due to mainly to the route being secondary roads. 

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the Moose River RV Park is. A river runs along the back of this park and the facilities are good, especially Wi Fi (hooray!) and cable tv.

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It was a rather warm 28deg C. when we arrived but we had rain overnight.

This cute little Airstream was parked beside the river.

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A glimpse of God's Coat of many colours! This Sumac plant will turn a magnificent crimson in a few weeks time....we've seen clumps of this plant along our journey that had already changed.

What a golf course...it is so hilly but the views are outstanding...can you imagine the hills in hues of orange, red, yellow come autumn.

Tom and I had a round of golf at the St. Johnsbury Country Club - $40 per person including a golf cart.

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Maple leaves slowly creeping towards autumn.

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We stopped by the Maple Grove Farms gift shop - bought a Maple infused cheese, I'm sure it will be yummy.Vermont is well known for its maple syrup.

Palmyra, Maine

28/8/14 - 1/9/14 Maine, USA

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We left St. Nicolas, Quebec on the 28/8 bound for Palmyra, Maine and lottsa yummy lobsters! Our route took us along the Moose Head River - quite picturesque.

We could not have picked a better day for lunch at Belfast Harbor - the weather was absolutely glorious. Its about an hour's drive from Palmyra through gorgeous winding roads.

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Thanks to Tom's detail in research, we found Young's Lobster Pound where our lobsters were patiently waiting for our arrival. 

You order your lobster at the counter - they get scooped  and then cooked in big pots of boiling water. Takes about 20 minutes. Tom and I opted for the 1 1/8 lobster lunch with drawn butter and chips (we thought we were getting fries but it was a packet of potato chips).

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Can you see my lobster??

Tom with our freshly cooked lobsters. There's also oysters, crabs, mussels and prawns available.

Mmmmmmm......lemme at it!! If I were a p.i.g. I'd be rolling in mud now!!

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There are no fancy chairs, just tables and benches, there's also seating upstairs in the main building. Some folks brought their own wines etc.  It seems its a very casual set up - you just buy the food from them and you bring whatever else you like.

Autumn hasn't quite fully arrived in Maine but there were numerous trees making an early show. We were told the autumn colours will be more apparent mid/late Sept....darn we are too early.

Al and our truck on a fine sunny day at Palymra RV Park and Golf Course. We arrived for the Labor Day long weekend so it was chock a block starting from the Friday night.

A view of the woods behind our rv taken from inside the kitchen. Wi Fi cover on this trip has been absymal at best...the RV parks all boasts of wi fi availability but the coverage is always very suspect. To get wi fi, Tom had to keep going to the toilet block which is about 500 metres from our site.

Another day, another lobster....or two.

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Okay..the first ones were sooo good we had to go back for seconds. This time, we decided to go "whole hog"..oink, oink and order 2 lobsters plus a seafood sampler plate. I don't know what makes the Maine lobster so sweet but man, it was gastronomical heaven.

Quebec City, Quebec

26/8/14 - 28/8/14 St. Nicholas, Quebec

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The St. Lawrence River, Quebec. This river is frozen for approx.2 months in a year during winter.

We took a city tour of old Quebec City which was a melding of old and new but a great part of old historical Quebec remains. 

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One of the many charming buildings in old Quebec - this door said "Hotel Chevalier" but I would be surprised is Maurice ever slept there.

We had a 20 minute walkabout at one of the Old Squares - this beautiful church is the Notre Dame de Victoria (I think that's what it was). French Quebec is mainly Catholic.

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One of the many stunning buildings in the Old Square.

The grand Chateau Fairmont owned and operated by Canadian Pacific. I believe it is the same organisation that  runs the Fairmont Hotel at Lake Louise, Banff.

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The 2 hour city tour took us around the maze of narrow streets littered with grand old buildings.

One could almost believe this was gay Paree...the streets are littered with side cafes, restaurants, shops. French and English are spoken so we were able to make ourselves understood.

The flag of Quebec flies proudly on this building  - it is blue and white with a white cross and 4 Fleurs de Lis which is the national flower.

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With summer in full swing, the shops were magnets for many tourists out and about. 

Carleton Place, Ontario and day visit to Ottawa

From Niagara Falls we made our way into Canada to a small place called Carleton Place about 45 minutes from Ottawa in Ontario and stayed at a small RV park called Tranquil Acres. The trip from the Falls to Carleton Place was in very heavy rain and terrible driving conditions but fortunately the Canadian drivers exercise a bit of caution and slowed down during the heaviest of the rain.

The entry to Tranquil Acres, it certainly was tranquil and was one of the more primitive campsites we have stayed at but none the less it was enjoyable.

Our day visit to Ontario started with a visit to the old canal locks which are still in used to this day. The locks allow small boats to transit between the rivers adjoining the great lakes.

The lock being opened to allow boats to pass through.

The rather uninspiring US Embassy building which is totally out of place amongst all the old buildings of Montreal.

Changing of the guard at the war memorial.

The local golf course where I played with an interesting couple.

A dead tree carved into a totem pole.

On arrival into the RV park in Montreal I noticed a bulge in the sidewall of one of the 5th wheel and on removing the wheel this is what I was confronted with.

As you can see it would appear that the outer carcass has detached from the inner casing. I'm not sure what has caused the chunk of rubber to be ripped out but it would appear that it may have just happened prior to our arrival as fortunately the damage to the 5th wheel was minimal. This happened in spite of me doing pre departure inspections and checking tire pressures. The tire was just over 1 year old and had done less than 5,000 miles. I also always check the tires during any stop we have for fuel or breaks. It took most of the following morning to find a replacement and the only replacement I could find was a second hand tire so here's hoping that it will last until I can get a proper replacement. It is a Michelin so it should be OK. 

This certainly has been a bad year for vehicle problems.

As a result we did not make it into Montreal and instead decided to have lunch and a game of golf at the local golf course. It was a very nice course and we played with an exceptionally nice couple in their 50's who were decent enough to speak to us in fluent english. (Quebec is French speaking).