20020520

May 20, 2002

Day 11

Start: Camping Panorama, Perce', QU
End: Camping Murraywood, NB 
Miles: 215

Low last night was 36f, high today was 64f (but I sure don't remember anything that high).

We woke for physical reasons and watched sunrise on the Gulf of St Lawrence at 4:05am. It was beautiful, but not very dynamic, so we went back to sleep.

After breakfast we set out again, south and west this time. We're coming back off the Gaspe peninsula along Chaleur Bay.

It was a nice day, mostly sunny but with a few showers. We're getting used to the weather. We wear a jacket and have a coat handy to put over that.

The Quebec part of the trip was peaceful (holiday here) and slow. Along this shore, it's pretty much one small town after another. You just sort of weave along and look at the bay and the towns.

We found a sign for Campbellton, New Brunswick, and headed that way. A construction zone and a bridge later, we were there. Then I got to a red light with an overpass beyond it that read "3.7 meters" for the height of traffic it would allow. Our trailer is 3.66 meters high. We chickened out, turned right, and followed the truck route out of town.

We merged later into route 11, a two-lane limited-access highway. It parallels the south coast of Chaleur Bay for a good ways, and there are many local roads by which you can go down to the coast road. The coast road is 134 and that's where everything is.

Still running down 11, we came to a moose warning sign. About a half-mile later, we came to the moose. She was off in a meadow to the left, eating, and ignoring all the cars, including one that stopped to watch.

We finally found our campground. We were given a full hookup site directly on the bay. While sitting at the table, both of us can see the bay and the coastline. We could sit in the trailer and watch the birds (seagulls, cormorants, ducks) and see Quebec on the other side of the bay. In fact, sitting inside wasn't a bad idea, because the temperature was around 45 and the wind was kicking up toward us. Pretty chilly.

We went out and bought ice cream and bought Dolores a cooked lobster (I'm not much on lobsters). We made up a throw-together meal in the trailer and ate. D said it was the best lobster she'd had. The owner of the campground gave some explanation about the water still being cold and the lobsters were at the stage where they have filled their shell but not yet molted - and that's the best time.

The campground owner had mentioned that a fiddle group practices here on Monday nights at seven, so we made note of that. A few minutes to seven, we walked up and found we'd missed the first hour - NB is on Atlantic Daylight Time, an hour earlier than Eastern. This time change is going to be weird. I'm not used to time zones east of Eastern.

The fiddle group (eleven fiddlers and one electronic piano to keep time and to be the thing against which all the fiddlers tuned) came back after their break and played about ten more tunes, some fast, some waltzes. Some of the relatives of the group formed a ring in the back of the room and danced. I only recognized two tunes, since these folks here are Acadian descendents and their musical heritage comes from here and France and I'm used to other sources. 

We all chatted in between songs. The weather is always a subject - we were told they had snow here last week. I believe it, because we've been seeing snow in the places that are protected from the sun ever since we left Quebec City.

After the music, we talked a bit, then went back to the trailer. We watched the bay till it was dark, then turned to books and computers.

Off to Prince Edward Island tomorrow - and I hope to get the notes off by modem. We haven't seen a modem connection since Vermont.