2016 Trip to the Canadian Maritimes. Second Leg: Border Crossing; Belleville, Montreal and Quebec

We crossed into Canada at Sarnia; just north of Detroit.  We had heard about all the restrictions. No eggs, no chicken, no guns and limited alcohol.  None of us got pulled over for inspection.   Guess we looked like a bunch of old farts that posed no threat.

We needed to know how high our coach is in meters...to be sure we can make it through tunnels, etc.  Diesel in liters and our pockets are full of loonies and toonies ($1 and $2 dollar bills).  Their dollar is low so our dollar is worth 25% more.  Diesel is around $3.00 a gallon.  We are happy with that, we expected it to be higher.

We are headed to see our friends the Matthews in Belleville, Ontario. Walt and I met them on my retirement cruise to Alaska in 2011.  They have a motor home too.  We will stay at their place for 3 days before moving on to Montreal and Quebec.  Scott thinks he can park all three RV's on his property. 

We fit!  Scott and Monica have a beautiful place.  He has the stars and stripes flying along with their Canadian maple leaf flag.  Their home is on a beautiful lake. 

We had great fun.  Pool time, campfire at night, dice games for "bullwinkels" (Candian quarters) and wine tasting. They are on an island and there are about 50 wineries nearby.  We visited 5. 

Went to the provincial liquor store to check out prices.....oh man.  Really high.  Double and triple our prices in the states.  John bought some whiskey for $60 that usually costs him $10-12 in the US!!!!

Time to leave.  Scott and Monica will catch up with us in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Heading to Montreal now. We took a bus tour and a boat cruise on the Saint Lawrence river.  We learned that Montreal is really an island and it is big enough to fit 9 Manhattans on it.  How about that?  Hot while there. 90 degrees but we had a nice breeze.   Most of the citizens of Montreal speak French and English.  Moving on to Quebec now.



 

Old Quebec City is really beautiful.  We took another tour bus and then spent some time walking in the old town section.  Threatened to rain but we lucked out for the entire day.  In the city many people speak English but in grocery stores  and other places outside of town it is French only.    I got my hair cut in Quebec....she spoke only French!!!  Interesting experience.

 

Kent and Walt did a lot of fooling around.  They liked these hanging balls in Quebec City!

We made sure we had ample opportunity to sample local brews and enjoy the local food!

We liked Quebec City much more than Montreal. Very beautiful.

 

On to Prince Edward Island via New Brunswick!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016 Trip to the Canadian Maritimes. First Leg: California to Michigan

In early June, we left California with the Kirby's heading for the East Coast.  Our destination was the Canadian Maritimes (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick).  We headed east on Interstate 80.  Hot, hot, hot! 90 degree + and high humidity.  Had afternoon and nighttime thunderstorms in Nebraska and Iowa.  Luckily, no hail.

We are meeting up with another RV couple in Indiana, the Hughes.   They are full time RVer's originally from Washington state.  The rendezvous with the Hughes in Indiana allowed us to visit the "RV Capitol of the World" (Elkhart) and to spend a couple days seeing the RV Museum and the Amish community of  Shipshewana.   We have been to Shipshewana twice before.  It is just wonderful to visit.  I can't get enough of the Amish buggies, dress, farms and adorable children.  They don't use electricity and use horses for travel and farm work.   Their laundry is out to dry on sunny days, exposing all the various sizes of the family.

We stayed right in Shipshewana.  Just after we pulled in, two Amish children and their pony Sally drove up to sell us some pastries and jelly.  They were bare foot and very sweet. Of course we bought both items.

 It was harvest time and we were able to see the Amish harvesting alfalfa.  

We also went to the bulk food store. Lots of buggies here.

From here we headed north to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.  It was fantastic!  If you are in this area don't miss it.  Henry Ford did not want any of our important history to be lost; so he bought up historical real estate, cars, trains, etc.  The museum includes Rosa Parks bus, many of the presidential limousines, gadgets from the 50's, 60's, etc. 

The Greenfield Village section of the museum has Edison's laboratory and office, the first house that had electricity, the Wright brother's house, Noah Webster's (dictionary) house to name a few.   They also have lots of running model  T's that were available to ride in.  We all took a ride in one.

 We were there on Father's day and they had their annual car show.  What a treat.


We stayed two days in Dearborn area at Camp Dearborn. It was originally created for the employees of General Motors.  It has RV sites, pools, a beach, fishing pond, soccer fields and large tents you can rent.  When General Motors went through its financial problems the Camp was taken over by the county.  Large sites. We recommend it.

Time to head to Canada!