On The Road Again, Again!

On The Road Again!

After over two years of COVID-19 imposed Maritime isolation, we finally reached the 14 day safety date after our second vaccine ‘jab’, and decided to venture once more out into the world beyond our nice safe Maritime Provinces zone to go visit our children in Ontario. Our son and his partner had donned multiple masks and face shields to escape their pandemic hot spot in Toronto and come to the relative safety of Nova Scotia last summer, but we had not seen our daughter and her husband for two years, so we were really looking forward to all getting together at our son’s new condo in Toronto. 

We really did not know what to expect leaving the province, but none of the provinces we traveled through had any border restrictions, although we did notice a line-up of people coming back into New Brunswick from Quebec, so expect to be stopped and quizzed on our vaccinations on our way home again. 

The first thing we noticed was that although there were lots of trucks on the roads, traffic in general was light and the drive was pleasant all the way. The lack of licence plates from other provinces and states was very obvious, most people were still sticking to their home provinces. Other than a U-Haul trailer with a Nevada plate towed by a car from Ontario I noticed no foreign vehicles at all. 

We stopped in Levis Quebec for the first night, and stayed at a motel owned by a couple from Venezuela. It was hard not to feel sorry for them as their motel was barely a quarter full and they had shut down the restaurant because of COVID. But they were happy to be here in Canada and not in their native country where they would have had to deal with not only COVID, but also a corrupt government and a large criminal element. 

Quebec City from across the River

Then we tried to find a place for dinner. A quick search on TripAdvisor gave a list of the 10 best restaurants in Levis, QC. However after a closer search, we found that nothing was open on Wednesday, except the chains or the fast food joints, and we wanted someplace interesting. However bouncing between the TripAdvisor site and the actual restaurant websites showed many different opinions of hours and days. One spot we were interested in showed it open on Wednesday on TripAdvisor, but the actual website said it was only open for take-out. Frustrated and confused we decided to get in the car and drive downtown and see what was there, and if we had to get fish & chips to go and sit on the bank of the St. Lawrence to eat dinner it would have to do. Locating the restaurant (Actually a very cool gastro-pub), we found a parking lot full of cars, and people out on a patio enjoying cool beverages. Obviously someone forgot to update the website. Not only were they open, they had really improved their menu and we ended up having a delicious dinner and excellent drinks. 

A rainy drive through Ontario

The following day, we drove through the rest go Quebec and into Ontario, arriving in Toronto happy to be able to connect with our children once more. 

So, our first real road trip revealed that although things are defiantly not back to “Normal”, things are improving and we may be on the road to recovery.