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.   

Road Trip

Breakfast In New Brunswick

This summer we are going on an old fashioned road trip, driving from Dartmouth, up to visit our daughter, Alisha in Kejick Bay, Ontario. On the way we plan to stop in Quebec City, Brockville, Peterborough, Toronto, Sault Ste Marie, Thunder bay and finally Kejick Bay. Some stops are just overnights, but we are visiting our son Ryan in Toronto, and finally getting to meet some of Derek, our daughter's fiance's family.

This trip was completely organized by me. Anyone who knows us will know that this is not the usual, as Regis normally does ALL of the trip planning, but this one I have done myself. The goal was to visit Alisha, so it was organized around getting to her school before the last day of school, so she could bring her parents to visit her school. I simply split the trip up on Google Maps into reasonable driving distances with stops in Toronto, Peterborough and Thunder Bay to spent time with people.

This did not work out so well . . . . our planned stop in Quebec City coincided with the G7 meeting, so visiting the beautiful old part of this lovely city was not advised. Even out where we were there were busses full of RCMP who provided security for the meeting. As well, we could not bypass Quebec City for Montreal, as the Canada Grand Prix was being run, so it would also have been way too busy. Then, our son who we planned to visit in Toronto called to say he was suddenly told that he had an unavoidable two day meeting in Halifax during our two day stop in Toronto.

A chilly picnic lunch

The first part of the trip from Dartmouth to Toronto is very familiar for us, as we have been visiting our son in Ottawa and Toronto for over 10 years, so the drive is comfortable but it is always interesting to see the differences. Since we started driving the route through New Brunswick into Quebec, the road connecting the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick to the Quebec Highway 20 along the south side of the St. Lawrence River has been under construction. Every year there is a tiny bit more that is twined but there does not seem a lot of interest in completing this 95 km section of road into a real highway.

Dinner In Quebec City

We have a routine for this section of the trip. We get up early, stop outside Moncton for breakfast and then in Edmundston for lunch. This usually got us to Ottawa in time for dinner with our son. This trip we are trying something different. I put together a little two person Picnic bag, and we have a nice 12 volt cooler for the car, so we plan to stop for lunch at rest stops or picnic areas. It was a good plan except for the chilly 10° temperature at the first rest stop in Quebec, so our first picnic stop was a bit of a rushed meal to get back in the warm car.

I hope I can find interesting topics to write for the blog on this road trip. I appreciate all the people who told me they were looking forward to me travel tales.