QC Archives - Our View From The Road

Day 29 – Home

Today was not what we had planned, it ended at home. We awoke relatively early enjoyed breakfast in the van, tidied up and set out.

Our first stop was just a few minutes down the road at the park in Nackawic where we saw a very Big Axe!

Returning to the Trans Canada Highway we head North towards the Québec border. It’s Sunday morning and the traffic is almost nonexistent as we wind our way along the shore of the St John River. The highway offers some lovely views of the river valley.

Crossing into Québec we also return to Eastern Daylight Time gaining an hour back. This leads me to conclude that we would be arriving at Drummondville before 2:00pm. As Drummondville is only about 3hrs from home, I put it to Barb that we could skip one last night of camping in the van and drive straight home and sleep in our own bed. Decision made! Home we go.

Traffic along the St Lawrence South shore is busy and gets busier the closer we get to Montréal, but we only get stopped a few times and make good headway. As we have done before, we take Autoroute 30 across the south side of Montréal towards Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and then North across the St Lawrence River to Autoroute 20 where we head West towards Ontario.

We stop in Cornwall, ON for our last gasoline fill up and then head to the Long Sault Parkway to use the publicly accessible RV dump station where we empty our tanks one last time.

45min later we drive into our laneway, tired but happy to be home. 11hrs of driving and we have a pizza waiting for us thanks to our daughter.

In all, 28 days to cover 8,184km. The total drive time being just shy of 112 hours and the campervan now has almost 75,000km of exploration completed. Where will we go next?

Day 02 – ‘I was expecting it to be bigger.’

This was the second time we had camped at https://campingpointerdl.ca/en/ and would highly recommend the campground for anyone passing through this area. The sites are clean and mostly level with decent hookups. The service buildings are brand new and thus well lit and clean. The showers are individual, spotless and rate a 10/10 (not exaggerating).

Our route out of town took us through the historical downtown of Rivière-de-loop before depositing us back onto the Trans-Canada Highway heading towards New Brunswick where we would spend a few hours heading South.

We stopped near Hartland, NB to visit the Covered Bridge Potato Chips location forgetting that it had burned to the ground in 2024. They have opened a temporary store in a trailer. Upon discovering this, Barb exclaimed “I was expecting it to be bigger!”

A few shots in and around Covered Bridge Store

We parked and went in to look around and ended up purchasing 4 bags of chips (crisps) in various flavors (as one does) before returning to the van where we enjoyed a grilled smoked meat sandwich accompanied by cheddar cheese chips. Mmmm.

2 more hours of highway driven and we stop for gas near Gagetown, NB. The middle of nowhere as I could not see any community nearby to support the business, but here it was busy and thriving.

Another stint of highway driving and we cross into Nova Scotia where we stopped at Masstown, NS for Fish & Chips.

Last driving leg today saw us drive to New Glasgow, NS where we have parked up for the night at the Atlantic Superstore (after confirming with store staff that this would be OK).

This ends our 2-day sprint to Canada’s East Coast. From here things will slow down considerably as we take our time exploring and sightseeing. Tomorrow we are heading to Cape Breton.

Day 01 – Heading Out

I didn’t sleep well last night, could be that I’m excited to get away for a bit or more likely that I’m getting over a man-cold and I gave in to the mad coughing fit at 4:30am. So, 5:00am I’m up and getting my day started with my usual morning routine of a light breakfast, a couple of online word puzzles and then some YouTube.

Of course, during this morning routine I somehow manage to fall asleep for an hour thus making up for lost sleep. Go figure.

By 9:00am we’re both showered and are putting together the last few items that need to be packed into the van. After 4 years of doing this we’re still amazed at just how much we can squirrel away in such a small space. I’m not sure we’ll find some of what we’ve packed, but it’s there if we need it.

We leave the laneway shortly before 10:00am and head towards Montreal, where we take Autoroute 30 around the south-side of the city and join Autoroute 20 heading East. No issues with traffic and after just 2 hours we’re clear of the city and on the country.

Spring is finally well and truly here with all of the trees now in leaf across the Eastern Townships of Québec. We stop at a rest stop briefly for some lunch and then continue on towards Levis.

When we left the house this morning the skies were grey and rain was imminent. However, by the time we get to Levis, the skies are clear and the sunshine is wonderful. 17-19°C is very comfortable.

After stopping briefly for gas ($1.839 CAD / liter) we complete our days driving by stopping at Rivière-du-Loup where we have a campsite reservation for the night.

The campsite overlooks the St Lawrence River and on clear days such as today has some of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve ever seen. I’ll drop a couple of photos below for you to check out.

Day 05: Going home

Another beautiful start to the day; however, the early sunny skies would be short-lived as Mother Nature was set to bring rain for the duration of the long-weekend. We had unwittingly chosen to camp during the nicest four days we’ve had this year to-date.

We packed up and left our campsite before 9:00am. A quick stop to dump the van tanks on our way out and we left Labelle both saying that we would return again as the stay had been relaxing and quiet.

The drive home followed the same route back towards Gatineau. The hills have greened up considerably over the past few days and it’s really now looking like Spring has arrived.

The drive into Gatineau and then Ottawa provides the nicest overview of our nations capital as you arrive at some elevation above the city which affords a fabulous view of the city. Crossing back into Ontario, also presents a great view of Parliament hill; however, it is currently under renovation and has two tower cranes attached which detract from the view somewhat.

Another adventure complete, we returned home and spent the afternoon unpacking the van and getting settled back in the house. Thanks for reading along and following us on our journeys. Hopefully we’ll be back on the road again shortly. 😎

Day 04: Looking for pastries

The day started with pancakes with real Maple syrup, eggs and bacon cooked on our outdoor griddle. Coffee accompanied the food in preparation for our second day of cycling on the P’tit train du Nord trail.

We again started at the old Labelle train station but headed North this time towards Macaza and Rivière-Rouge. We expected the trail in this direction to be a little quieter as we were heading further away from the Mont-Tremblant area and its tourists.

Today’s planned route was about 20km each way which would be about 10km longer than our first day of cycling, as such we were both hoping that our bodies would not complain too loudly at our efforts.

Arriving in Macaza we came across a wonderful old railway bridge that spanned the Rivière Rouge. It was a perfect spot for a few pictures.

Further up the trail we passed under the power lines that delivered electricity to the city of Montreal from the James Bay power stations in the Quebec north country. A few kilometres later we arrived in the town of Rivière-Rouge where we sought out and found La Boulangerie de Rivière-Rouge. Time for pastries!!

We sat at a picnic table adjacent to the trail to enjoy our freshly acquired Choclatines and Almondines. This is the purpose of cycling, right?

Our ride back to Labelle was enjoyable, but my body was complaining a lot by time we arrived back at the Bar P’tit Train du Nord where we once again enjoyed a beer and this time a sandwich as our ride ending reward.

Our two-day cycling adventure was now complete and a wonderful success. We both are looking forward to returning and riding other sections of this trail in the future. Riding in the shoulder-season (before or after Summer vacationers swarm the area) is relaxing and allowed us to really enjoy the scenery that nature offers us in this area.

For now we return to our campsite and rest ahead of our steak dinner which we have planned for tonight. The day after once again ends with us enjoying a movie on Netflix, this time ‘Back in Action’ starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. A lighthearted spy movie that kept us entertained throughout. 👍👍