2024 Bigger Truck across Canada day 3

Hopefully yesterday was the most stressful/eventful day of the trip. This morning, it was a little later start to the day, but so much better. The Montreal South KOA is immaculate, and the person at the desk was the Bizarro version of the person at the previous KOA. She was incredibly helpful, and pointed us in the direction of an RV dealer near our campground in Quebec City. Fingers crossed. Once we got on the road, we were excited since it was a mere 2.5hr drive to our destination, the Aquarium du Quebec. However, the Canadian powers that be had a little something else in store for us.

With our newfound arrangement of driving both vehicles, Kimberly was rewarded with a 45 minute full stop and go traffic jam due to this semi truck deciding to roll over in the median and back up both directions of the highway for many, many kilometers. Good thing the Jeep has a nice easy clutch. 3.5 hours into our 2.5hr drive, we needed to stop for petrol.

Just seeing the reaction from the kid at the counter since pay at the pump was disabled was worth it. It nearly surprised the France out of him. I assured him that yes, it is possible to rack up C$307 in a single transaction. It's all yours, courtesy of the red white & blue.

The final hour of our 2.5 hr drive (yes, we are now at 4.5) involved a bit more construction, traffic, and an exciting and creatively designed 6 into 2 lane merge just before crossing the St Lawrence and arriving in Quebec City. There, we arrived at the aquarium and mentally prepared ourselves for the one thing Jordan wanted to see more than anything on this trip. Historic architecture, you guess? Old Quebec, the only fortified city on this continent north of Mexico, you assume? Nope. Polar bears. And let me tell you, they did not disappoint.

I'll spare you the other 50 pics and videos we got, but they really know how to put on a show. There were 2 of them, and they were kicking the crap out of each other nonstop, it was like the Beute family basement circa 1977-1982 whenever the babysitter showed up. Jordan was completely giddy, which made it worth the 4.5 metric hours of construction and traffic to get here.

If you do find yourself in this historic city, this place is certainly worth a few hours of your time. It is directly on the shore of the St Lawrence, with this historic bridge in the background, which we discovered is an international historic civil engineering landmark. The engineering nerd in me was quite impressed.

Back to the aquarium - there were a few notable creatures, specifically the Sarlacc pit:

this guy, who seemed like he just wanted to hang out:

and this guy, who seemed like an aquatic Dr Seuss reimagining of Scrat from Ice Age:

From there, a quick trip down playground memory lane, allowing Jordan to experience the true joy of a dolphin on a coil spring (keep your shear strength jokes to yourselves, nerds)

Then it was back to the big truck to head to our campground, the aptly named Camping de la Joie. But not before a brief visit to an Inuit ice exhibit, where Jordan was definitely comfortable and not worried that we had potentially just been locked in a frozen shipping container.

A quick pic to remind ourselves that we have no idea where we are going or what anything is, and we were off.

On the way back to the parking lot, we realized that all the bikes we had seen on the way in were enjoying this riverside trail that must have some incredibly scenic overlooks, and also must be an Olympic trainig ground given the amount of spandex and full aero gear (do you really need the full Alien teardrop helmet for a Sunday afternoon cruise?)

Back at the campground, we were assigned to site 135, sized to accomodate a motorhome up to 35' in length. I admire the Canadian confidence that we would fit, and with a bit of finagaling (never actually spelled that word, certain that cannot be correct), we were set for the evening.

A quick hour of nap/downtime for the ladies, and it was off to Old Quebec City to explore, only about a 20 minute drive. We knew it was going to be cool, but I don't think any of us were prepared for what we saw.

We explored for just a bit before grabbing a bite to eat (and our first poutine of the trip!) at a joint called le Chic Shack, right at the base of the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. The atmosphere around the area was pretty vibrant, especially for a Sunday night. Street performers, influencers influencing, cars cruising, open air cafes and music everywhere, it was quite the experience. Once we finished dinner, the sun had set and it really became picturesque.

We were starting to fade, but Kimberly had one more spot for us to check out - Umbrella Alley. It was worth the hike all the way down to the waterfront.

At that point, I'm not sure I could have gotten us back up the hill with a Looney Tunes ACME cannon. As luck would have it, the Funiculaire was still running, giving us one last view of Old Quebec.

Now, we were done. Quick trip back to the campground, and down for the count til tomorrow. Cheers!

2024 Bigger Truck across Canada day 2

OK - we had a fantastic plan for today, and things went quite well after a disastrous experience last night at the KOA. Wrong site, next site didn't fit, very angsty/uncooperative person at the counter, tons of mosquitos, etc. Today, however, was a new day. Full Cousin Eddie (at the site - one bonus, full hookup), quick top off on the fresh water, and we were on the road by 8:10am. If you know the female contingent of this family, that is like leaving at 3am for most families.

Once on the road, we made great time, getting to Montreal at around 11:30am, with our admission to the Montreal Botanical Garden starting at 12:30pm. Plenty of time. We made it through a couple of tunnels (more on that later), and as we were about to take the final left turn onto Rue Viao, I noticed the Jeep appearing in my driver's side mirror. When we tow the Jeep, it is not visible in the mirrors, only via the backup camera. As I glanced down at the camera screen, I then saw the Jeep in the passenger side mirror. Not great, Bob.

After a moment of sheer panic, the realization set in. Something had gone very wrong with the towbar, and we needed to stop that moment. Halfway into the left turn lane, almost into the intersection. I jumped out, assessed the carnage, and ran around to the passenger side to grab the tools out of the storage compartment. Somehow the towbar had completely snapped in two, leaving only the safety cables and one arm holding the Jeep to the motorhome. I found myseld saying "stay calm" to no one in particular, I guess to myself.

Once we had the Jeep separated, it was time to quickly assess if any damage had occurred to either the Jeep or the Big Truck. Luckily the most damage appeared to be to the road, with some pretty deep gouges in pavement from the broken towbar. Kimberly then jumped into the Jeep and followed me to our destination. Jordan assumed shotgun duties, and had Kimberly on speakerphone. We didn't even discuss what had happened, just attempted to navigate the motorhome-width lane of the road to our destination.

What happened next, I'm actually quite proud of. While I went immediately into problem solving mode and spent the next half hour on the phone getting the run around in French from every RV dealer in the surrounding Montreal area, Kimberly and Jordan calmly navigated us to the entrance of the garden and put the entire situation behind us. I finally resigned myself to the fact that we weren't fixing anything until Monday, and realized that we were still completely self contained, we were just now traveling with 2 separate vehicles for the time being. Things could be worse.

Cue the botanical gardens to the rescue.

This place was huge. It is on the former Montreal Olympic grounds, so this thing is always looming in the background.

From there, it was on to the Biodome. No, not the 4% on rotten tomatoes Pauly Shore vehicle (do yourself a favor and watch that trailer, so many incredible cameos), but an actual dome containing multiple different exhibits based on the St Lawrence River region. Super cool, and very educational. But more importantly, since we were sunburned, hot, sweaty, and exhausted - it had a hallway made of ice.

This led to the penguin exhibit, always a favorite. Then a real life ROUS

From there, the place continued to amaze. It had a bit of a Truman Show feel, but the exhibits were impressive and the architecture was incredible.

Before we headed back to the campsite for the evening, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a local brewery. It did not disappoint, although our distinct lack of a grasp of the French language made it a bit challenging. This place was great, and I can attest to the quality their beers. This blog post is brought to you by their Belgian Quad, which while incredible, is only slightly better than their Tripel.

And finally - an acknowledgement that although today started off pretty much as poorly as it could have, we were quite fortunate. About 2 minutes before the towbar unalived itself, we were driving through these two tunnels.

I hate to think of how it would have gone had the tow bar exploded in the tunnels, so all in all today was still a pretty good day.

Tomorrow - 2.5 hrs to Quebec City, thankfully Kimberly can drive a stick (support Save the Manuals) so we're good until we get this rig patched up on Monday.

Cheers!

2024 Bigger Truck across Canada, day 1

Ok - it's been a bit since we fired this blog back up, mostly because the last 3 trips have not involved the motorhome. One ridiculous trip to a castle in Yakima (thanks Dimeses!), one incredible cruise to Alaska (thanks Papa Koster!), and one destination wedding in Maui (thanks Burgers!). This year, it was time to get back to rolling cross country (or in this case, intra-cross country? inter-cross country? semantics...). We've been to Maine a few times and have always enjoyed it, but have always wanted to visit Bay of Fundy while we're out there and have never been able to pull it off. This time it is our primary destination, with the bonus of being able to stop in Montreal, Quebec City, and plenty of other Canadian landmarks along the way. We're attempting to pull this off in less than 2 weeks, which is going to involve a few ambitious travel days. Take today for example - 11 hours, 537 miles (or 864km, eh), and a lot of this

and this

and a bit more of this

I believe this traffic was Canada's retribution for what was the most uneventful and efficient border crossing we have experienced to date. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth during the week (several circumstances led to Jordan's passport arriving via mail the afternoon before we left), our border agent asked for said passports, asked if we knew the motorhome's license plate #, and asked where we were headed. After telling him Bay of Fundy was our ultimate destination, he said "oh, that's a long haul, what about today?" to which I responded "Kingston". He said that was equally aggressive, handed us back the passports, and wished us good luck on our travels.

I like to think it is because I was so trustworthy, confident, and handsome. I realize it is because they already have all manner of cameras, sensors, travel history, and all of the government surveillance (5G vaccine intel via cell towers? I digress...) and already knew our entire history.

Either way, we were in the clear and free to navigate at 0.73% the cost of a trip in the US. Until we arrived at the gas pump. Luckily I had filled up just before we crossed the border, so after driving all day through our home and native land, we stopped for petrol just before hitting the campground so we can just roll in the AM. Here is the damage, good luck with all the conversions.

A few highlights of an otherwise uneventful travel day. As we crossed the border and headed past Sarnia (I have had several memorable and unable to be memorable experiences here during and post-college. Those will remain with those who were in the know, but man did this bring back some memories), we encountered Jordan's nemesis. The spiky windmill.

Back to the Sarnia memories for a moment - back in the day, there may or may not have been an incident where a member of our party was overserved by the locals, and said member offered to buy the next round with "some of these beer tokens (referring to their national currency, coins with a duck or a bear in the middle)". If that didn't endear us to the locals enough, said party then fanned out a bunch of their 'monopoly money' and asked "which color gets us the most drinks?". Good to be back. In my defense, I humbly submit the following:

Back to the trip at hand. One dynamic that has changed significantly since previous trips is we now have another driver in the family. It matters not, no one is going to drive the big truck anyway, but this year she served a stint as navigator.

This same navigator has stepped up into more of a trip planning role, so some of our destinations in Montreal and Quebec City are completely her doing. If you know me, you know that was difficult for me to relinquish those planning duties, but we will all be better for it. As we were discussing the Montreal Botanical Garden, we noticed this truck passing us.

We noticed the stray onion sitting on the back of the trailer, and kept pace with the truck for at least 20 minutes. I was just waiting for it to fall so I could make this reference, but it never did. Before we got to the campground, at the gas station we got to experiece pure Canada. As I'm watching the gas pump dial scroll to infinity, I am treated to the buzz of a license plate rattling to Dangerous Toys. Now I am not ashamed, but rather proud that I immediately recognized those tasty riffs from this masterpiece.

Not only did I recognize the song, but when my eyes caught up to my ears, the source was majestic. A guy who might as well have been Billy from Stranger Things was backed into a spot in his Chevy Beretta (no word on whether it was the coveted Z26 or not) and reveling in his experience. There may as well have been a billboard behind him saying "Welcome to Canada". I love it here.

I will leave you with this actual (context free) quote from Jordan. "I'm not staying in this big truck alone when there's French people outside."

Tomorrow, on to Montreal.

Cheers