I last wrote from St. Williams, Ontario on the North Shore of Lake Erie. The area affords quiet, flat backroads for safe cycling. One wonders that there be enough market for the amount of Ginseng that has replaced the former tobacco fields. Campers may not appreciate rain but after overnight showers one can practically hear the corn growing. The Tobacco Exchange is about to be permanently closed illustrating the demise of a once proud industry in this area. In an area famous for fresh water fishing the Port Dover Legion sells fish sticks and frozen fries at its Friday Night Fish Dinners. The sign on the St Williams United Church announced last service June 28th. There are outdoor services on the pier in Port Rowan. Life is definitely taken at a slower pace here. A local complained about the Mennonites who let others fight their wars and took over family farms that came on the market because with their boys overseas aging families couldn’t make a go of them. He also complained about the effect these new neighbours had on local service clubs and businesses. His take on half a million bikers arriving in Port Dover on Friday the thirteenth was not particularly charitable.
After stopping half a day in Oakville I headed East across the top of Toronto and the next day braved more traffic on Highway 40 through the middle of Ile de Montreal. Packed camping at the Ivy Lea KOA was $55 a night. The next night I camped near Trois-Rivieres after negotiating with a non-English Speaking Quebecois. There’s more traffic on Highway 40 to Quebec City than I once encountered and St Hubert have changed the formula for the sauce that comes with their chicken dinners. It now comes with rice pilaf as well. The roadbed is also in need of repaving or actively being repaved. So far I’ve been lucky not to be held up by major construction projects. After crossing the Saint Lawrence I drove up Highway 20 through the Eastern Townships with a stop for gas and a visit to Subway for lunch. Last time I drove this highway through dense fog following a transport truck for safety. This time I had a brilliantly sunny day. At Rimouski all that was left was a parking site beside a motel parking lot; there was a 30 AMP hook-up, water, and high-speed Wi-Fi.
I encountered stiff cross-winds driving down the Matapedia Valley amid the steeply rolling hills and farmland. At the Bay of Chaleur crossed the bridge into New Brunswick and returned once more to the land of Salt Water. Was accorded lucky to find a campsite in Beresford near Bathurst. Acadians definitely exude joie de vivre. A local complains that this year lobster brings in only $3 a pound—not enough to cover the costs of the catch. Whether or not the price at the markets or on the menu reflect this I have yet to see. My attraction to rain continues and I spent an entire day at Malybel Park watching as shower followed shower, indeed I couldn’t even leave the park without first waiting out a reverberating thunderstorm the next morning. Fortunately I drove out of the rain as I headed south from Bathurst along Highway 8, crossed the Miramichi River and took Highway 11 to Kouchibouguac. Provincial Highways may provide an efficient route from point A to point B but they certainly don’t provide much scenic value however there are fewer speed zones, traffic lights and stretches of broken pavement.
Kouchibouguac National Park protects miles of tidal plains in the middle of New Brunswick’s Acadian Shoreline in a area where there is an uneasy peace existing with the local First Nations Mi’kmaq population. The park boasts 40 miles of biking trails and miles of boardwalks through sand dunes and salt marshes. The sandbars provide protected waters for canoeing and kayaking as well as habitat for a colony of 3 to 6 hundred seals, nesting terns, and protected nesting grounds for the endangered Piping Plover. The river estuaries are home to eels and fish populations. The summer interpretive programme is superlative. After camping at so many campgrounds with sites crammed together it is refreshing to see spacious level sites with long entryways and plenty of woods separating neighbours. This also enhances wildlife viewing opportunities by providing loads of natural habitat. I was pleased to have a mother ruffed grouse and her brood of 5 as neighbours.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wash lines are in again even in areas that once banned them by local ordinance. Whether clothing hung out to dry in smoggy Toronto can actually smell fresh is another question.
Halifax Sewage Treatment Plant. How could the failure of one valve cause $333,000,000 worth of damage? Did someone sabotage the place? Is it possible the people running the place could be that incompetent?
Talk about being a marked man. When a bank robber stuffed the loot down the front of his jeans the exploding dye-pack in the bundle of cash turned his crotch brilliant scarlet and left him with second degree powder burns in the area.
News of the Weird
In North Carolina a pregnant bank robber took a cell phone call in the middle of a robbery and became so involved in her call she walked out of the bank ignoring the cash the teller was trying to hand her.
In my book there is no circumstance in which it is other than extremely rude to abandon the person standing in front of you with whom you are dealing as a customer to answer a phone as happened to me at Kouchibouguac National Park today. Keeping that customer waiting while you talk to a fellow employee is right up there behind it as a turnoff.
In a CBC Comedy Podcast today I got a laugh at the suggestion that the seal hunt is good for the economy whether or not the hunt itself is still a profitable undertaking. The hunt attracts celebrity protestors who hire helicopters to get out to the ice flows, occupy expensive rooms and eat at pricy restaurants at a time when tourism is nearly non-existent.
To support the local tobacco industry in a province in China government workers are now required to buy a set number of cartons of cigarettes a month and schools have been allotted a similar quota. Are they actually attempting to reduce their population due to premature death by cancer? Are they taking into consideration the costs of health care?
In Canada our governments are shelling out our tax dollars at the rate of $2,000,000 per auto job they are supposedly protecting. Wouldn’t it be a better investment if they gave us a tax credit for the motor vehicles we buy? Those same automobile manufacturers are renting extra space for the cars they are unable to sell.
No comments:
Post a Comment