Day Three and Onward

 

 

The sun was up before I and peered through the cracks beside my window blinds at 7:00 this morning. All of Quebec and Eastern Ontario are on Eastern Time. Immediately south of us in New Brunswick it’s an hour earlier and across the border in Labrador being part of Newfoundland it’s an hour and a half earlier. Confused yet?

Spent a quiet lazy morning walking out to check the river just for the exercise. After lunch walked out to Boulevard Cartier, HWY 132, for the exercise. If cougars stay at the Wolf Motel who stays at Motel D’Amour or eats at the similarly named Snack Bar next door. In English Canada the neighbourhood would be termed Gasoline Alley for the gas stations, repair shops, and tire shops. Several more Motels and a Chinese FuXing Closed Lundi. Walked up the hill and got a coffee flavoured Crême Glacé thus defeating the purpose of my walk, oh well!

On Tuesday awoke to the sound of rain pattering on my roof vent at first mimicking the initial drips of coffee when my machine auto-starts. Around eight the Saint Lawrence Ferry’s fog horn blasted as it began its traverse of the river. After getting breakfast went back to bed and didn’t think about getting dressed until noontime. Internet service here remains terrible.

After the sun came out went for a walk around the park and filled a water jug. Exciting day, EH! Spent the evening reading.

Wednesday
Woke before the coffeemaker was set to come on and was off after dumping my holding tanks at 6:00. Stopped for enough gasoline at $1.28.4 to get me to New Brunswick. Today’s route marked the hills that are what remains of the Appalachian Range. Stopped across the border at Edmundston, NB to pick up Tête de violine--fiddleheads. Got them fresh from the swamp as I dumped the mesh bag myself. Chicken breasts at IGA Extra are three times the price I pay at Longos in Oakville. Gasoline at ESSO was $1.12.9, half a cent less than in Saint John where it is refined at Canada’s largest refinery. Transport trucks tend to speed on the downhill grades and slow down going up hill and there are the inevitable cranks who pass and slow down. For the most part I was able to maintain I island of no other traffic around me.

Stopped at the Saint John Tourist Bureau which opened just two weeks ago then found my way to Rockwood Park. Greeted the Quebecois campground manager and signed in for a week. Their credit card machine is under repair so I’ll see them later. Now it’s time to catch up online and go for a walk before it rains. Not supposed to do that until after midnight. Funny, the forecasters don’t look out a window here. Partly Sunny doesn’t account for the dense Fundy Fog. Today was the first time my vehicle was bombarded by kamikaze insects. After it rains tonight I have some work to do.

No pics today, fog doesn’t photograph well.

Day Two

I slept in again, so sue me. Construction greeted me on HWY 20 when I got to it. As usual some very rough patches including what one could only call poor grade asphalt. Traffic was not heavy on a Sunday Morning even past Quebec City. I managed the entire trip to the Gaspé on the fill-up I got in Brockville, Ontario. No head winds or crosswinds. A following breeze and flat terrain to gently downhill is good for gas mileage. A following truck doesn’t hurt either. Hit rain around Quebec City but outran it. Stopped at a rest area for a break but otherwise the trip was routine. La Sûreté du Québec were out in full force and their cruisers have large pop up “keep left” digital signs, they ignored me--I’m not complaining. Amusing that the Quebec Police Force is feminine. The name reads literally “Quebec Safety”.

More construction at Levis opposite Quebec City but little beyond very coarse pavement especially near my destination. Decided against Sunday Shopping but hit the Sunday Lunch Rush at St. Hubert and some cranky staff. The food was good as usual spoiled by wait staff that treated me as an ugly Anglais. Luck of the draw that.

Camping Du Quai on Rue De L’Ancrage is not busy and the sun was out when I arrived. The owner welcomed me by name. Something changed to make the splendid Wi-Fi Service I once enjoyed here second rate. It fades in and out and works by fits and starts. Le Chateau de Pierre Noel is still across the way and the speakers broadcast Christmas Carols. The whole area is lit up at night with Christmas lights. The Robins have returned and the White-Throated Sparrows are carolling. The Dandelions are in full bloom and the hardwoods just starting to bud. The wind off the Wolf River, Rivière-Du-Loup is cold. The once basking sea wolves that gave the place its name were seals.

East Coast Sojourn 2015

Wouldn’t you know, I just couldn’t get to sleep last night. Gave up on an early start in favour of 6 hours sleep. Did not get off until 8:00 AM after several trips back to pick up items I figured I’d forgotten. At this point I can’t find anything including my sanity.

On a Saturday morning after the long weekend traffic was quiet crossing the top of Toronto. Drove north of the 401 in Napanee East of Belleville for brunch at Denny’s. Barbara was pleasant and apologized for the lack of Bold Coffee--what they did have was good as was my Omelet Supreme. The Flying J washroom was disgusting.

Stopped in Brockville to fill my gas tank at $1.10/L. Getting past Montreal is imperative as they have a surcharge on top of the already high PQ rate.

Stopped again just inside La Belle Province to visit the tourist bureau. Two lonely female agents were rather reluctant to share their largess. The bridge over the Saint Lawrence on the new HWY 30 Montreal bypass comes with a $2.40 toll. Un jeung fils in the toll booth. My GPS doesn’t know from HWY 30 and directed me to take a right turn into the Saint Lawrence I felt it wise to ignore. Floating down the river is not an option and the lock fees would probably scare me. The tides back up the river all the way to Quebec City.

Long before the term aggressive driving was coined Quebec drivers had it down cold. Expect them to follow too close and pass you on a whim pulling in front of you so close you’d swear you are going to lose your front bumper. You haven’t lived until someone makes a five-lane exit in front of you at 80 mph. The sight of a Sûreté du Quebec cruiser causes a massive lighting up of brake lights.

My GPS still hasn’t figured out where Camping Aloutte is in Saint-Matthieu-Du Boleil. It even has it on the wrong side of the highway. The shoulder rate for one night was  $45 plus 6.74 in taxes. Quiet here, I got a site on the heights overlooking HWY 20. Montreal has commercial Radio Classique en Français. I could do without the ads but it isn’t gospel or cawntry.

Thomas Hardy

In all literature Thomas Hardy is one of the driest most boring pedestrian writers that ever put pen to paper. His characters don’t have sex for example but seem to procreate sort of like lab techs in Petri dishes. I was mystified when he hit the best-seller list in the wake of the movie Tess and now we are faced with yet another opus. The critics like these adaptations but I can’t imagine the books they’re based on as being mainstream.

Traffic Calming

Pedestrian-vehicular collisions and speeding have been in the news lately and an outcry has risen for measures to overcome the problem. Alas the question is how do we counteract human nature?

What doesn’t work?

n    Speed bumps--an abomination, just ask emergency vehicle drivers.
n    Four-way stop signs and traffic lights--create more noise from braking and slingshot starts and drivers speed up between them. Parents who ignore local stop signs teach their kids to ignore them.
n    Enforcement--the speeders caught typically live in the neighbourhood and all too often prove to be the complainers. Famously(?) one driver was caught speeding on a local road twice within half an hour. Obviously he learned nothing.

What does work?

n    The wider the streets the faster people drive on them.
n    Limit through streets in residential neighbourhoods.
n    Boulevard plantings and curving roads.
n    Traffic circles at intersections--also keep traffic moving.

Pet Peeves

A walk along a major thoroughfare will make it hard to believe there’s a law against texting or using a cellphone while driving.

Is there a law against signalling a turn or lane change?

Speeding is one thing but following too close simply ignores the basic laws of physics.

Leave sufficient room between you and the car ahead and some idiot is bound to leap-frog in front of you.

Aggressive driving has become epidemic.

Jaywalking is one thing but texting while walking?

If you don’t like my driving stay off the sidewalk.

The street is not a playground.

Leave in time to arrive early, don’t wait until the last minute and step on the gas to make it.

May Day Trip 2015

Thursday May 7 was Monthly Fire Alarm Testing Day. That special Hell deemed necessary to keep residents safe. Seemed like a good day to absent myself from my apartment.

First step was gassing up as my last fill-up was just North of Akron Ohio. Husky, just up the street wants to put a $200 hold on your credit card when you select Fill at their pump--not. Gas was $1.127/L and I got $100 worth which did not fill my tank. Oh Well.

Next stop was Postridge Longterm Care Facility to drop in and visit my former neighbour who just celebrated his 90th. Should I live another 25 I would hope someone cares enough to come visit me.

Headed West on Dundas St which is an extensive construction project for much of its length. The dump truck I played hop scotch with did not observe the speed limit. Turned down Bronte Rd on both sides of which house construction proceeds apace. There’s a new entrance onto the QEW which uses a lane on the bridge across the Creek as an on ramp new since I last drove it.

Crossed the city of Burlington and got off 403 at HWY 6 where I discovered a new to me alignment with Plains Rd to get down to the Royal Botanical Gardens. Checked out the Japanese Cherry Blossoms in the Rock Garden Parking Area which is a major work zone as the Rock Garden is being rebuilt. Drove over to the RBG Centre where more change awaited me. The rear entrance is closed and no one gets in without paying or as I did flashing their membership card. Not a heck of a lot happening this early in the season here but I toured the Mediterranean Garden and a few other newer structures inside the centre. Didn’t go upstairs to see the art gallery if it’s still there. Took a look at Eastabrooks Footlongs as a bike rider drove by shouting overpriced. I agreed.

Drove East on Plains Rd and down eventually to New St and Guelph Line to get a double scoop at Eastabrooks there. They were as always a generous size but my Black Sweet Cherry cost $4.80! As the sign says, Tell others about us, the owner has 5 kids. Eating an ice cream cone with a full beard and moustache is a messy process. Wandered the adjacent mini-strip mall. The afterschool Karate Centre complete with van pick-up service has a chiropractor next door--coincidence? Also a tatto parlour and free-standing second hand store.

Drove East on New and eventually down to Lakeshore all the way back to Bronte Rd. When did they put in a barrier to prevent through traffic into Bronte Village Mall from Bronte Rd? Backing out of there was not fun but I didn’t hit anything despite the three cars that careened around me.

Picked up a few groceries at Sobeys and stashed them, then crossed LSW to tour the area. Once Triller St Bronte I delivered mail to the old Centriller School and the Magnet Inn, (brothel), across the road years ago. Denningers is moving to new digs and at the corner I discovered El Spero newly moved down from Hopeless Mall. The iconic Allan Drugs at the Corner is gone.

 

John Oliver’s Electioneering Office faces Bronte Rd. He visited me recently at my door and the election writ isn’t expected until this Fall. I said Hello and wasn’t even offered a button. Walked down Bronte Rd, formerly Trafalgar Rd, Bronte, which is unrecognisable from the days when I delivered mail here. Lakeside Marketeria is long gone. The blockbusting Condo Development, a MURB, has been completed since I last walked here.  Had a look in an art gallery where I may go back for a crow silhouette, only $100 in black metal. As I approached the harbour and Lake Ontario matters cooled significantly. Didn’t find the tea shoppe I remembered from past years. Walked into the Coach and Four Pub but decided my ice cream was holding all too well.

Found my Van and drove East on LSW all the way to Trafalgar then North and home. No bells in my ears when I got back to my apartment.

Women in the Military

Women have always found ways to disguise their identity and fight beside their brothers but the military has always considered itself a male preserve. The idea of women in a combat zone was formerly anathema. Blacks were not integrated into the armed services until the mid-twentieth century for reasons of morale. Gays either put up and shut up or stayed away. The average soldier has appeared rather red-necked and racist. Society may ram gender equality down the forces’ throats but they could not make the men in the ranks like it. Anyone invading this club had better be prepared to take their medicine. The idea of women in the confined space of a submarine seems almost laughable. None of this touches the resentment fuelled by special concessions or the need to retrofit housing, barracks and seaboard quarters for women. The idea of taking orders from a woman.... We can’t expect the military to make advancements beyond the society from which it draws its manpower. Women still face inferior wages, glass ceilings, and the expectation that they be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Many religious organizations including the Catholic Church, Jewry, and the Morman’s still keep women “in their place”. All this doesn’t make sexual harassment right but it does serve to explain why it occurs. Those on the cutting edge always face an uphill battle.

Workers Defense Project

Attended the march on the Capitol Workers Defence Project Austin Texas staged last February in solidarity but wonder if such events are more about rallying the troops than effecting change. In particular it struck me that most of the politicians that would be influenced probably don’t understand Spanish.

I have been reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and find it very enlightening. Labour Laws in Texas put me in mind of the conditions Charles Dickens railed about nearly two centuries ago. I see little difference between the way construction workers are treated and slavery.

Changing the system as it now exists is not in the self-interest of the Politicians on Capitol Hill. The system by which these people are elected and paid or not paid ensures that only the rich and powerful can afford to run for office. Finding a means of shaming these people into action would seem the only practical solution.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin did more to bring down slavery than any number of protests and rebellions. I believe  sympathetic and famous writers need to be inspired to write memoirs or fictional accounts to expose the evils of construction work in Texas. I’m sure there would be no problem finding case histories and individuals who would be willing to supply background for such accounts.

Self-Discipline

The old adage of “Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child” has seen the pendulum swing to a permissive society in which children know their rights and discipline is a dirty word, self-discipline virtually unknown. Creativity and Self-Expression trump learning proper grammar and spelling. Recent online articles emphasize the problem of young parents feeling entitled to inflict their badly behaving screaming youngsters on their fellow restaurant diners. Were I to become drunken and unruly I’d expect to be asked to leave, why should these children be any different. Forgive me for thinking that until children have learned how to behave in public their parents should order home-delivery, take-out, or do their own cooking until their children learn self-discipline. Or they can frequent MacDonalds or Chuck-E--Cheese as has been suggested, establishments that cater to their needs and allow the rest of us to eat in peace.

An obsession with constant online contact and instant communication has led to an epidemic of texting in public places, particularly distracting to fellow theatre goers. Hand-held devices have led to the need for laws to make texting while driving illegal. A generation of new writers raised using instant-messaging shorthand combined with self-publishing has lead to the release of e-books that lack professional editing displaying an ignorance of grammar, syntax, or proper spelling.

Home Stretch

Aggravating is the discovery a few miles down the road that you paid 10¢/gal too much for gasoline. The going rate today in Ohio is $2.29 but I couldn’t get online this morning to check that out. Such are the pitfalls of travel. Driving through the countryside I found the signs advertising gun shops strangely at odds with the two hoardings that listed the Ten Commandments. At least there was no visible signs of bullet holes next “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Plenty of traffic and State Troopers appeared to be out in force. Signs indicated areas of Drug Use, beware DUI Drivers. Not a fact featured in the state tourism brochures I’m certain.

Finding Crosscreek Campground eluded my GPS once more. At least I had a drive through the country for my troubles and I eventually found the place. Spent a quiet afternoon and evening. Fell asleep for several hours in the afternoon and spent the evening reading and writing E-mail. Alas, the formerly good Wi-Fi service here let me down.

Slept in again and got off finally around 9 AM. Today was the first I had to contend with a gusting crosswind. Every now and then I make a smart choice. I filled up my gas tank somewhere near Akron Ohio before crossing into Pennsylvania. I paid $2.29, it’s $2.59 in Erie. Ouch! Just short of arriving in Erie a tiny insect came in through my air vent and landed in my left eye somehow getting past my glasses. This is my good eye. I could feel it squirming around in there but being in the middle lane of an expressway I had no place to stop.

When I found Sara’s Campground the sign in the window read Closed--I didn’t try the door. The snow drift remaining where the snow was pushed this winter was not particularly promising. Double Ouch. Got a ticket for a site across the road--$38/night from a dear little old gal who acted as if I was the first person she’s served this year. Got a Wi-Fi ticket and it works. The campground is no shakes but the hydro works and once the curtains are drawn....

Stopped at a Dennys near Akron today that looked like a Sixties Diner from American Graffiti complete with the sound track. Brunch was good but Kindle on my Tablet refused to open the book I’ve been reading on my laptop, then told me I’d already bought it when I went to the website--well, dah! Waste of time and frustration. Dumb technology. Spent the day listening to Guardian Buk Podcasts. Alas, I have 24 hours of podcasts remaining in that series, fourteen day’s worth in total.

Sara’s at the foot of Presque Isle State Park in Erie Pennsylvania is a mini-empire. If location means everything for a business this place has it in spades. On the west side of the boulevard is a beach-front campground with a secondary to the east fronted by a series of fast food eateries on the way into the State Park. On what was the first warm spring day here on Lake Erie the line-up for the drive-through window at the burger joint was 15 cars deep, the parking lot full. It would appear to be the kind of joint frequented for generations as soon as teens can drive. The largely seasonal campsites are packed in like sardines but again think location. Fifteen miles of hiking trails and at least twice as many beach front parking lots on the sand spit and to the south an amusement park complex. Just open with a snow drift still in place beside the office whose sign read ‘closed’ the overnight spaces east of the blvd were empty. A paved platform with full hook-ups provided what would in season be cramped quarters. The Wi-Fi worked for me. A cold front blew in from the west dropping the temperature from 80 to 50 in minutes and bringing thundershowers here without the pyrotechnics. Must have sent the people eating burgers and curly fries at outdoor plastic picnic tables scrambling for cover. Only an electrician in a lift basket kept me company as the wind howled through the barren tree branches overhead.

A week later I’ve finally gotten around to completing this saga. Boring is good. Made it home on the gasoline I bought in Ohio. The look of a Lake Erie which is still frozen over was rather chilling. After the dump truck debacle which shut down the Northbound Burlington Skyway there are now two over-height sensors installed. Customs proved a painless experience. I even paused to chat before I left the booth. Stopped by the Tourism Booth for a break and to collect Bumph. Made it home without incident as predicted at 1:00 PM Sharp and found my parking space. Traffic on the QEW Hamilton to Toronto is always heavy but at least there were no slowdowns.

My last night on the road saw heavy thunder showers but nothing more violent and the air was calm for my drive. Having a soak in my own bathtub felt good. I need another. Sleeping in my own bed....

I was home a week Tuesday. Reality is beginning to set in.