HOME Sweet Home

Did you smell us coming this evening?

We made it!  It was only a three hour drive home but, in good ol' fashion Russell-time, we took all day to do the final drive.  Go figure :)

We had a good breakfast, left the Visitor's Centre and headed to a free dump-out station that Mike found in a public park.  We dumped the trailer's "waste", refilled with fresh water to rinse it out and dumped again.  Now it is stewing with cleaners and water to make sure it is truly cleaned out.

On the way home we stopped for a few hours at the Kingston outlet stores.  I needed a little black dress for an upcoming wedding, Mike needed new hikers and the kids needed a few things for back to school.  I think we did good.

Upon arriving home we all got busy and made short work of gutting the truck and trailer.  It is totally unbelievable just how much junk was in that little space.  It seems like sooooo much once you let it loose.  Only the mountain of booze rivals the mountain of dirty laundry.  Scary!

Of all the things we left behind we all have agreed that we missed our family, friends, showers and beds the most.  Amazing what you can live without for a month.

That's about it for our trip.  It was an amazing experience and I hope the children remember the trip as they grow.  Maybe one day they will want to re-do the trip with their own kids or perhaps something similar.  As long as we have managed to instill a sense of adventure and curiosity in them then I will be happy!  Thank you for those of you who have helped to keep the fort and the lizards going while we were away.  We will collect the reptiles as soon as we can ... the kids miss them!

We are going to clean out Dragon and give it a good scrub inside and out.  After that we plan to sell her.  It is sad to think about but we have done all of the big trips we have immediately-planned for now.  If we decide that we want to continue travelling as we have been then we will get something different with a slightly different layout.  It would be nice to have a table and benches at least, instead of having only beds (the master bed was the folded-down table so we never actually raised the table).  We will see what the future brings us and take it from there.  True Russell style :)

Hopefully you have enjoyed following our blogs as much as we have had fun travelling and writing them.  They really started as a way for us to journal what we were doing but have blossomed into something much more.  It has been fun and we have appreciated the feedback and support!!

Muddy Friday

In the end, we all ended up muddy Loonies in the St. Lawrence today.  The mud felt really squishy and almost therapeutic as we squelched along the banks.  It started out clean as we hopped from rock to rock and then we ran out of rocks and we still hadn't reached the water's edge.  Once we gave up there was a whole lot of giggling and mucking about.  That was our morning.

We hit the road and drove for a while, listening to the new audio book and pissing off the kids every time we stopped it for a pee break.  I think they were also annoyed because they knew we were going to ask them to practice their French when we got to the cash register of any stores we hit.

In Montreal we stopped for Steamies at LeFleur as per our instructions from the Stevens.  The folks there were fun and helped us to order.  We tried a couple of words in French and they had to practice their English.  In the end we enjoyed our treat and had fun. 

We planned to pick a Walmart in Laval but the signs in the parking lots had us a little nervous.  That and the fact that there were zero other RVs in the lots.  We headed to the bagel place to grab as many bags of fresh, hot, delicious bagels as we could (they melted in our mouths) and then did a Costco run for beer.  We received many odd stares as Mike pushed our laden-cart with the two kids on top of the beer-mountain through the store.

That all done, we decided that the best place to stop for the night might just be an official rest stop rather than chancing the signed parking lots tonight.  We made it just inside the Ontario border and are watching the lightening as the kids settle in.  As Mackenzie pointed out, we left Ontario in the rain and we come back to rain.  In between we had nothing but gorgeous sunshine.  What is up with the weather here?

Tomorrow will see us home.  Bittersweet endings.  We are all looking forward to hot showers, clean clothes and our own big beds but it is always a little sad to have to say that the trip is over.  We have had a fabulous time together.

If you see no pics on this page it is only because they are not done uploading from my phone yet.  I will get them up asap.  Mike has most of the good pics from Montreal and Laval so you can look there for better ones.

Riviere du loup Loonies

So Walmart ended up with 70ish RVs last night... Crazy.  We left early in the hopes of catching a cruise up the StLawrence to see baluga whale but changed our minds once we got there.  After the cruise we had in Nfld nothing will be even close in comparison. 

So instead the boys are up to their knees and Mack is up to her wrists in squishy mud along Riviere du loup and then the plan is to drive and see what we see.  It will be a fun day.

Campsite to Walmart

So, maybe we have a bit of a new addiction going on.  Oops.  No "big drinks" on the road in Canada (the USA sure does that right!) So we have kept the kids hydrated with Gatorade and we have been using their empties for iced tea.  Not a great system but it has been working for us.

We drove with undies still drying with a fan on them today.  Almost there.

Our first objective today was the Ganong Chocolate Museum in St. Stephen.  Mackenzie really wanted to check it out for the samples so we went.  It was a neat little tour with a sample station that we may have visited twice.  Mmmmmmmm.... We bought a couple of chocolates for each of us and then went across the road to a little park to play.  We checked out the tide there and then got back in the truck. 

It's a driving day. Gotta make some tracks and aim for Quebec.  Mike downloaded a new audio book and it's pretty good.  The kids get mad whenever we have to turn it off for pee-breaks and stops.

We took an incredibly bumpy, dusty dirt sieroad for just over half an hour today.  Bumped into a group of people with what looked like a bedsheet amd stopped to ask what they were up to (just being nosey).  Turns out we were on the outside edge of a provincial park and they were prepping for some big scientists to come in over the next weeks.  They are collecting bugs and critters for them to do a geographical study of all the life in the area.  Kinda cool.

Still no moose on the roads though we did stop to check out one of the gates in the moose fence.

We made it to Quebec, bought a couple of beers for the night and parked at Walmart.  What a surprise here.  When we pulled in a few hours ago that were already over 30 RVs in the lot.  They have been streaming in ever since. Our "neighbours" say they have been to this one a few times and it is always busy.  What a crazy parking lot.  Oh...good news.  This is the first Walmart in three weeks to let us  onto their internet.  Not sure what but for some reason neither of us could actually use their free WiFi.  Now we can again.  Sweeeeeet!

Tomorrow we plan to rise early and see if we can catch a baluga whale watching tour.  Thanks kids aren't thrilled about the early hour but they are willing to do it in order to see the whales.

Not a word of a lie...

This is out of order... I will blog about today later but had to share this.

Not a word of a lie but there are well over 30RVs in the Walmart lot tonight and it's only 7:30pm.  We are just across the Quebec border from the East.  Crazy.

Final tides, ocean and seafood...and shower.

We had a good night sleep last night at the Shire and woke to a fresh batch of hungry mosquitoes in the trailer.  We made sure they were short lived before making breakfast and heading out.  The campsite was one of those rare finds that you kind of wonder whether or not it will turn out at first.  Well, this one was pretty cool and I am glad we took a chance on it.  Apparently it is land belonging to a family for seven generations and he last few have turned this chunk into a free camp area for travellers.  Mike chatted with the owner a bit and says he's a really nice, down to earth guy.

Anyhow, from The Shire we headed out towards Fundy National Park, stopping for sweetbread on the way of course.  We checked out the tides, rocks and creatures at Wolf Point Beach and then drove out the other side of the park in search of a swimming beach.   

 Very cool news:. Mackenzie and Matthew just finished all the Canadian Provinces for their Jr Xplorer tags!!  Yeah!  New Brunswick was their final tag for the collection 

Along the way we stopped in Saint John to check out a funky gift shop I saw.  It's run by a happy, exentric guy who immediately fave each of the kids a lollipop.  In a crowded shop full of glass knick knacks.  I say he wanted to get the kids all sugared up in the hopes that they would jump around and break junk that we would have to buy.  In reality he was just a happy, sweet guy and Matthew ended up buying himself a little stuffed lobster that he calls 'Mr. Crabs'.  Go figure.

We ended up at New River Campground in New River Beach Provincial Park this afternoon for a decent deal.  $30 for the night gets us hydro so we can charge devices without worry, actually plug in the coffee maker instead of boiling water (actually a huge perk), hand-held and hang-dry enough undies to get us home (we're getting desperate but we're to close to home now to pay for laundry) and have our last expected showers until we get home.  Not a bad deal for the price.

Our afternoon/evening event was the final opportunity to swim in the Atlantic Ocean on this trip so we all got wet.  I went in just over my knees...a record.  Mack stayed in for ten or fifteen minutes and the boys stayed in about 20-25 minutes with their snorkels and masks.  We left the gear all up as high as we could on the beach since the tide was coming in and we headed to the end of the sand to where the huge rocks were.  We spent nearly an hour going through the rocks and seaweed, checking out the sea life there.  The kids ended up making dams and rivers, trying to keep the tide from making it all the way around the back of the rocks but the tide was way too fast and strong.

Everyone was getting hungry and tired so we asked the campground people where to get a good  seafood dinner.  Lots of places close real early around here so our options were somewhat limited.  We ended up at BayBreeze Motel Restaurant, a little mom and pop place that, with six tables occupied, was "swamped".  Not bad food but not quite what we were expecting for the price.  Mike did get a really yummy lobster stew that was more like a soup but the rest came out as fries and deep fried shrimp or scallops.  Tasty and we'll cooked with really nice people so overall it was a good stop.

Now we are back at the trailer, showered (hooray!) and I think we got rid of the funky smell.  Lol.  Maybe it's just the smell of 'us' after four weeks on the road but we have done well keeping the trailer clean and tidy each day.  We kicked the dirty laundry bucket outside to air out and that has made a difference.  I probably shouldn't tell the world this but it's part of life on the road.... We did laundry a week and a half into the trip and not since.  We just got to busy and didn't get back to the trailer for bed until late.  Staying in parking lots is not conducive to getting those things taken care of and by that time each day we just wanted bed.  So now we sit here, three days out from home and it seems silly to spend time and money getting laundry done.  Instead we put enough undies in a bucket, got them washed and hung them outside.  No worries friends, you will smell us coming as we get closer to home!

Kicked out of swimming... Again

Busy, busy day today.  Amazing considering that we really had nothing but a direction on the map when we woke.  We had breakfast and showers before pumping out the trailer and heading out to the road.  Last night's campsite was pretty old but it worked for us. We all played with the tides, flew kites, broke open rocks, played pool and hogged the wifi.  Nice people there.  One of them, Arnold, came over and yacked with Mike about trailers and his late wife and the great white shark in the area (https://www.google.ca/amp/globalnews.ca/news/2864720/great-white-shark-seen-cruising-in-bay-of-fundy-near-st-andrews-n-b/amp/).  Apparently it hangs out way on the other side of the bay, has been tagged and is being monitored.  Very exciting!

From the campsite we headed to the Fundy Geological Museum to check out dinosaur stuff and more rocks.  Neat little place. 

The kids still hadn't bought anything from Nova Scotia yet so we checked out couple of small places before giving them ten minutes in Walmart.  Mack bought a little rubber crab and we all used the bathroom.  A little cheese and crackers lunch with salsa before heading on.

We drove on for a bit after that, checking out the visitor centre and kept heading closer to Hopwell Rocks where the tide revels incredible rock formations and changes by huge amounts every day.  We made it there just after  low tide and got to walk right on the beach for a while.  The boys could not resist the water and finally ended up jumping in for a swim.  Mack thought it would be fun to use the incredibly thick, slimy mud to decorate the boys' backs and they lined up for us.  After rinsing off once and getting decorated the second time we had to pause as a park official came over to say there was no swimming allowed.  When the boys showed off their mud and asked if they could just rinse off, they were still told no.  Phewey.  Once the guy wandered away the boys went in to rinse anyway.  Then we slowly explored the rest of the beach as the tide rapidly rose. 

It's a very cool place.  We went up to the parking lot to make dinner (mmmm... Sausages on the BBQ) and Mike helped a guy to plug his tire while we were there.  The couple he helped said they were going in to see the high tide before the park closed so we also took the opportunity to go back in and see the tide up high.  It was like a huge transformation.  There were kayakers out through the formations well above the sand that we had walked on only an hour or two before.  Mind blowing!

From the Hopwell Rocks we really had no plans beyond knowing that we have to hit the Fundy National Park tomorrow for the kids' final Xplorer tag.  We wandered the scenic road on the right general direction and noticed a small hand painted sign that said "Free Camping 1mile ahead".  Sure enough there was a large open area with a bug fire-crackers and canopy, a few people hanging around the fire and lots of smiles.  We got eaten by the mosquitoes but chatted up a few other travellers and exchanged notes before heading back to tuck in the kids.  The place has been named The Shire.  Amazing little gem!!

Tomorrow we head to the Fundy National Park and then try to log a few hours toward home.  We have been caught in our own trap of wanting to stop and see everything around us but we do have to start focusing on getting back eventually.