Last sunrise in Gaspé. What a spectacular boondocks site find. We had the place to ourselves. Off season has its drawbacks but not enough to outweigh the lack of people. So much more enjoyable

Rising early to watch the sunrise was worth it. After a short talk about planning the day we decided to stay here as it is a very rare find and we are the only ones here. There is room to have 4 campsites on the bluff on the water. Maybe 2 other places if it was busy season. Incredible to have it all to ourselves. That means either two longer days, seven hours each or three 5 hour days to get home. I would rather try for two as highway driving once started might as well slog on through.  It is bear and moose season in Maine so boondocks sites are less attractive. Currently rabbit and grouse season here in Quebec. So a leisurely day it will be.  We stayed the extra day and watched so many different birds. Seals too. Eider Geese and Gannets were an all day event. Cormorants, and a breed of ducks that are huge, black and white males, brown females.  Tomorrow we do a long drive to get to Woodstock, New Brunswick. We will hopefully find a mom and pop motel that is still open. ...

 

 September 26 Days are long and that’s good except when one sits down to decant/recount the day. To do the day justice I’d liked to say how it unfurled mostly because it was mostly surprises. On the fly travel… hard for scheduler to dive into as it doesn’t work that way. No matter what one wants to happen in a left brain order, that is not how it will happen. Went to bed expecting a sunny day… midnight torrential rain for hours…. Up to fog and goose poop everywhere…them too. Luann decides to nix the breakfast at a place opening at b the crack of 9 am.  So egg sandwich at 7:30. I had an idea of where we were going after a discussion only to find that was out the window and we were backtracking an hour to The Gaspe Parc.  Luann and Lucy were restricted to a very specific hike due to 1/2 of the pack ID’s as dog. I decided to remain with truck to reconfigure the day plan. I have an app to help with locating boondocks sites that drops coordinates into Google Maps to see what i...

 September,  24 Tomorrow we enter Quebec and head northeast on back roads in an arc which brings us east of Quebec City on the St Lawrence seaway. This second night we are hoping for a boondocks site on a high, prominent hill overlooking the St Lawrence, northeast of Quebec municipality. Nothing much other than a safe harbor for the night. Hereafter we set our sights higher for places we can sit and relax with the hyperactive Lucy. You may ask quite rightly, “ why the hell did you bring your dog!?” The answer is, despite the calamity, I want her with us… as we are a pack… a pack sticks together no matter. Something like kids… do they make kennels for kids? Ha!  Well here we are. A fine day crossing the border and all I can say is how polite and friendly the Canadian border officer was. It makes me shrink-in thinking of our over militarized border. It looks ridiculous in  comparison. Barbed wire fences and X-ray bomb sniffers… border patrol with bullet proof vests and...

 Weather. Always a concern especially in a shoulder season where there is no telling what might occur. We find on looking ahead at the forecast that it looks remarkably cooperative! But, being an Irish New Englander I cast a leery eye at any stretch of sunny weather.... just not probable!