TROIS-RIVIERE QUBEC TO RIMOUSKI:: AT THE TIME OF PUBLISHING TONIGHT WE ARE BEING BATTERED BY DRIVING RAIN AND ROCKED BY 60MPH WIND GUSTS

HAD QUITE A TIME TAKING SOME PHOTOS IN 60 MPH WIND GUSTS LATE THIS AFTERNOON

Quiet night in the Trois-Riviere mall parking lot with only 3 other RV’s for company a fair distance away.  Checking the weather map we saw we were in for a rainy day.  No sooner had we the big wheels rolling at 7:25 when those very rains were fast upon us.  And they were upon us for the rest of the day non stop and heavy at times. 

OUR OVERNIGHTER SPOT IN TROIS-RIVIERE

RE-CROSSING THE LAVIOLETTE BRIDGE OVER THE ST LAWRENCE RIVER IN TROIS-RIVIERES

Starting out this morning from the west side of the St. Lawrence River we re-crossed the big green bridge on highway 55 East to the Trans Canada Highway whereupon we turned left and set our sites on Rimouski Quebec.  Traffic on the Trans Canada was thankfully light most of the way with a bit of a build-up east of Quebec City for a short distance.  The further we traveled  along the St. Lawrence River shores the nicer Quebec’s scenery became…….that is what we could see of it with the low cloud cover and constant rain.  There was no point stopping anywhere so we just plugged our way through it.

THIS PHOTO PRETTY MUCH SUMS UP OUR DAY

LOOKS NICE OVER THERE TOWARDS THE ST LAWRENCE RIVER

HAD TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR MOOSES

HEY COULD THOSE  BE ARIZONA’S CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS COMING UP??

<<< STOPPED AT A QUEBEC NATIONAL CAMPING AND RV PARK SOUTH OF RAMOUSKI BUT THEY WOULDN’T ALLOW DOGS SO KELLY SAID, ‘NO WAY JOSE’

Stopped in River de Loup at a PetroCan for gas and twenty minutes later our previously fine running engine began missing occasionally especially when accelerating sometimes.  Not all the time, just sometimes.  Kind of like hiccupping.  Finally got a solid engine light but not flashing.  Accept for the occasional missing the engine seems to be running fine and we’ve not experienced any loss of power like 4 years ago when it was the mass air flow filter.  Thanks again Chris the Jeep Guy for fixing that:))

MY CUSTOM ‘BRUCE BUILT’ COFFEE, SNACK, AND CAMERA BAR IS WORKING OUT PERFECTLY…..AND YES THAT IS A MUFFIN SITTING THERE:))

NOW THERE’S A COUPLE HAPPY CAMPERS

TRAVELING SNACKS

SUPPERTIME AT OUR HOUSE

 

AND YES THERE IS ALWAYS LOTS OF INTEREST IN WHAT DAD IS HAVING TO EAT AT ANY TIME

Rolled through Rimouski shortly after two and continued on 3 miles to a Historical Site right on the Gulf Of St Lawrence at Pointe-au-Pere.  A tragic event occurred near here about 9 miles offshore in the early hours of May 29th 1914.  Over a thousand lives were lost when the RMS Empress Of Ireland collided with the  Norwegian ship SS Storstad and sank in 14 minutes.  It was Canada’s little known Titanic disaster. 

THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND SANK OUT THERE ABOUT 9 MILES

WEATHER PERMITTING WE’LL BE HAVING A LOOK AROUND OVER THERE IN THE MORNING

LOOKING TOWARDS RIMOUSKI ABOUT THREE MILES AWAY AND I THINK I SEE A WHITE CHURCH

Also here where we are parked is one of Canada’s only remaining Oberon Class Submarines.   HMCS Onondaga S73 is now a museum and I will be boarding that Sub with camera in hand at 9 a.m. Saturday morning to have myself a look around.  I was stationed aboard a Canadain Destroyer back in the mid 60’s but I’ve never been aboard a Submarine.  In fact I may have seen the Onondaga before and even taken a couple photos of it.  I remember taking a picture in 1966 of I think 2 Subs tied up alongside each other in Nova Scotia’s Halifax harbor near the destroyer (HMCS Saguenay) I was on.  I still have that photo at home in one of my photo albums so I will be having a look at it when we get home. 

I CAN SEE THE SUBS CONNING TOUR FROM MY RECLINER WHERE WE ARE PARKED

THAT SUBMARINE SURE HAS A BULBOUS NOSE ON IT

We have us a great spot for the night or maybe two nights depending on the weather.  This historic site is very RV big rig friendly and there’s lots of parking with a unique twist.  Because of our atrocious weather this afternoon I was only able to manage a few photos between driving rain and some of the worst gusting winds we have experienced for awhile including those desert canyon winds of the American Southwest.  Checked the weather site and it says it’s 55F in Rimouski with wind gust warnings of 90klms an hour or about 60mph.  Our coach is just a rocking and it’s a tad cold out there with that wind chill factor figured in.  in my books it still beats the last couple weeks of hot and sticky in Ontario.  Weather people are calling for better conditions in the morning so I’ll grab a few more photos of this area we are in then.

THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE ALL 18MM WIDE ANGLE LENS SHOTS MAKING THE PARKING AREA LOOK BIGGER THAN IT ACTUALLY IS

THIS WHOLE MAN MADE PARKING AREA JUTS OUT INTO THE GULF OF ST LAWRENCE LIKE A PENINSULA

Driving along through the rain today I thought to myself, ‘I won’t have many photos for tonight’s post so I’ll resurrect a few of my Iroquois ship photos’.  Then we got to this historic site northeast of Rimouski.

After taking the above photos in heavy winds……the winds got even worse.  We had to quickly pull our slides in then reposition the rig to face directly into the wind gusts to cut down on the buffeting.  At the time of publishing this we are being battered by both wind and rain.  Maybe not too much sleep for us tonight.  Maybe we end up in the St Lawrence River swimming with the fishes:((

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The banker saw his old friend Tom, an eighty-year old rancher, in town. Tom had lost his wife a year or so before and rumor had it that he was marrying a 'mail order' bride. Being a good friend, the banker asked Tom if the rumor was true. Tom assured him that it was. The banker then asked Tom the age of his new bride to be.  Tom proudly said, 'She'll be twenty-one in November.'  Now the banker, being the wise man that he was,could see that the sexual appetite of a young woman could not be satisfied by an eighty year old man. Wanting his old friend's remaining years to be happy the banker tactfully suggested that Tom should consider getting a hired hand to help him out on the ranch, knowing nature would take its own course. Tom thought this was a good idea and said he would look for one that afternoon.  About four months later, the banker ran into Tom in town again. 'How's the new wife?', asked the banker. Tom proudly said, 'Good - she's pregnant.' The banker, happy that his sage advice had worked out, continued, 'And how's the hired hand?' Without hesitating, Tom said, 'She's pregnant too.'

Don't ever underestimate old Guys ……………….

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