Day 20 - Free Samples and the Long Ride Home

When we woke up it was still raining, but thankfully it began to taper off quickly. We packed up our still wet camper once again and headed off to our first stop of the day - Cabot Cheese. Anyone who's unfamiliar with the brand is missing out. If you have the opportunity to get a hold of some of their Vintage choice, do it! We hit up the sample table, bought enough cheese to fill up whatever space was left in our 60qt fridge, and took the tour. Photos don't really do it justice, so I'll omit them in exchange for the Cabot logo.

Stop number two - Ben & Jerry's. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the trendiness that is Ben & Jerry's, nor do I really get into all the funky flavors. But I can respect where they come from, and I love ice cream, so why not. At least I got to find out why they killed one of the few funky flavors I liked, 'White Russian'.,

Further down the road we stopped at 'The Vermont Country Store'. Lindy had read about it somewhere and it sounded neat, so we made another touristy stop. This place is basically the Cracker Barrel general store on steroids, but we didn't really find anything that we could really get into, so we left empty handed.

Our plan for the night was originally find another campground and take our time going home on backroads. Unfortunately though, we were getting pretty tired of the dismal weather, and figured we'd instead shoot for Connecticut, with the hope of couch surfing with some friends. We finally were able to reach them on the phone mid afternoon, only to find out they were out of town for the evening. We faced two choices, random hotel, or drive home. Nevermind the fact that our day started at 7am and we were a long long way from Fredericksburg and running on minimal sleep with a ton of traffic on the highways between us and our destination, we said screw it, and decided that unless there come Hell or high water, we were making it home tonight. Several hours later, we pulled into the drive at 4am, and slept in our own beds.

Day 19 - Coming To America

Today was fairly straightforward. The rain started last night, and continued all day long. We packed up camp and headed for the border, other than the ridiculously long lines, we skirted through with no problems. Once in Vermont we began to see signs of the destruction that Irene's passing a couple weeks prior had left behind with roads closed and bridges washed out everywhere. It was still pouring rain, so we found a state park and set up camp, there was a break just long enough for JD to go for a walk and view some local wildlife, but that was about it. We deployed the awning so we could at least dine outside the camper, but with the unrelenting rain quickly retreated to the camper. After a couple wet nights the canvas was finally starting to saturate and our bedding was starting to get wet, I was starting to get my fill of rain, as this has undoubtedly been the wettest trip we've ever done.

 French Quizno's

 Our view for most of the day

 JD and his new friend

Day 18 - Team America, we are not

So, we're in Quebec for the day, heading down to Quebec City. We know nothing, really, about Quebec, and we don't speak French, at all. This could be fun...

So far in Quebec we'd been in the country side, but as we progressed south we were entering their version of civilization. Here we began to encounter some interesting brands, our favorites being "Couche-Tard" (can someone please translate this??) and PFK :).

 

Further down the road we stopped for lunch, at a McDonald's. Our thoughts were - 'at least we know what's on the menu'. I attempted to order the Bacon and Cheese Angus combo, which went fairly well, while Lindy went the order-by-number route, 'Great Succes!' /Borat. Unfortunately, a wrench was thrown into my plan when we sat down at the table and I found my burger was incorrectly made as the mushroom Angus variant, and I hate mushrooms.... So I made the long walk back to the counter to attempt to get a replacement burger, how, I wasn't sure. My transaction with the manager went something like this:

Manager - something in French
Me (pointing at burger with bun removed) - "No" "ummm" "Bacon?"
Manager - something in French
Me (pointing at the correct picture on the menu) - "Bacon, si vous plait"
Manager - something in French
Me (looking more confused than ever) - "Bacon?!?!"
Manager - says something in French and takes my burger, comes back with correct one
Me - "Gracias, I mean, Merci!"


With some food in our stomach's we headed off, but couldn't help but notice there might be more of a downtown than what we had thought. Sure enough, we were on the outskirts of St. Paul (I think) and there was a really quaint downtown area, so we took advantage of the break in the rain (did I mention it had been raining all day thus far?) and walked around town for a bit.

A while later we reached the edge of Quebec City. Lindy had the bright idea to flip on the radio as we hit the interstate to see what French radio was like. We were shocked when the station it landed on was playing "Numa Numa" and we busted out laughing, so we proceeded to blast Numa all the way through Quebec City on the highway heading towards our supposed campground for the night, a KOA! (technical note - KOA's are not always our chosen method to camp, but based on past experiences being near cities, we figured it was a safe bet). We checked in, located our site, and weighed our options for getting into the city for the evening. We found out that dogs were not permitted on the shuttle buses, so we opted to drive in and look for street parking.

Being dumb Americans, we cruised right into the fortified city of Quebec and were greeted with streets barely big enough for a Fiat, much less our (small by our standards) Tacoma. The French stared in disbelief as we struggled to navigate the maze of tiny one-way streets to get back outside the walled part of the city, where there was ample street parking.

After JD expressed his feelings by urinating on the welcome sign, we spent the next couple hours wandering and sight seeing, even getting to walk around on top of the fortifications, so I'll just wrap this post up with an assortment of photos.

Day Seventeen - Out of Labrador and into France?

Highway 389 is Quebec’s only link to the Trans Labrador Highway. We spent most of our day trying to make good time on the mix of paved road, gravel, road work and railroad crossings. On every trip, we always have a few days dedicated to travel. Still, as we wove our way South through the back roads of Quebec, we did have a few roadside distractions.

Leaving Labrador City, we made the crossing into a new province. The change was immediate as all the signs went from English to French. Stopping in the mining town of Fermont, we sought out the visitor center and stopped to gawk at a mining truck they have converted into a park decoration.

Can you spot Carl in this picture? 

Back on the road, we were shocked to see the Mt. Wright mining effort. There is an entire mountain being strip mined and moved around right near the highway. The most shocking thing to me was the red muddy river that flowed through this area. It was the first contaminated water we had since in days, maybe on this entire trip, and the color was so brown you could not process that it was actually a body of water.

There are several moved or abandoned mining projects in this region. Every now and then we would spot old signs and structures like silos. We also kept an eye out for the ghost town of Gagnon. This mining town was operational until around 1985 when the entire town was sold off and dismantled. Driving down the dirt road, we suddenly encountered a paved road with a median, curb and sidewalk. There were even manholes in the road. There is no way to fully describe the eerie feeling of coming across the infrastructure for a thriving suburbia in the middle of absolute wilderness. Somewhere during this time, we also crossed the 52nd parallel.

Shortly after the “town” of Relias Gabriel we pulled off on a path that lead down to the water. The reservoir here is part of the giant Manic-5 dam complex that we would encounter later in the day. It is also the remnant of a pre-Cambrian  meteor crash which gives the region its shape.

After kilometers of gravel, we finally found the paved road. About this time we also caught our first glance of the Manic-5 dam. The roadway originally drove across the top of this structure, but in recent years they have re-routed the road to weave down beside the dam. Still, it was impressive. The sheer size of the structure is overwhelming. Pictures do not do it justice.

While preparing for this trip, my research had shown that tours of the dam were given during the “Summer;” it turns out that the Summer season ends on August 31, and here we are on September 3... Another Dam Tour missed by just a few days.

We had originally planned to camp near Manic-5, but since Relias Gabriel turned out to be nothing but a gas station and there was no tour to take up our time, we decided to push on and make up a day in our itinerary. Arriving in the outskirts of Baie-Comeau, we stopped at the Manic-2 camping grounds. As soon as we saw that EVERY sign on the property was in French, we knew that we were in for an interesting night. Thankfully, there is one staff member who does speak a bit of broken English and between that and the use of my Driver’s License, we were able to fill out the registration form; of course, they think my name is Marie Lindi.

So here we are, in the middle of Quebec, knowing next to no French and camping with an entirely French speaking crowd…. And we are having a blast. Tonight there is a huge bonfire, complete with a burning picnic table, and a concert in the public tent. I have already heard the French version of “Down on the Corner.”

Day 16 - Churchill Falls

Last night we ate well, rested well, and showered well. Ready for the next part of our journey on the Trans-Lab we climbed in the truck and set off. There are a lot of efforts going on to improve the highway. One of the reasons we wanted to do this trip when we did was so we could experience what it was like to drive this road, and access this area, prior to it being spoiled by a paved highway. Pavement, did I mention pavement? Oh yes, we are certain that in the next 10 years this whole road will be paved. As we left out of Goose Bay we enjoyed several miles of pavement, many more than the map from a year ago even showed. Before long this will be just a Sunday drive, rather than a strenuous trek through the wilderness.

Not far out of Goose Bay you hit Muskrat Falls. Not only is this significant for being a beautiful showing of nature’s power as the water rushes over the rocks, but it is also facing impending doom. Nalcor, the local hydro-electric energy company has plans to build a massive dam here in the pending years, destroying the beauty of the falls. We were happy to see it when we did.

Home-made signs for the hiking paths

Halfway between Goose Bay and Labrador City is Churchill Falls. This place is a bit of an anomaly. The town is a company town, whose sole existence is to support a hydro-electric plant, by the name of Churchill Falls. Churchill Falls, however, no longer exist. The river, which once drained several large basins on its trip out to the sea, featured an enormous drop that we could only imagine, since the water has now been diverted into an immense power plant that houses 11 turbines thousands of feet below the surface. The guidebooks say to inquire about a free tour at the town office, so we did. Apparently though, there is a vacancy for a tour guide here, as one tour guide was on vacation, and the other up and quit. While the extremely friendly attendant at the front desk was explaining the situation and giving us key chains, a supervisor piped up from behind and asked if we’d like to see the video. Basically we ended up with a private 1st half of the tour and question/answer session, along with directions to view the previous location of the falls and being instructed that we could drive practically anywhere on the property so long as there were no gates. This included the tops of the dikes, sweet! He even drew us a map to some key areas to check out.

A little ways outside of town we found the trail to the former falls. Though there are still a few streams feeding them, it is not even a fraction of the magnitude of water that previously flowed here. You could see the contours of the rocks, sculpted over the years by the power of the river that once flowed here. A shame really, but that’s progress, and as an engineer I have to respect what they were able to visualize and achieve, despite the loss of a great natural feature that we’ll never see again.

JD braves the metal bridge on the trail. 

Other than that the day was pretty uneventful. Leaving Churchill falls the road is under a lot of construction as they widen it in preparation for asphalt. It feels like you’re driving through a construction site at all times on this road. Imagine being able to drive I-95 before it was paved and opened, that’s about what we’ve been plowing through lately.

We knew there’d be camping in Lab City, but had no real idea what to expect. The only guidance we had was from 2003, so who knows what things were like 8 years ago. Pulling into the only campground in town, Duley Lake Family Park, we couldn’t quite comprehend what we’d stumbled upon. Imagine the Pikey camp from the movie ’Snatch’, and you’d get a pretty good idea. Still, it seemed like mostly a bunch of families living out of their trailers for the summer having fun, and we didn’t have much of a choice, so we nabbed a spot next to the lake and set up for a very wet, windy, night.