The next day we finished getting ready for our trip and drove as far as Bristol, TN. We had a general plan to go to the Atlantic Provinces but had done no route planning at all. We were between Knoxville and Asheville on I-40 when we learned there was a road closure ahead. Just two miles down the highway was the intersection with I-81, our route planning was done for us.
It was a
no-brainer. We left the fast accumulating congestion on I-40 and joined about a
million 18 wheelers going north.
As dinner
time was approaching, we consulted the Camper’s Guide and decided on Shadrack
Campground in Bristol, TN . I used my new tablet to look up restaurants and
picked the Mad Greek for dinner. It was a race weekend in Bristol and the Mad
Greek was a Mad House. The place looked like a casting call for a NASCAR movie.
We waited our turn and were rewarded with an excellent dinner at a reasonable
price.
We continued north on I-81 through
Virginia. Bad road and bad traffic, but the scenery is to
die for. The Blue Ridge is always visible off to the east and the valleys and
vistas are stunning. A multi-vehicle accident slowed us to five miles per hour
for almost an hour, so we chose Shenendoah River State Park for our second
night on the road. We stayed over an extra day so that I could paddle. Butch put me in at a low water bridge and I paddled back to the campground. Wonderful! We also met a great couple, Mary and Bill, who are folksingers from Florida. They are called Heart Strings. We are hoping they can come to Sopchoppy next spring.
Our third night was spent at Lake Lackawanna SP in PA. We had stayed there before and knew it would be quiet and nice. The next day we switched from I-81 to I-88 on the advice of a trucker from Quebec that we met at a rest area. A good choice as this interstate goes up through the Adirondacks and is like a parkway. We exited at Plattsburg to stay at Cumberland Bay SP, right on Lake Champlain.
We rarely make reservations in advance but do try to work around known holidays such as Canada Day, Victoria Day, etc. Little did we know that June 24 is a national holiday in Quebec (Ste Jean the Baptiste) and the weekend before is like our 4th of July. Plattsburg is only 40 miles south of Montrial and the campgrounds were packed. By agreeing to move from site to site we managed to stay at Cumberland Bay for three nights. This gave us an opportunity to hike and raft the amazing AuSable Chasm and to take the Ferry to the Vermont islands.
Leaving Plattsburg on Saturday, we zigzagged across northern VT and NH on secondary roads, often less than five miles from the border. This is beautiful country but the roads are terrible. We stayed one night at Brighton Bay SP near Ocean Pond, VT. This was a heavily wooded little park on the shore of a generous-sized lake. We almost had the place to ourselves. This small state park out in the wilds had the most fabulous CG backrooms I have every seen. They looked like something out of a first class hotel Go figure!
The next night we stated at La Roche de Or CG near St. George, PQ. I thought I had seen everything but I wasn't prepared for La Roche de Or. It has 300 sites, a huge swimming pool, all kinds of recreational activities, a restaurant, and campers packed in like sardines. Each campsite appeared to have at least 10 residents and everybody was yelling in French. But, camping karma kicked in again. Our assigned site was too small and we could not get into it. We were given two sites at the top of the hill with nobody around us. Very nice.
Finally, we reached Camping Municipal de La Pointe in Riviere-du-Loup. It is a lovely place. We are up on a hill over the St. Lawrence River with spacious, shaded campsites and within walking distance of all kinds of goodies (including the "glace" store). The actual holiday (Ste Jean de Baptiste) was yesterday and even Walmart was closed. Our CG had planned a "Fete" and invited us to attend but it was rained out. We though we might take a whale-watching tour here but it is very cool and we are told that we will probably see lots of whales as we travel northward along the coast. So far we are doing splendidly.
Leaving Plattsburg on Saturday, we zigzagged across northern VT and NH on secondary roads, often less than five miles from the border. This is beautiful country but the roads are terrible. We stayed one night at Brighton Bay SP near Ocean Pond, VT. This was a heavily wooded little park on the shore of a generous-sized lake. We almost had the place to ourselves. This small state park out in the wilds had the most fabulous CG backrooms I have every seen. They looked like something out of a first class hotel Go figure!
The next night we stated at La Roche de Or CG near St. George, PQ. I thought I had seen everything but I wasn't prepared for La Roche de Or. It has 300 sites, a huge swimming pool, all kinds of recreational activities, a restaurant, and campers packed in like sardines. Each campsite appeared to have at least 10 residents and everybody was yelling in French. But, camping karma kicked in again. Our assigned site was too small and we could not get into it. We were given two sites at the top of the hill with nobody around us. Very nice.
Finally, we reached Camping Municipal de La Pointe in Riviere-du-Loup. It is a lovely place. We are up on a hill over the St. Lawrence River with spacious, shaded campsites and within walking distance of all kinds of goodies (including the "glace" store). The actual holiday (Ste Jean de Baptiste) was yesterday and even Walmart was closed. Our CG had planned a "Fete" and invited us to attend but it was rained out. We though we might take a whale-watching tour here but it is very cool and we are told that we will probably see lots of whales as we travel northward along the coast. So far we are doing splendidly.
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