Day 23, July 10, 2016 Quebec City QB to Dalhousie NB

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We woke up ready to bid Quebec City adieu…and move on to New Brunswick.  It was a big driving day. We left Quebec City and decided to drive along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River.  We saw beautiful farm country and more woodland.

Then, we found in a guide book, a Woodworking Museum.  This was an amazing place filled with so many wonderful wood carved pieces, both current artists and ones from earlier in the 20^th century.  This area was at one time the hotbed of carving.  So many wonderful, and often delicately carved artistic pieces.

We had a great conversation with John Geoffroy.  He came to the area nearly 50 years ago for a summer’s training course, and is still there.  He has done carving as well as teaching carvers at a high level for many years.  Delightful!  He carved the loggers above,  and many other pieces. His, and the works of others, was so striking.

We drove and drove in and out of tiny little communities, and saw so any really sweet churches and beautiful homes.  We got quite a surprise when this beautiful bay appeared in front of us, covered by wisps of fog.  We found it was a National Park, Point Bic.  We stopped for a while to enjoy the ever changing scenery.  The tide was out and one of the fishing boats was stranded on damp harbor bottom.  The wild flowers were showing their glorious profusion.

We eventually stopped off at another fine light house, this one at Point-au-Pere. We discovered that it was famous for the flying buttresses holding it upright.  This lighthouse was near the area where a huge Ocean liner sunk, The Empress of Ireland, after being struck in the side in a heavy fog by a coal ship.  There was the change to go through a museum about he Empress….but, no time this trip.  We did see the lighthouse, and of course, took some photos.

We had hope to be able to go to continue along the St. Lawrence onto the Gaspe Peninsula to see Gaspe National Park.  But, with the weather questionable, we decided to spend more time in the areas we were passing and then cut across the peninsula to New Brunswick. Our shortcut turned out to be a great choice.  We climbed to the ridge that formed the backbone of the peninsula and then descended along the Salmon River.  What a beautiful river and valley. 

Dick found several covered bridges over the river.  We stopped at three.  The biggest one was the double-spanned deRouthierville bridge.  What a sight it was. Wow!  These great old bridges are so pretty.  They reminded us of another trip where we saw all of the Bridges of Madison County in Iowa.

All along the river, we could see fly fisherman trying to catch the fish for whom the river is named, salmon.  They would stand in the water in their wading boots up to their chests.  The fishing lines were whipped gracefully above their heads until the fly was dropped where the fisherman hoped to entice a fish.  What fun to watch them.

Even with the shortcuts, we still arrived fairly late in the evening at our hotel.  We were now in New Brunswick.   We had also lost another hour, when we left Quebec we entered the Atlantic Time Zone, one hour beyond Eastern Time.  We now had a four hour time difference from home on the West Coast.  We were ready to stop, because tomorrow is another great day.