We're in Levis, which is in the Quebec City area and, when we
arrived Sunday afternoon (Sept 28th), the weather was sunny and 28 deg C (83
deg F) and we enjoyed the late afternoon warmth outside until the sun set.
Overnight, the wind kicked up and the scattered showers started. We
awoke to 10 deg C (50 deg F) and 60 km/hr gusting winds on Monday (28th).
The cats thought they wanted outside, but when we opened the door to show
them, a big gust of wind and water blew thru the screen, and the cats scrambled
to opposite ends of the trailer. They spent the day in bed, catching up on
their beauty sleep.
John and I took the truck and headed
across the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Quebec City side of the waterway, and it
is a tangle of freeways and construction. There seems to be a lot of
freeways and bridges for an area of this population, but the "Bitch"
(our G.P.S.) for the most part, got us where we needed to be, although she
found us a Loblaws that has been closed down since last April. At least
it was not a regional distribution centre, like she found for us in Oahu...
We had some trouble finding somewhere
to buy wine. The Costco and grocery stores all have virtually the same
limited labels of wine, and the labelling is quite cryptic as to where the wine
is from and what the varietals are. We finally found a
provincially-regulated liquor store - SAQ - and the selection was admirable,
especially all the French reds! We haven't seen so many Languedoc and
Minervois wines since our trip to that region in 2006!! We bought a
couple of bottles to enjoy over the next couple of days, despite that the
prices are horrible at the SAQ. Most wines are 70% to 100% more than they
would be in Alberta and several times more expensive than we can find in the
States. John reasoned that it was no wonder the beer selections are so
large in all the grocery stores!
We got back to the trailer mid afternoon
and I made chicken soup from the remnants of a roasted chicken we had in the
freezer. I fogged up all the windows and it was wonderful - both smell
and taste. The cats remained low key, and we gave them some exercise with
their laser and wand toys so they didn't keep us up all night.
I uploaded several pictures for this blog,
but the internet is very patchy here at the campground. (Apparently one
of the campers changed spots with his satellite antenna still up and took out
all the wires for this area.) So after 1-1/2 hrs of uploads, the whole
blog crashed and I lost all signals – so here I am reposting today - without
pictures this time. Hope it loads. I'll post pics of this area later, as
well as the beautiful stop we made in Ontario on the way here - right on the
St. Lawrence Seaway at Long Sault Parkway, which is a series of small islands
strung together by the paved parkway. We dry camped on one called McDonnell
Island, and there were only maybe 4 other parties camped on the island with us
that night. It was lovely and serene. The sunset over the water,
looking towards New York was gorgeous.
We are going to go into Old Quebec City
today (Tues 30th) and do some sightseeing within the walled city. It is
the only walled city north of Mexico (in North America) and we are excited to
see it. The weather is better - still cool but only breezy vs full-on
windy. The cats will have another easy day to catch up on sleep and
hopefully play nice with each other.
