Day 14 - Canadian Maritimes 2026 - Finished Lapping Gaspe Peninsula, Entering New Brunswick - Belladune Boat Ramp

Paspebiac-Est was the perfect place to wake up in the morning. The sun was rising up over the water and everything was sparkling. Inside the motorhome everything was glowing gold and silver, just like the water and the sun.

Maybe this is what Heaven feels like? 

It was such a relaxing morning to look out over the sparkling water and we were dawdling and taking our time. This is the beginning of our third week of travels. Sometimes we have to slow down a little bit and enjoy what we have. An extra cup of coffee while we look out over the water, listening to the birds, and just reminiscing over the past two weeks of our travels.

Even Nicholas seemed reluctant to get out of bed. I went to go make the bed and he had taken up the center of it with his little toy Reindeer. His Reindeer goes with us no matter where we go. He just suddenly latched onto it since last Christmas (it was a present from the grandkids) and he carries it everywhere. He even tries to carry it outside and we won't let him.

We could hear the waves gently lapping against the shoreline, all along the edge of this cliff. What a great spot for them to put this beautiful little picnic grounds, with such amazing views. It's nice when a city or a town designates some of the prettiest property for public use. 

The people that had been in the other RV also seemed to be reluctant to leave this morning. They stood outside with their cups of coffee admiring the sunrise, and crawled back inside their RV too. Usually we try to clear out early and find somewhere else to cook breakfast. We don't want to overstay our welcome when a town generously allows overnight parking. There's plenty of room in the lot, but we don't want to ever abuse the courtesy that these small towns offer for traveling RVers.

We finally pulled in the slides and got ready to roll. We knew we would be needing propane soon. Every time we had stopped the day before where they had propane bulk tanks by their stations or stores, they didn't have anybody able to fill our on-board tank. We don't have just the small 20 lb. barbecue tanks that you can exchange like travel trailers or pick up campers do. We have a built-in propane tank underneath the motorhome that needs to be filled from a bulk tank with a hose. 

Every station Steve stopped at and went in to ask for an attendant, he was told "PROPANE 2:00 P.M." or "PROPANE TOMORROW". It was almost getting comical that five or six places in a row did not have anybody on duty that was capable to fill our tank. 

We did manage to find a Canadian Tire that had an experienced attendant able to fill our tank. It was good to get it filled back up because we had been running the furnace a lot more than we originally expected. The nights are getting colder already in September. 

We drove on up to a little Visitor Center that was not yet open. But they had a large parking lot that we could stop at and maybe cook up our breakfast. 

Since we upgraded our lithium battery and also hooked up our Bluetti power station, we have plenty of power to run things like our air fryer or microwave. Steve likes doing the hash browns and toast in the air fryer while he fries up the bacon. At the end, I do the eggs. Before you know it, breakfast is served.

We got moving again and headed on the road further to the West.  In almost every little town we saw the tiny fish markets, called "poissonnrie" in French. This one even had some neat emblems on the building, so there was no doubt that it was a fish market. Lol! 

We walked into this cute little shop. The clerk was so pleasant and greeted us. Everything smelled clean and fresh!... Have you ever walked into a large grocery store that has an open counter with fresh fish? It's always stinky--- but this place was clean and fresh with sunlight and music playing and all of their fresh fish displayed in a clean nice case. 

We looked over the rows and rows of large bags frozen seafood. Oh I wish we had room in the freezer to bring some of this back home. But we might have difficulty at the border. 

I told Steve we should have one of those 12 volt freezer cooler chests and turn it all the way to freeze. Then we could fill it up to the top and bring it all the way home.

Instead, we settled on two frozen hunks of halibut and one big slab of fresh Atlantic salmon. That would have to satisfy us for now.

If they had fresh halibut on hand, we would have bought that too. But frozen would be just as good because it is going to have to wait a couple days before we would cook it anyhow. We were planning on cooking the salmon first tonight.

Oh, they also sell fresh live lobster. But we really don't have a pot big enough to cook it in the motorhome. There was one sad little lonely lobster in the tank. I felt sorry for him.

After we left the fish market, we drove a few more miles into another town. There Steve noticed a bakery.  "La Boulangerie" in French. That's his new "hobby". So we parked across the street at the IGA Grocery store, and walked across to the bakery so he could find some new delectables.

This place was more of a deli than a bakery, but they did have some nice items for display in their case.  He picked out a few things and I grabbed a couple croissant rolls for lunch. They didn't have any bread or buns like a traditional bakery would. Just a lot of sweet stuff.

Steve was happy to take his little treasures back to the motorhome parked across the street. The day was warming up and we were promised to have some nice sunshine and beautiful weather for the next few days. We had had a couple rainy stormy ones, so this was going to be a nice stretch coming up.

We drove on further in a Westerly direction to get around the end of the Bay of St Lawrence. We really want to go East, but first we have to go West, to loop around the far Western end of the Bay.   Makes sense?

We crossed over this bridge into New Brunswick right about noon. We were now going to see more agricultural land and less of the high hills and craggy cliffs. At least until we get down to Nova Scotia. So we waved goodbye to the beautiful hills as we crossed the bridge into New Brunswick.

We rolled along the southern edge of the Bay of St Lawrence. Twisting and turning our way along the edge of the water through little villages and seaports. There's a lot more shipping going on in this area then up on the Gaspe Peninsula. Almost every town has some type of harbor or seaport along the shore. We also have a lot more large logging trucks rumbling on past. Many of them are double towing with a big trailer behind loaded up with huge logs. 

Of course that's why we noticed down in the New Brunswick there's a lot more of the hardwoods mixed in with the pines. That gives us some beautiful colors coming up and some wonderful contrast in the countryside.

The weather was cooperating quite well on our trip. We have really only actually had a few days of rain. And they've really been at night more than during the day. That's the best way to have a vacation when the nice weather during the day is when you want to move around and do things.

We rolled along, mile after mile. It was beautiful watching the scenery unfold in front of us. Everything is going quite well now that the motorhome tire sensor was fixed and the cargo trailer tires were swapped out for new ones. Let's hope that there's no other reason to have a malfunction or breakdown. It was time to concentrate on why we were there. To explore and enjoy.

By the time we hit about 150 miles, we thought we might want to slow down and find a spot to rest for the afternoon and evening. Besides, we wanted to cook our fresh salmon. 

As we neared the community of Belladune, off to the left there's a little Wharf Road leading to the Belladune boat ramp. It's so tiny you almost miss it. We drove back towards the ramp, which is in disrepair at this time. So nobody really is using the area and RVing people have been known to spend the night there. The village has thoughtfully included a porta-potty and a garbage can and a street light at the Wharf.

There were two cars there when we arrived with some people picnicking and playing on the beach. But the rest of the area was totally wide open for us to park wherever we wanted.

For some reason the end of the concrete on the ramp has buckled. I'm not sure if it's going to be repaired or just be discontinued. But for sure, there wouldn't be any fisherman coming to load or unload boats with it in this condition.

We got set up in the beautiful sunshine. The crickets were chirping in the grass and there were butterflies fluttering around from blossom to blossom near the motorhome. The gentle lapping of the waves on the shore was peaceful and soothing. This was going to be a great place to spend the night.

Yes, I took a picture of the little porta potty 

 and trash can and street light. 

I upload these to an app called 

Park4Night

 that helps other travelers find spots like this.

Especially if you are a van dweller or a car camper, having a porta potty and a trash can is really important for an overnight stop. We don't need those things when we are in our motorhome, because we are self-contained.

Before starting supper, we walked down along the beach and admired some of the beautiful scenery. There were big hunks of driftwood and craggy rocks here and there among the hunks of seaweed and native flowers. I put some of them in the YouTube video that's linked at the end of this blog.

It was so beautiful and relaxing to be out here in such a nice quiet place. So much better than staying in a busy city or crowded campground or even a provincial park. I am really glad that we are finding places like this to stay overnight.

The people who had been down along the shoreline packed up and left about dinner time. Now we had the place entirely to ourselves. 

Oh, I am mistaken. We did have a couple of these little guys come to visit...

Nicholas really didn't understand seagulls. One flew off and he thought he could jump in the air and fly after it. They were pretty darn big birds, he said, and he didn't think he could follow them. Fortunately, Steve has him tightly clasped on his long flexi lead so he can't get away.

There were so many things to sniff and explore on that beach. Nick really seemed to enjoy wandering along and learning new things. He doesn't like the water, but he sure likes the sand. Even gives a couple spurts of joyful digging and flinging it all over, which he never does at home in our dirt.

It was time to prepare our fresh salmon from the Atlantic ocean. I put it on a tray with some tin foil and a light coating of cooking spray. Then we spiced it up with some of our Harvest Blend Seasoning. It's like Mrs Dash with no salt.

https://www.twinpinesfarmct.com/all/harvest-blend-seasoning

Ingredients: dehydrated onion, garlic, carrot, tomato & parsley, spices (including mustard), lemon & orange peel, citric acid, natural flavors, silicon dioxide added to prevent caking.

Steve set up the air fryer outside. That way we wouldn't get a fishy smell in the motorhome while we were cooking. Like I said before, it's nice now with our larger lithium battery and our Bluetti power station that we can use electric appliances like this. He put the fish in and relaxed in his chair with a beer while he took care of the outside cooking duties.

Inside the motorhome, I was able to run the microwave to steam up some ears of corn. I also made us up each a crunchy salad to go along with our meal. We sure like to eat good when we travel, cooking our own food and usually try to stay healthy. Not counting Steve's bakery treasures this morning...

The salmon cooked really well. Being a thicker piece we had to test it and decided to cook it just a little bit longer. It came out perfectly on the second try. Flaky fall apart delicious flavor without any fishy taste at all. We could really tell this was fresh salmon. 

We were treated to a glorious sunset out over the water. The crickets were chirping and we relaxed outside with our beverages until the sun had set below the horizon.

It really was the end of another peaceful day of traveling in such a beautiful country. We are so thankful that we are able to do this now at this time in our lives. Yes, we are pinching the pennies and the diesel cost is quite expensive. Today we had fueled up at $2.85 a liter which converts over to $7.68 a gallon. And yes, that is after the exchange rate from Canadian to US currency.  But this is a once in a lifetime trip, and the more that we find free places like this to camp, it saves on our budgeted $35 a night Campground fee that we had originally planned on. So it all evens out in the end.

And it's so worth it...

Here is the YouTube video that goes along with today's blog: 

156 miles traveled today 

1,870 miles traveled so far

Day 13 - Canadian Maritimes 2026 - Water Thief, Perce Rock and Paspebiac Beach

We woke up after a peaceful rest on the quay in Clorodorme-Quest, as grateful guests of the owners of the Cantine du Pechuer. We took a little walk around in the morning and absorbed some more of the salty sea air. But now it was time to start heading further East and reach the end of the Gaspe Peninsula.

This is going to be more rugged terrain with a lot more high hills and low valleys. We are grateful to have a smaller motor home now than the big 40 foot rig we used to have. We are much more nimble getting up and down these type of grades...

I do think later on we saw 18%, but I didn't have time to flash a picture of it!!! 

Here is our intended route today, to get around the rest of the Gaspe Peninsula and curve into New Brunswick on the other side of the Gulf of St Lawrence. Now we will be going into an entirely new province!

The roads were good while we wound our way along through the countryside. Every curve and every turn was an amazing new scene. I think in this stretch I snapped 171 photos with my camera. I kid you not.

It was somewhat cloudy and every now and then we got a little splattering of rain. So it's a good day to get some miles on behind us and approach the New Brunswick border. 

Of course, into every bit of traveling there must come a little bit of road construction...

I always say that it gives us the opportunity to look out the windows and check out the wildlife and maybe see something interesting while we wait. I know some people get impatient about having to wait. But I look at it as an opportunity...  This was the view out of my passenger window:

I noticed these little shelf fungi growing on this tree. I always think of my mom when I see shelf fungi. 

As children, we would pull them down if we could reach them and bring them to her. Sometimes my dad would have to go back with a saw to get them off. 

Then my mom would sketch or paint on the underside surfaces. She would set them on end, and cut the base smooth ... or mount them onto pieces of logs. She would do beautiful scenes painted on the shelf fungi as a decorative art item.

One time I remember she did a locomotive coming through a tunnel on a double wide one. Another time, she had done The Last Supper and gave that to our Grandma.  Many times she would do wildlife scenes such as deer or bear or birds. Then our friends who owned a tavern would put them up for sale. Hunters and fishermen bought them as a souvenir decor piece for their hunting camps or to bring back a memory of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan back home with them. She would make extra pocket money that way. 

Whenever there was a Civic group holding a raffle for a fundraiser, she always donated a couple to help raise funds. 

Anyhow, I ramble on here as I'm sitting and looking out the window, waiting for the pilot car to come and bring us through the road construction.

Soon we could see traffic coming from the other way led by the pilot car. Even these big huge double logging trucks have to wait. We counted I think 18 cars that were held up coming from the other direction.

Once they were all past us, it was our turn to go. Goodbye shelf fungi, I will leave you now for somebody else's mother to paint on you. 

On another topic, have you ever heard of a "water thief"???  Lol ... This is what it is. This brand is a "water bandit". 

It is commonly used by traveling RVers to allow them to hook a garden hose connection to a faucet that doesn't have threads. We keep one in our side compartment just for the very instance that we need to fill with water from a faucet lacking the appropriate threads.

This little town had a beautiful park and had the free drinking water symbol on their sign that it was available. But when we pulled in, the water station just had a regular faucet, similar to a kitchen sink. We fortunately had along our "water thief" to hook up and run the hose into our freshwater holding tank.

We do appreciate the opportunity to fill from City water sources. We know that generally the water is sanitized and potable, meaning it's drinkable. We mostly use it just for washing dishes or flushing the toilet. All of our drinking water is filtered through Life Straw pitchers and Life Straw water bottles to protect us from any harmful bacteria or contaminants as we travel. 

While the tank was filling, Steve took the opportunity to get Nick out and about and run off a little of his energy. My knee is doing much better by now, but I really don't want to risk it by walking on uneven ground. So Nick has to get his fun and exercise on the end of a leash with Steve instead of me.

Once we were filled up, Steve put the hose and the "water thief" away. It was time to hit the road again and maybe get some more miles on. Or in this case, in Canada, kilometers. 

It's been fun converting back and forth between miles and kilometers. Steve knows he can go into the settings and change the electronic dash over to kilometers but he really doesn't want to. Then that means he has to turn it back. So I've turned it over on my GPS on the Microsoft Streets and Trips program that I run on the laptop. I can watch the speed and convert it for him. After a couple of weeks, he's starting to figure out where 90 km is or 70 km etc is on his dash.

We rolled along, admiring the countryside, the beautiful coastal waters, and also the architecture. Many of these gorgeous homes are easily over a hundred years old maybe closer to 200. We are enjoying a lot of the different styles and influences.

And as we said before in previous blogs, so many of them are well taken care of, neat as a pin, and the pride of ownership is evident.

Even old farm houses like this, are definitely being preserved and repaired. See the scaffolding?

I guess I just enjoy looking at old houses. For those who don't know me personally, for years I was a real estate agent in Green Bay. I always found showing customers the older homes much more exciting than the same basic three bedroom two bath ranch homes popping up as beige boxes all over in a new subdivision. I could get excited when a customer would say find me a beautiful old brick Belgian farmhouse on 10 acres of land as a Hobby Farm! Those were my kind of customers... Just look at this adorable gray weathered old barn. Even that building looks to be in good repair and well maintained.

It didn't matter the size, from the littlest tiny house that were cute as a bug's ear...

... to these glorious seaside homes with wrap around verandas and probably as many as eight bedrooms!

We found a nice little beach area to pull off and take the time to make some lunch. The waves were gently lapping on the shore as the winds have now died down. There wasn't anyone else around, so we pulled up crossways against the pilings to have a great view out our window.

After our lunch, we figured the rain would hold off long enough to get down on the beach and walk around.  I had a simple task in mind, but I didn't know if it would work here.

My friend Vicky asked me to look for Beach Glass. As many of you know, Beach Glass are discarded shards of glass, maybe from the old habits of towns dumping their refuse out to sea. It's the bottles that were broken and worked ashore ... they get ground down from the wave action. Eventually they become as beautiful as pebbles, with different hues and colors of the type of glass bottle that they originally were.

We walked along up and down the shore, and I set a camera up on a tripod. It didn't take me long at all before I found what was probably the one and only piece of beach class on that entire beach!  There it is, beautiful brilliant green.

Just think, it was probably long ago a 7-Up soda bottle??? 

But now it was a treasure to bring back to my friend Vicky from the Atlantic Ocean. 

We ended our walk as it started sprinkling a little bit again. Time to hop back in and extend the rest of the way to the far easternmost point of the Gaspe Peninsula. 

There is a town called Perce, which means "pierced". A huge island of rock just off at shoreline, protruses way up into the air. At one section of the rock there is a hole through it, and that's why it's called "Pierced Rock". I guess back in the 1700s there were two holes but one section of the rock eventually collapsed in leaving just a towering column on the right side.

It's a pretty famous landmark and photographed often in tour magazines and historical books of the area. The town itself was crammed full of tourists. We had an opportunity to find a little quiet parking lot near an observation deck. I did not yet trust my knee to go up the path, so I sent Steve with the camera. He made a wonderful video that's included in the link down at the end of this blog. Steve is becoming an accomplished camera man, who'd have thunk it?

After we stopped at the other end of town for another vantage point, we snapped a few more pictures and headed on our way. The sun was starting to set and it had just rained again. We had a place in mind to go but we were driving right into the setting Sun as it glared off the wet roads ahead of us. 

It's not really showing up in this photo but we were squinting and using our visors just to see the road ahead.

Off to one side, imagine our surprise to see a big thick rainbow reaching down into the water. I was able to snap this picture straight across underneath Steve's chin as we were driving to the west.

Eventually the sun sunk down below the horizon and we were able to see again. We drove on down to this craggy rocky area of twists and turns to get to our next destination for the night.

The setting Sun was glorious, and it looked like the skies were clearing up and hopefully tomorrow would be a beautiful day?

A little village called Paspabiac-Est has a city park with beach access down the hill. It was getting pretty close to dark and we really don't like ever driving that late. We found our way through the park, between the mini golf and the soccer fields and the playgrounds, to reach the hill that went down down down---

It's hard to blindly follow a route that somebody else has told you about, and put faith in the fact that at the end we hoped we'd be able to turn around if there was no place to camp. Traveling in the dark is not comfortable for either of us. So we were keeping our fingers crossed that this place would work out once we reached the bottom of the hill.

We found a nice wide parking lot with bathroom buildings and all these cute little picnic tables with wooden canopy structures over the top. There was only one other small RV and a car parked there. We were able to pull in as quietly as we could and turn off our headlights to not disturb them. Our reward was the moon rising up over the water!!!

What a perfect ending 

 to a perfect day

 in a perfect spot 

with a perfect moon

We whipped up some late supper and had a special treat for dessert. Earlier in the grocery store I had spotted these maple leaf cookies. From time to time Aldi's grocery stores in the United States carries something similar. I hoped they would taste the same. So we opened up the package. Nope. They tasted even better!!! 

Now I wish I had bought a couple more packages...

Here's the video that goes along with today's blog:

154 miles traveled today 

1,714 miles traveled so far