Day 8 - Canadian Maritimes - Tires and Ferry - Sainte-Sophie to Sorel-Tracy

Waking up in Sainte-Sophie, we were on a mission to get the new tires for the cargo trailer as soon as possible. The nearest Canadian Tire was about 15 miles away in Saint Jerome.  For some reason, our GPS wanted us to take back roads instead of the main highways. We weren't sure why? But we decided to do it anyhow. Later we'll figure out why... Lol!

We got to the Canadian Tire store and out of the eight clerks, only one spoke any English to really help us. Using our translator app on the phone we were able to connect and make ourselves understood. One cute young girl behind the counter is trying to learn English from a book. It was kind of fun trying to interact and figure out what we were doing and who to talk to and what to get. She finally came out of the back storeroom with the exact tires that we needed. With a big smile, I might add! 

We checked the date codes, and yes they were both fresh new tires. Then we went over to the service counter where the gentleman explained that they did not have the time to take our wheels and rims off our trailer to swap over the tires. But if Steve could take them off himself, they would have the time to actually remove our old tires from the rims, put on the new ones, and balance them too. Then Steve would have to put them back on the trailer again himself out in the parking lot. That sounded good to us, rather than having to wait sometime in the afternoon or the next day to get them swapped over!

We went out in the parking lot and Steve took off the remaining old tire, with just the spare and a jack holding the cargo trailer in the air for that short span of time.

He went back inside while I waited in the parking lot with Nick in the motorhome. Nothing happened to the cargo trailer while he was gone. We were in a pretty level flat area of the parking lot. 

It didn't take very long at all and he was wheeling his cart back with the two new tires on our own rims. Now he would put the spare back on the front hitch rack and we would be driving on two brand new matched tires.

Quick as a bunny, Steve handled the job of installing the new tires. He had been doing this type of work ever since he was a young teenager. He worked at a gas station in a small town in Door County, Wisconsin. He handled things like tire repairs and small engines, as well as pumping gas and automobile services. Jack of All Trades, I tell you!

The total of two trailer tires cost:

$240.28 CAN

$172.43 US

Then mounting, balancing and

 disposal of the old tires 

$57.49 CAN

$41.25 US

Now for the return trip to the Sainte-Sophie area where we started. OH MY GOSH! By now it was Noon Rush Hour and we tried taking the main roads and arteries to get back to where we started from. It was absolutely madhouse, complicated by construction and multiple detours. We were crawling along in bumper-to-bumper traffic and rerouting ourselves over and over again trying to find ways through city blocks of residential areas. Traffic was snarled up everywhere and now we see why. We should have just taken the backcountry roads behind the Canadian Tire back the way we had come. I think it took over an hour to go 15 miles!!!

Finally we got back to the area we needed to be, and headed further east along the St Lawrence River, trying to stay north of Montreal and bypass it completely. The more we stay out of the big cities, the better. Now if we could just get over the river without having to go up into the city of Quebec??? 

We found the perfect answer, a ferry crossing of the St Lawrence in a tiny town called St Ignace de Loyola to hop on the ferry and cross over to Sorel-Tracy.  It wasn't going to cost much but it was going to save us a lot of grief and traffic snarl up around Quebec. 

We stopped first at a little city park near St Ignace de Loyola and made a little lunch. Then we timed ourselves to hit the ferry mid-afternoon so we wouldn't be in Evening Rush Hour traffic waiting in line. We could see from Google Earth photos in the past of cars lined up waiting to load on. So I think we timed ourselves perfectly...

As we pulled up, they were just loading and we really didn't even have to wait. It didn't cost too much for the motorhome and the cargo trailer:

$31.65 CAN  $22.62 US

We had a choice to get out and walk around on the ferry before we set sail. But once the other vehicles were parked around us tight we wouldn't have been able to get back into the motorhome doors. With Nick on board, we decided to just stay inside of the motor home during the journey across the river.

We could lean forward and take pictures through the windshield, all around. While we were waiting for the boat to take off, it was nice to get settled in and refill our coffee cups for our "cruise". Lol

The very, very gently edged away from shore and we could suddenly feel a buoyancy and movement of the boat. Not a lot because the waters were calm. But we knew we were on our way. 

Here is Captain Steveio of the SS Winnebago View---

I guess that makes me KarenInTheWoods First Mate?

We also happened to find a little stowaway on board. Do you think we should make him walk the plank?

Nawwwww --- he's too stinkin' cute.

This ferry is operated by the Quebec Ferry Corporation. The fees are low because it's an important part of the transportation system. It helps alleviate the congestion in the larger cities by getting people to cross the St Lawrence in more remote areas of the province. 

The flags were fluttering in the wind as we were sailing across the river. This was a really nice way to get around, plus we aren't using any diesel fuel to do so.

Nick soon relaxed on the love seat and we cruised in peaceful comfort. It wasn't a very long cruise across the river, but it was fun.

Steve said it's the only type of cruises we like, not a lot of people and we aren't dipping and swaying out in the ocean.

We disembarked and found our way easily through of the town of Sorel-Tracy. Just east of the town a little bit was a beautiful little city park, a suburb of the town. It was called Saint Anne de Sorel. Overnight stays were permitted. We found a really cozy spot tucked up next to some hedges near the playground. From here we could watch the big ships go up and down the St Lawrence Seaway.  We got settled in and Steve took out a couple lawn chairs. We took out the grill to make up some dinner because we were secluded between the motorhome and the hedge.

We were listening to four young boys on the other side of the hedge. They really couldn't see us, but we could kind of observe what they were doing. 

They appeared to be between the ages of 6 and 10. They were stretching out their shirts in front of them like a pouch and loading them up with wood chips from the playground surface. They were struggling up the steps of the spiral slide and dumping their loads at the top! The wood chips would then slide down to the bottom and another boy would try to catch them in the front of his shirt. Their shirts were all stretched out and filthy dirty in no time. We kept giggling at them. They were so cute. One young man finally took his shirt off completely. He was loading it full with the biggest loads of wood chips. It took two of them to struggle and haul it in cooperation with each other to the top of the slide. They dumped their load but it just wasn't sliding very well. So they had to sit down and slide. They pushed the pile from behind with their legs spread like a snow plow. Pushing all those wood chips back down to the other two boys who were waiting at the bottom!! It was hilarious, but it was also good to see four young kids having fun instead of sitting home on electronic devices. 

(The next morning, we saw two of them return on their way to the school bus stop. They each had to try and do one more load, even in their school clothes. I bet their mothers were impressed??)

We watched several large ships come up the river. We used our marinetraffic.com website to check on who they were and where they were going. This one was hauling concrete to Toronto.

It was quite nice, relaxing in the shade between the motorhome and the little hedge. It was our own little private patio/park area.  Sometimes, after a long day of tire changing and "cruising", you need to relax...

But one more thing to take care of, Steve took out his Viair portable air compressor pump. The shop had only put in 30 lb of pressure. These tires really need to be at 40, according to the sidewall with the maximum of 60.

He had them both topped off and screwed our Tireminder TPMS sensors back on. Tire pressure monitoring system.  We use those vigilantly on all six tires of the motorhome as well as both tires of the cargo trailer. We can monitor our temperatures and pressures all on an app of my phone as we are driving down the road.

One more thing taken care of, 

 one less bump in the road.

90 miles traveled today 

1,017 miles traveled so far