Days 5 & 6 - Canadian Maritimes - Shawville Mill Dam Park and Steve's BEST Bakery

We are finally getting ready to leave the province of Ontario. It's time to go further east and cross into the province of Quebec. We aren't in any hurry, but we want to keep heading east and see things that we've never seen before. We've been through Ontario multiple times. It's time to open our eyes...

We left Deep River after having a really nice peaceful night. These types of places set aside for travelers are really appreciated. Because of the way we are geared up, with plenty of fresh water and holding tanks, our power station and lithium battery, we really don't need the amenities of a campground. Why pay for a site for $30 or $40 or $50 when we really don't need it. Just a safe spot to park that's out of the way is all that we ask.

Plus, we have our Starlink along. That rides up in the skylight as we drive. It works in motion or when parked. That is how I'm working on this blog is we are flying down the road at 80 km an hour. We have it wired up to run off our Bluetti power station.  It doesn't wear down the level of the new lithium battery that runs everything else in the motor home.

The terrain is getting even more beautiful. We're winding our way among rocky cliffs and high hills, deep valleys and rugged rivers. We are really enjoying the scenic changes as we cruise along to the east.

As we were cruising through one valley, following a riverbed, imagine our delight when we came around a corner to see this beautiful covered bridge. I had to quick whip out the cameras fast as I could, and take it from behind over my shoulder. There really wasn't any room to turn around and go back. How pretty is this?

We learned of a little campground sponsored by the small city of Shawville. We read that it had eight electrical/water sites, with a suggested donation of $20 a night. It also had a dump station and freshwater fill up. So we decided to check it out.

How cute is this? I don't think it produced an awful lot of milling, or generated any type of power. But it sure was sweet along the edges of the park. Nearby there were platforms for fishing and a nice little pergola for picnicking.

We pulled on in and it looked really nice level and well kept. It seems that five of the electric sights have been removed and there are only three remaining sites on the far end. It didn't matter though, we were the only ones there!

Now here's where things got a little goofy... We always notify our American Express as well as our credit union that we are traveling out of the country. Then they are able to release our MasterCard brand credit cards and our MasterCard debit card to authorize for out of country travel. We did this on Wednesday when we left. Evidently, something got lost in the process and the gal at our credit union unlocked some of the other accounts we have there, and not our primary ones with the ATM debit card. 

We wanted to go to an ATM and get out some Canadian cash. So far we've been staying at free places, but we wanted to have Canadian currency on hand. It's perfectly fine to walk to any ATM with our debit card and pull out Canadian currency. Then it converts it over automatically to US currency. For example: if we took out $300, we get $300 of Canadian bills. But, it's actually $214.44 US that's removed from our account. 

Soooooo on a Sunday afternoon, we stopped at the ATM to get cash so we would have it for our $20 donation in the dropbox at the campground. No go! We tried three different ATMs and every one was declined. 

So we decided to drop in a US currency $20 bill into their donation slot, and leave it at that. There were no envelopes to fill out no information to leave. So we just dropped in the money and said "oh well". 

We figured we would unsnarl the mess on Monday with a call to our credit union. 

We set up two lawn chairs and relaxed in the park. There were a few children playing up in the playground area and we could hear their joyful shouts. There was even a little water park section, and it was warm enough for them to romp around a little bit. Then their moms wrapped them in towels and took them home.

Curled up for the night and really enjoyed our quiet spot.

On Monday we could unsnarl the stuff on the phone with the credit union. If not, we could take our US currency that we have in our possession and stop at the bank on the corner and see if they would convert it for us. But our first step was just trying to straighten out our own account for the rest of the trip.

The Packers played on Sunday night, and with our Starlink we were able to tune in and watch them. It was a miserable game, but of course we are still Packer fans nonetheless. They lost. But it's only the first game of the season. We have to keep up hope, don't we?

We know the power post was only a 20 amp for the site. We knew that wasn't going to be enough if we wanted to run our air fryer along with other things. So Steve moved our cord over to the next post which was a 30 amp. We always use a Progressive Industries EMS electrical management system on the post to prevent any disruptions or spikes or brownouts with park power.

Sure enough, even 30 amps was dropping down to 22 or 24. So we had to compromise and move some things over to propane and not fully enjoy the 30-amp service. 

Steve decided to take out his drone and fool around with it a little bit. I am hoping as he gets better at it that he will be able to give me footage to add to my YouTube videos.

Here is some of what he put together:

Later in the afternoon, we got company! (So he put away the drone)  First came a pickup truck camper from Colorado with Rick and Sue. Soon joining us on our other side were Bruce and Sheila, from Alberta Canada, in a Winnebago View like ours! 

Everyone was made to feel welcome, and we shared wonderful places to see and places that we've been. We marked a lot of interesting places on our maps. They helped us decide when we were going to reach Quebec City whether to go North along the North shore or head South along the Gapse Peninsula and the South side of the St Lawrence River. Bruce said been born out that way and gave us a lot of good ideas places to see.

The best advice that we got from both of them was about the most excellent above standard famous rated BAKERY in this little tiny town. It is called the Bolangerie Pontiac Home Bakery, 315 ch. Bristol, Shawville QC Their website is www.pontiachomebakery.com

Do you remember that I said Steve new hobby was going to be checking out bakeries in every area that we go to? Well that is precisely what he planned to do on Tuesday morning when they opened. That meant staying a second night in the campground. LOL 

At least, we got things straightened around with the credit union. We were able to walk up to the ATM machine on the corner and withdraw Canadian currency from both of our accounts! Now Steve would have cash to use at the bakery...

It was a wonderful morning, we set our goodbyes to our new found friends / neighbors. We stowed our gear and Steve was all fired up to get to the bakery

It's just a tiny place on a side street, but we found it. The parking area was jammed with locals and we had to park across the street. Even the local construction workers were all lining up at the counter to get sandwiches made. And once we started looking around we know why! 

Fresh wonderful hamburger rolls, yeasty and soft inside with the crusty outer edge. Just perfect. 

A loaf of whole wheat bread that smells so good even through the plastic.  We were really going to enjoy these for lunch, or as toast for breakfast.

Then it was time to look up on the pastry shelves and try to make a choice of what sweet thing will Steve like the best. 

He totally enjoys cinnamon and loves cinnamon rolls as long as they don't have raisins in them. Well, well, well this bakery makes huge pan fulls of cinnamon sticky buns! But they don't sell you just one... They sell you a pan FULL of a dozen! They're all stuck together and they flip them out and plop them into a big package. That's just what she did right in front of us. Yes, we bought a whole dozen. She assured us they would freeze well. What she doesn't know is that our freezer is crammed full and I know Steve would enjoy eating them every morning for breakfast with coffee for the next six mornings. And I don't mind eating one too, because they sure look good. 

We also grabbed a package of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, my favorite. 

Then of course, we had to take a donut to go. These are deep fried donuts. Steve's was rolled in powdered sugar and mine was double chocolate. Why not? 

Those were "for the road"! 

Their prices were so reasonable. But I think Steve was so mesmerized he would have paid any amount of money to get that big hunk of sticky buns and that delicious powdered sugar donut.

I wish we could have bottled up the aroma of the bakery. That would be a really wonderful candle scent. 

We struggled our way back out to the motorhome across the road, under our multitude of packages from the bakery. We forgot to bring in a shopping bag. In Canada, you must always bring your own bags. We forgot. 

The next morning, 

with coffee, 

just look at that face....

(I think he likes his new "hobby")

85 miles traveled on Sunday 

771 miles so far