Day Twelve, Quebec, QU to Fredericton, NB - 385 Miles

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Greetings,

Not a lot to report today, I'm afraid. We departed Quebec City this morning under partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the mid-sixties and low humidity for a change. We were headed for Fredericton, New Brunswick. Crossing the Quebec/New Brunswick Province border we lost another hour entering the Atlantic Time Zone. We are now four hours later than California time. It's a beautiful drive along the Tans-Canada 2 Highway with the St. Lawrence River on our left and the State of Maine border on our right. At some points the river is more than five miles wide.

Around lunchtime we stopped for gas at Grand Falls, New Brunswick, and as we often do we asked a local for lunch recommendation. I made the mistake of asking the young pimply-faced gas attendant for a recommendation. He suggested McDonalds, A&W Rootbeer and the local teenage pizza hangout. Considering our practice of not eating fast food, we opted for a second opinion from a more mature resident. Fortunately, he recommended the La Marina Restaurant on the St. John's River. It was reportedly "biker friendly." La Marina turned out to be nice mid-day dining experience, good food, friendly service, with a view of the marina and the river. It was quiet and peaceful and begged for an afternoon nap in a hammock. Sadly, it was not to be and we shoved off for Fredericton, but, not before stopping at the falls that Grand Falls is noted for. I took my helmet off for five minutes to take a photo at which time a mosquito nailed me right in the ear, the first bite I've received since leaving California, twelve days ago. No photo is worth a mosquito bite in my opinion.

We pulled into Fredericton around 6:00 PM and checked into the Crown Plaza Hotel. After a couple of adult beverages we adjourned to the parking lot where Jack and I performed some needed maintenance on Lane's and Bill's bikes. Following the maintenance and a quick shower we walked downtown and had a 9:00 PM supper at the Lunar Rouge Pub. Only the abbreviated late night menu was available, but somehow we managed to stuff ourselves again. Jack has taken to only eating chicken Caesar salads for both lunch and dinner. We're putting a pool together to see when he gets burned out on them.

Tomorrow, we're off to the eastern-most terminus of our journey, Halifax, Nova Scotia.