New Richmond, Quebec, Canada

Thursday, August 16, 2018
New Richmond, Quebec, Canada
Woke to gray skies today - such a shame as this campground could be so much fun!  We followed some trails into the woods at the end of our road of campsites, and found that we could actually get lost on these trails.  Wide trails through thick forest, with signs pointing to a restaurant, Le Baie (bay per Google translation!), camping, or bike trails.  We followed to bay, saw no other living being, and came out on a rough beach - driftwood and rocks, but completely silent, like there were not 200 other campers at the campground near us!  Maggie did her Zoomies, while Linda and I tried some selfies on old driftwood stumps.  We then walked back to RV to disconnect (camp host never said when checkout time was as she didn’t speak much English) so we guessed either 11 or 12 and it was now 11:45.  Also, needed to dump waste tanks before we left.  But supposedly only 120 km (90 miles) from Chandler to next campground in New Richmond, so we had time to play along the way.  Passing Paspeblac, we caught an IGA Grocery on the right side of the road - Linda has a “hankering” for cottage cheese pancakes, and we need greens.  IGA was a dream come true - fresh arugula, wild (“sauvage”) Canada blueberries, and cottage cheese will make a great breakfast tomorrow!  Our first fun town was Bonaventure - we had heard it had a beautiful, aqua blue river and tried to get a campsite here, but they were full, so we wanted to at least see the river.  Alas, we never saw the beautiful river, but found some quaint Gaspésie craft stores and museum in town as well as another coastal walking trail.  So dogs actually stayed alone in RV for 1 hour while we shopped, got some fun souvenirs, and then we came to rescue them and walk the coastal bike/walking trail.  We pass many churches at every village, and have wondered why most have silver steeples and spires.  I theorized the silver spire reflected light to ships at sea so they could identify the coast.  Today, I found a local in the church where they had a display of replicas of all the Diocesan churches of the Gaspe Peninsula, and I asked the big question, “why silver roofs and steeples” and answer was, “I don’t know, never noticed that!”  I can’t believe you wouldn’t notice that ALL these churches have silver roofs (we’ve counted 3 that are not silver!), but it remains an unanswered question!  Back on the road, when a sign for Ferme Bourdages Tradition (and a large parking lot, inviting to RV’s!) caught my attention.  We didn’t even know what it was, but a statue of a strawberry (smaller than Marietta Big Chicken and South Carolina’s Peach) made it look appealing.  Turns out it was a 200 year old family farm, lots of strawberrries and apples plus other veggies, homemade breads and pies, and wines -  strawberry wine is sweeter than I would appreciate, but rhubarb wine was very refreshing for a summer drink.  The owner is a family descendent, and has been to Georgia, Crooked River State Park to be exact, on way to visit relatives in Florida, so good conversation!!  We realized we had run down our day, it was 5:20 pm and we still had to find our campground in New Richmond (20 km away).  We did take a few wrong turns, but finally found it at 6:20pm out on a point of the town, near a park for “Plein Air” (outdoor) sports - kayaking, fishing, etc.  It’s a beautiful campground, but became even more so as we witnessed a stunning sunset while racing to find the beach.  Linda got the pictures while I was fixing dinner and opening some wine, but when she showed me pics of the campground, we both decided it was time to sign up for another day.  We are getting close to crossing back into Maine and have no further reservations, so need to take time to plan, and enjoy the current site.  We’ll have to move sites, but it still feels great to stay put tomorrow.  It is cold, going down to 58 degrees tonight!  But high 60’s in daytime.  An easy dinner of bacon, tomato, arugula sandwiches with a treat of Nutella brownies!  With a Montreal Pinot Noir wine for full gourmet dinner!  All is good!  
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