Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 50...Tuesday, August 2, 2011...Down the St. Lawrence to Quebec

Civilization is good.
Ed and I pull out of Baie Comeau and, wow, what a difference...paved roads, people, stores, towns...it's all coming back now. The road to Quebec City is excellent...mostly two lanes through little towns near the water. At one point, the Garmin takes us inland over rolling hills and more towns...beautiful. Two hours into the drive, we discover that we have another ferry to take...this one across Baie St. Catherine...it's fast, fun and, best of all, free.Fifteen miles or so north of Quebec, we get on a real freeway...with four lanes and exits...wow!
Our campground is on the south bank of the St. Lawrence, so I get to drive over a particularly tall and scary bridge...nice. At the KOA, we find that things are pretty booked because there is a week-long festival in Quebec City celebrating history and culture from the 1700 and 1800's. But Ed and I are able to use our great skills at speaking French to charm the campground manager, and she gets us a nice spot for four whole days.
For dinner, it's more fried bologna...this time with some spicy Indonesian noodles...it's "fusion cuisine" for campers. Sparkling wine is the obvious choice here, so Ed and I celebrate our return to civilization with a cold bottle of Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs...it tastes really, really good.
And...tomorrow, we'll be in the "old city" eating authentic Bistro food...I can hardly sleep!


Ed's Sidebar, Days 47-50:

Sunday, a day of rest and laundry. I have one eye swollen shut. We are nearly out of ammo to fight the black flies. Come morning we will withdraw along Trail 389 toward Baie Comeau and safety. Once out of reach of black flies, we will declare victory over the Labrador Highway and all its allies.

We hear coyotes almost every night. Their howls sound the same across the lake or from the ridge as any other coyote from Colorado to Arizona. The Atlantic coyote, though, has interbred with wolves. In this regard, the horse-drawn carriage has met the gasoline engine.

We drove a gravel road again through mountains of fox and porcupine in late afternoon. One fox stared at me, a squirrel in its teeth as we passed. --One summer I held a sausage in its bun while Larry's dog meandered through my yard.

There is no dark like the dark of a moonless Labrador, where the loon answers the coyote's call at exactly twilight.

Six weeks in the woods.
I do not care if I see
Hansel and Gretel.

I left nothing of myself in Quebec City on my last visit about 35 years ago. Now I see the skyline of Chateau Frontenac again. Je me souviens!

Fried baloney and spicy noodles 'en terrain du camp ce soir'--simple French fare, trapper's fare is our lot. Beaver pelts our unlikely reward.

For purposes of this study we have removed the English language. Also the black flies. We have added only two mosquitoes and less temperature to avoid the misconception of summer. Other controls remain the same, the wind, the clouds, the gathering rain, the cold nights. Our subject rummages the camper maze again. Mittens were not added. He finds an oven glove, tries it on.

Misc...
You won't find hominy in Goose Bay, Labrador. Don't ask for Tabasco sauce in Labrador City. You can't roller skate in a caribou herd. Not that we saw any caribou.

Handy guide...
To convert Celsius to Farenheit, multiply by two and add thirty. To convert hectares to calories, reduce heat and simmer a million years. Note there will be fewer calories per gallon in Quebec than in Tampa. This should not dissuade the serious chef.

They should post a warning about the genetically-altered mosquitoes here. I took a swat at one in the shower and it only laughed. At what, I do not know.


Ed's Sidebar, Day 51:

A mosquito is in my wine, its oil slick slowly spreading. 'Interesant,' I say, trying out my latest Francaise. The mosquito does not reply. Nine at night and I still see frost on my breath in August. A mosquito does not care.


Ed's Sidebar, Day 52:

Dear reader, he puts down, home to Tampa tomorrow and it has been, how shall I say, an interesting, which is not to say particularly, he puts down, enjoyable, though anything can be enjoyed once the shock of it is embraced, seven weeks in the wilderness. Plus Quebec City, the Paris of North America. A contrast like that is good. Contrast is a space-fossil headline, the black fly in a sock, a maple leaf found between the pages of a book years later. C'est finis, good bye for now.

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 49...Monday, August 1, 2011...Out of Labrador

Ed and I are both up early breaking camp. We've got a 360 mile drive today from Labrador City to the Quebec town of Baie Comeau on the St. Lawrence.
Before 8:00AM, we're pulling out of the campground and heading to Fermont for coffee and fuel.
t is difficult to believe that there could be a worse stretch of highway than that which we have already driven...but the road out of Fermont is terrible...more gravel road with potholes, but a narrower road...and lots of sharp curves...excellent. So...it's slow going all day...plus many stops crossing back over the same railroad tracks all the way down from Northern Quebec. After a hundred miles or so, we get fifty miles of broken pavement...then more gravel...then bad pavement again. But the last fifty miles or so is decent pavement, so it's pretty smooth going.
Around 6:00PM, we finally reach Baie Comeau...a town that is much bigger than we expected.
Our campground is out on a point high above the St. Lawrence...a nice spot. Cocktails are our reward for the tough drive...and we make up yet another batch of pasta for dinner.
We have returned to civilization...and...tomorrow Quebec City beckons with big-city dining and much history. It could not come sooner for us.

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 48...Monday, August 1, 2011...A Day of Laundry, Fishing and Rest in Labrador City

I'm up early and so is someone that looks a little like Ed...he's Ed's size and has the same look, but his face is swollen up like Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Wait...it is Ed...he's been attacked by black flies, and the bites are so bad that his eyes are swollen almost shut. This necessitates a search of the camper for benadryl...Ed's in luck as we are able to locate the necessary medicine quickly. It works and, in an hour or two, the swelling is significantly reduce.
There are no laundromats in Labrador City...and Ed and I need to do laundry. So...after a few cups of French press coffee (no electricity = no coffee maker), we head into Quebec to the town of Fermont to do our laundry at the local hotel. There's a restaurant, so we have a light breakfast while our clothes are washed. It's a two-hour project, and we're back at camp around noon.
I head off to go fishing in the river next to the campground. The campground manager has given me a container of worms which he claims will guarantee successful trout fishing. He's wrong...I fish for over three hours without even a nibble. So...after three days of fishing in Labrador, I have caught a grand total of seven trout, none bigger than a few ounces.
Back at camp, Ed and I are loading on the insect repellant because the black flies are out in abundance. It's a sunny day, and the flies are enjoying the weather.
Dinner is pretty simple...fried bologna (excellent), some nice Canadian cheddar, and some crackers...all this matches up well with a bottle o Kim Crawford Pinot Gris from Australia...the perfect bologna wine!
It is, of course, cold once again...so Ed and I are bundled up as night falls...Ed reading some poetry and me digging deeper into the last volume of the Teddy Roosevelt biography...Bailey's Irish Cream is our companion until bedtime.

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 47...Sunday, July 31, 2011...A Tour of the Hydro Project and On to Labrador City

Well...I wake up alive...no "lightning strike" camping next to the church.
It is, of course, raining this morning as always...in all these days of travel, we have only had a tiny handful of sunny days and even fewer dry nights.
Ed and I pack up around 7:30AM and head over to the local "hotel" for coffee and breakfast...good, but pricey like everything else here.
At 9:00AM, we are picked up by a representative of "Nalcor", the local power company that owns and operates the hydro project. Donning safety glasses and hard hats, we head below ground over 90 stories (yes...9-0). We get to see the big generators, escape tunnels...and view a short movie detailing the history of the project. It's fun and only take an hour and a half or so.
And then...we're on the gravel "highway" again for the 150 mile or so drive to Labrador City. The road is about the same as yesterday...so we are averaging between 40 and 50 mph. Once in town, we stop for pizza (terrible) and ice. Then we're off about ten miles out of town to the local campground. It's packed and very primitive...no electric, and it's a ten or fifteen minute walk to the bathroom. We're camped on the beach of a large lake...pretty view, sandy campsite.
After setting up camp, we relax with a few cocktails before dinner...pasta again, a hearty meal. With no electricity, no WiFi and no cell phone service, our "entertainment options are pretty limited. We do listen to my iPod on the rechargeable boombox for awhile before heading off to bed around 10:00PM.
We're staying here an extra day, so we can sleep in tomorrow.

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 46...Saturday, July 30, 2011...Church Camping in Churchill Falls

We scraped up another load of beans from the camper cabinet, so we've got coffee again this morning. It's only a 150 mile or so drive today, so we're not in any particular hurry.
One nice thing about today's drive is that about 60 miles will be on new pavement...part of a larger project to pave the highway all the way from Happy Valley/Goose Bay to Churchill Falls. About ten miles outside of town, we spot a bear on the side of the road and stop for a few photos. Thanks to my "Dolittlian" communication skills, I am able to establish an immediate rapport by using the phrase..."Yo, bear dude".
Construction slows our travel today...not to mention the poor road conditions once we run out of pavement. Still, we arrive late afternoon in the town of Churchill Falls. This is the sight of one of the world's largest hydroelectric projects, and it's very much a "company town". There are no RV Parks here, but a guy at the gas station advises us that we can park either at the skating rink or the church...we opt for the church. And, then, there we are...pitching our tent and setting up camp in the parking lot of the local church. It's rainy, cold...and the black flies ar out in force. There is one bar in town, but it doesn't open until 6:00PM. So...we head over to the town's only hotel and restaurant for a light lunch.
Back at "camp", we're all bundled up and huddled in the Escape to get out of the rain. 6:00PM never took so long.
Over at Malone's, we're finally having a couple of cold beers and some decent chicken wings and fries. It's a friendly group of people, but the crowd is pretty sparse for a Saturday. It's a warm and dry place, so we linger for several hours.
When we leave, the rain has stopped, so the walk back to "camp" isn't so bad. Still, it's mighty cold...nothing to do but sleep.


Ed's Sidebar, Day 44, 45, 46:

The original idea for Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, came from watching black flies hurl themselves against a camper window in Labrador.

What if trout had a social life unknown to us? There would be Bob, hanging out with his buddies at the local rapids having the trout version of pizza and a beer. When--Bob disappears with a hook in his mouth. Later, Mona trout wonders, 'Whatever happened to...what's his name?' Oh well, maybe there's something with shinier spots to be found.

You have to watch out for bears in Churchill Falls. They hang out at the town dump, beyond which is some great fishing, they say. At night the bears come in from the dump to wander the town. They caught a bear just last week, and one the week before. This scares the campers of course. We are the only campers in town. We set up in the church parking lot, though, so we should be safe, praise the Lord.

When we left Cochran's Pub, two drunks in the parking lot were smoking cigarettes and doing the black flies jitterbug. When it comes to fun in Churchill Falls, you pay to play. These guys should know that.

The Community Church in Churchill Falls is locked tonight on account of black flies or religious strife, no one is sure. One thing is sure, no one ever met a black fly who feared the Lord.

I dreamed black flies tried to eat my brain in Labrador City. They disrupted my command and control first, scrambled the communication of my eyes and ears. They sent suicide scouts into my mouth and lungs to deceive me, to disguise their true point of attack. Thus distracted, I was helpless when the sky filled with the black helicopters of their assault. I had gone insane in this frigid war zone. When I woke, I loved the smell of bug spray.

(to be continued maybe...else, good bye to sidebars for this trip)

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 45...Friday, July 25, 2011...Happy Valley/Goose

We're up early this morning to make coffee, but it's not easy. Yesterday's "ride" knocked over our container of beans and scattered them all over the bottom of the cabinet inside the camper. So...we're scooping and scraping up what we can for one pot's worth.
Coffee finished, we're back on the "road". The condition of the road is slightly improved over yesterday, so I'm able to do 50-55 mph in spots. I bought a fishing license in Red Bay because Labrador is supposed to have the best trout fishing in the world. So, today, I'm stopping a few times along the way to make a few casts in the rivers that we pass mile after mile. Well...the good news is that I caught four trout...the bad news is that they were all about four inches long...throw them back and let them grow up.
And so, on we drive...there are a few hills, small mountains, lots of lakes/rivers...the trees this far north are short and scrubby...no huge forests up here.
Early in the afternoon, we arrive in the twin towns of Happy Valley and Goose Bay...they are good-sized towns with all the amenities...pavement, banks, hotels, restaurants, etc. Ed and I are hungry, so we stop at a hotel restaurant for a decent burger and a $5.00 beer. Then, we're off to the bank, a stop for groceries and ice, another stop for gas.
Our campground is basically a gravel parking lot about seven miles out of town. We set up camp, and then return to town for a little "bar-hopping". We visit two little taverns and have a chance to spend some time with the friendly locals.
Back at camp, we're still full from our late lunch, so it's salami, cheese and crackers for a light dinner.
Early to bed again...a short (150 mile) drive tomorrow to Churchill Falls...but you never know what the road is going to be like.

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 44...Thursday, July 28, 2011...On to Labrador

When I crawl out of my tent at around 7:30AM, I see that Jimmy and Timmy (and Tobey) are already up making coffee and cooking breakfast. They invite me over for a cup, and Ed joins us for breakfast later. It's fried hard-boiled eggs and fried bologna this morning...and it tastes delicious!
Around 9:30, we're packed up and sitting in line for the ferry to Labrador. It's another chance to chat with the other folks in line and try to get some "inside info" on what to expect in Labrador. It's a mixed bag...one guy says the highway is in terrible shape, another says that it's fine...one guy says the black flies are awful, a woman says that they're almost gone for the season.
The ferry itself is nice...comfy chairs and sofas...and there's a cafeteria for coffee, etc. At 10:05, we're off on the one hour and forty-five minute trip. A half hour in, and we see a few whales...then a bunch of small icebergs...then bigger icebergs. An hour in, and the ship stops dead in the water...mechanical trouble. So...we float for an hour in the middle of the Labrador Straits, surrounded by icebergs.
Then...we're under way again and soon docking at the ferry terminal in Blanc Sablon, Quebec. Off we go for a few miles before crossing into Labrador. There's a cool lighthouse a few miles in, so we stop there for photos. I can't help but notice people walking down the road...they're all wearing head nets...hmm.
The first eighty miles or so from Blanc Sablon to Red Bay are a "piece of cake"...the road is paved. In Red Bay, we stop for ice and, before we can even get out of the Escape, we are surrounded by a huge swarm of black flies. They are nasty little buggers...they have powerful jaws which they use to chew a hole in your skin...leaving behind an itchy, bloody welt. They swarm by the thousands and fly into your ears, nose, mouth, eyes...anywhere that they can. Products like "Off" and "Cutters" are effective, but you've got to spray well BEFORE you get out of your vehicle...forget to spray, and it's too late.
Out of Red Bay, the Labrador Highway turns to gravel...lots of potholes and those "washboards" that shake things up real nice. I'm comfortable driving at around 40 mph, and we're in no hurry. The scenery is nice, but a lot flatter than Newfoundland. In the five hours or so that we drive, we see maybe ten other vehicles...not too busy on the Labrador Highway today.
Around 6:00PM, we arrive at our destination...Port Hope Simpson...and the Bayview "RV Park". It's not much...a few spaces with electrical hookups and a building with toilets and a shower. But...we've got a nice view of the Bay, and we are settled in for the night.
Ed and I are joking about how well we did driving our first day on the "Highway". But the joking stops when we open up the back of the camper and survey the "damage". The bumpy ride has torn the storage shelf from it's hinges and it is hanging down into the cargo area. A few glass items have broken...and everything has been tossed into a huge mess. So...we take an hour or so to unload, stow away the shelf and repack. I can't help but think that we've got another 700 or 800 miles of this to go.
Our repacking completed, it's time for a cold Margarita before a dinner of leftover chili...a simple meal, but welcome after a long drive. The sunset over the Bay is beautiful. Off to bed early...we've got another 300 miles to go tomorrow to get to Happy Valley/Goose Bay.