Day 49 – We got up early to say goodbye to Ian, Meg, & the girls before they had to head off to their daily lives. Meanwhile they said we could hang out at the house until we were all ready and set to hit the road.
After getting a bit of preparation done for our departure, Laura and I went for one last swim in the lake- figuring it would be awhile until we would get to enjoy such a thing again.
Shortly later we were on our way to Renfrew. In Renfrew we followed our plan to hit the glass shop to try and get our mirror fixed.
Roy at Renfrew Auto Glass was a super friendly and kind guy, and told us he would have it done by the end of the day. We wandered out into town to see what Renfrew was all about- and shortly later got a call saying the mirror was done. After we hustled back we found out that Roy had done the mirror on his lunch break, because he knew we were traveling and knew there wasn’t much to do in Renfrew. 😂 We thanked him profusely for his kindness, and shortly after I was sanding the glue patch on the back of the mirror and touching it up. Before we knew it we had it installed and were back on the road! Thanks Roy!
Many miles later we entered the edge of Quebec, where we stopped at a truck stop. The first thing we noticed is that everything was in French! It had been a little bit around the rest of Canada, but here it was full on French only.
Laura impulse purchased the most expensive fast food I’ve ever eaten, and the staff was super friendly. It looked like we were going to enjoy Quebec!
We headed on down the road most of the day to the town of Sherbrooke, where we intended to spend the night before hitting the US border again in the morning.
That night we decided to fuel up at the local Costco before parking somewhere to sleep. At the pumps our card wasn’t working, and the pump attendant explained “No Visa in Canada”.
Well… the pumps wouldn’t take cash, and we were pretty much out of gas having planned to get it here. So he brainstormed for a moment and told us to go buy a gift card inside, and that the inside store could accept the Visa. We hustled inside as they closed the doors behind us because the store was shutting down for the evening. When we got to the register to buy our gift card to get gas with, the cashier proceeded to tell us “No Visa in Canada!”
It didn’t make sense, everywhere else in Canada had accepted our Visa, the edge of Quebec had accepted our Visa- but not Sherbrooke! I explained this to her, and proceeded to say- No Money = No Gas = We are stuck! She just shrugged her shoulders to let us know we were out of luck.
At the door, we asked the attendant if we could go get the emergency cash out of our safe spot in The Ohana and hurry back in to buy a gift card because we had no gas- he just shrugged his shoulders and told us we were out of luck.
I didn’t know if it was just Sherbrooke, or Quebec as a majority- but I was over it. Laura calculated our distance to the border and found a gas station just on the other side. I pulled out our emergency gas can and went to fill the tank. When I went to do that, the cap itself broke. We then had to use a fill funnel I had, that still leaked out a quite a bit in the process. By the time the can was empty- I speculated we had wasted about a third of the tank.
We then hustled out towards the border through the night with our fingers crossed. As the winding roads seemed to continue on forever we watched our gas gauge drop.
Eventually we came to the border with the needle on empty. After a chat with the friendly US border guard we were hustling along to a nearby gas station. There we gladly viewed the lights of the gas station, with incredibly cheaper gas than on the other side. The Ohana happily drank her fill, and we refilled the gas can knowing we would need to replace the cap immediately.
Needless to say, Quebec will be off my list of places to visit in the future- and we are pretty happy to be back on this side of things. We spent a few hours more driving into the night looking for a open resting spot, and crossed from Vermont into New Hampshire where we eventually found a nice, little, welcoming pullout for the night.
Day 50 we awoke at our happy little rest stop to find we were right at the border of entering Maine. We finished up our morning coffee and spent the majority of the day winding our way down crazy, tight, country roads until we reached our goal of Sabattus. There we passed down a long and winding boy scout camp, to which just passed at the end there were a few lone houses. There we finally arrived at our friends Jim & Andrea Lowell’s home.
When we arrived we were pretty amazed. They had the cutest place also nestled right next to another lake.
And here we had thought we wouldn’t be doing any lake plunges again any time soon! So long story short- that’s what we all did that afternoon. 😉
That evening Jim & Andrea were out to spoil us some- so they took us to a local restaurant right on a vineyard. While we enjoyed a most excellent dining experience, a dinner theater was going on in a tent just right off the deck.
That night we felt super special, and when we returned back to the Lowell’s home, we wandered and drank in the warm summer night for a bit.
I took a couple of short videos, but they are very dark. Hopefully you can see the flicks of the fireflies in one and hear the croak of the bullfrogs in the other. 🤞
On Day 51- Laura and I pretty much had the house to ourselves. We got some blog work done, did an exercise in the back yard, and jumped in and bathed in the lake. We also added Vermont, New Hampshire, & Maine to our states magnet!
Since we had decided to stay another night- Jim & Andrea insisted they treat us out to another night in the area. This time they took us to the neighboring town of Lewiston, where we got to check out tons of awesome architecture in the old town area. We also went out for another fun dinner and a quick drink at the local pub.
When we returned home that night, we hung out on the deck for the evening where Jim showed us his crazy little instruments he likes to play with. He played his loon call, an owl call, and a really sweet digeridoo; which he let me mess with too. It was a very pleasant night indeed!
On Day 52 we decided we could slow life down a little and spend another day with the Lowell’s; since thus far it had been such a pleasant time with them. We did our daily exercise routine, and spent the first part of the day swimming with Lorelei down at the lake. There we found a huge tadpole, a huge spider (turned out to be a dock spider and it’s harmless), and I nearly caught a fish with my hands- so close!
When Andrea arrived home, we borrowed the car so we could go buy some tuna steaks and brussel sprouts to cook them for dinner. Sadly, we had luck finding the brussel sprouts but no tuna. When Jim was on his way home he decided to save the day and brought home live lobster! Andrea showed us how to prepare them like a pro- stroking their backs to relax them and put them to sleep before putting them into the boiling water. That night we enjoyed a backyard barbecue of fresh lobster, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and beets!
Day 53 we were itching to get on the road, but Jim & Andrea had the day off and they really wanted to take us to one last special place.
After we hit a local RV shop to dump, and I installed a new skylight cover on The Ohana, we drove to a neighboring town to park The Ohana for the day. Then we jumped on in with them for a little journey.
First they took us on a quick tour of the town called Bath, and then we were headed to our fun destination for the day…
… Popham Beach!
The beach was a perfect dream; with sandy beaches to chill, comforting waters and surf to play in, and a sandbar when the tide was low that ran out to an island we hiked all over. We spent the afternoon swimming, body boarding, and soaking in every sunray and breath of fresh sea air we could before the day said it was time to move on.
What a B-E-A-utiful time it was!
Before we had to return to our rolling home to hit the road- they gave us a tour of the area a little more and we hunted for one last meal somewhere. After finding the places we checked had huge lines, we voted for a Chinese Bufffet (couldn’t help it!) and took the Lowell’s out for dinner.
After dinner we shared some hugs and goodbyes- planning to stay in touch and hopefully see each other again soon.
That evening we put some miles behind us, and shortly after found a nice Bass Pro Shop to settle into for the evening.
Overall, Maine had been an amazing experience!
Geoff Murphy 8/3/2022
I agree Quebec sux but the east coast provinces are beautiful and friendly. Looks like you are having fun except for Quebec.
We sure are! The East coast has been really pleasant so far!
Can’t wait for you guys to visit us again! Love the posts. It is amazing that the photos are so good considering how quickly we were driving by.
Thanks Andrea! We had such a wonderful time with you guys. We hope to see you again soon!