Category Archives: highway 40

Wednesday 8th October 2014 – HAD IT NOT BEEN …

… for the driving rain that started to pelt down at about 05:00 this morning, this would have been another one of the best nights’ sleeps that I have ever had, for I was well gone. Another one of these totally painless nights.

motorway service area highway 40 repentigny berthierville quebec canada september 2014Regular readers of this rubbish will certainly recognise this spec, that’s for sure. This is the motorway service area between Repentigny and Berthierville, the one that’s on an island in between the two carriageways and I’ve slept here on a couple of occasions in the past.

So wide awake at something like 06:30, I sorted out a great pile of paperwork and that took me up to about 08:30. Then I headed for a coffee and an internet connection to upload everything to the web.

Once all of that had been dealt with, I went off to my storage unit and carried on with part II of the tidying in there. Rather cramped it might be, but there’s enough space for three or four more large storage boxes, if I am so inclined, although it is my intention to reduce rather than increase the quantity of stuff in there.

I also spoke to a couple of salesmen. One of them is selling these factory-built wooden houses and the other one is selling tents that pop up on the back of a pick-up, both of which could be extremely useful in the future as far as I am concerned.

From here, it was off to the car wash where I had the very … errr … interesting spectacle of watching two of the workers fight each other. Quite animated they were too, and it gave me something to do while I waited for the Dodge. And for just $30, they made it look as if it had just come out of the showroom. I’ve always been impressed with their service.

However, the tape that I had been using to hold the insulation onto the windows left all of its traces behind. That meant a trip to Home Depot and the purchase of a cheap paint scraper. Just $1:95 and half an hour’s elbow grease and you couldn’t see any of that either.

At the airport, handing the Dodge in was quite painless, as was (just for a change) passing through the border inspection. And it was here that our problems really began. The strong gale-force winds had slowed down the aeroplane on its inward journey and even by take-off time for us, it still hadn’t arrived.

It eventually turned up and we all rushed aboard, but someone was then taken ill and had to be evacuated and their luggage removed from the ‘plane. That looks like my connection at Brussels going up the chute and we’ll see how we sort it all out from here.

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Monday 2nd September 2013 – AT FIRST, I WROTE …

… “Monday 2nd December” for the title of today’s posting. Not an error, as you might think, but a Freudian slip because it is winter here today. Black skies, lashing down of rain, hurricane force winds (trees uprooted and all that kind of thing in Montreal) – so much so that it wasn’t until 16:30 or thereabouts that I took to the road, all heaters in the Dodge blazing away.

hydro electric plant riviere ste anne de la peradeIt wasn’t like that at first though. Dawn came early to my little spec on the bluff above the Riviere Ste Anne and it looked as if it might be a lovely day – and I know that the dawn came early because I sa it, having somehow managed to park in the middle of a moquito nest and having been bitten to pieces during the night. I didn’t even cook a meal for fear of disturbing them.

Anyway, as the morning drew on, the day clouded over and as I was fuelling uo the Dodge, the heavens opened and that was that. I found a convenient motorway service area and parked up. With a coffee and an internet connection, I attacked a pile of paperwork and read a book.

By about 16:30 the weather improved a little in the sense that it stopped raining and we just had occasional showers. I hit the road and went off to the village of Deschambault.

This was an important stage on the Chemin du Roy and although the village has altered considerably over the last 275 years, it is said that much of the traces of the original 1734 road are still said to be there if you know where to look.

traces chemin du roy church deschambault quebecJudging by the alignment of the church and the presbytery, and the site of the old fort that Champlain had built against the Iroquois (you can see part of the wall as the boundary wall of the cemetery) I reckon that this might be a good-enough bet.

It continues along the headland from here to the new road, but about 400 metres behind me is a sudden stop. Coastal erosion, particularly along the clay cliffs, was always a serious problem and one of the main reasons for some serious alignment of the road.

Another place on the route is a town called Portneuf, about 10kms further along. Someone shored up a river bank and this led to dramatic changes in the action of the river and created a fine port for the goélettes, the little ships that plied up and down the St Lawrence, of which you can see long-since abandoned here. Gradually, the port was expanded until there is now a quay that stretches more than one kilometre into the St Lawrence, and even the biggest ships can tie up here, although not that they ever do these days.

atlantic erie canadian shipping lines portneuf st lawrenceThe quay is actually situated right at the apex of one of the sharpest meanders in the whole of the river and there are some delightful optical illusions with a long-range telephoto lens as you capture photos of ships such as the Canadian Shipping Line’s Atlantic Erie fighting the current and the meander and having to make a hard-over turn to port to round the headland without colliding with the quay.

And look at the waves – you can see what I mean about the howling wind and the storm that we were having.

Dusk came pretty quickly after this, which was no surprise, and so finding myself back on Highway 40 I retraced my steps to the Motorway Service Area to batten down the hatches for tonight. I’m not going to be doing anything else.

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Wednesday 30th May 2012 – MY LAST DAY …

… in Canada for the moment. I won’t be back for a while.

And after a good night’s sleep in my expensive motel, I’m ready for anything

On the motorway back into Montreal, I notice a huge Home Depot at exit 94. I’ll make a note of that because the ones in the city itself are a little “restricted”. But for now, the huge Walmart, Canadian Tire and Home Depot across the river from Quebec are currently in the lead.

At my little storage unit at Jarry I unload the Dodge and stack everything away for the next time. I’m leaving my heavy winter coat here because I’m hoping to be back in the autumn.

The guy in charge of the unit tells me of a car wash place in the rue Jean Talon and sure enough, it comes up trumps. There are three Eastern Europeans there and they washed, vacuumed and valeted the Dodge to within an inch of its life for just $23. It now looks like something that has just come out of the showroom. I don’t think that I have ever rented a car that has looked as nice as this even when it’s been new. This car is spotless now.

And down the road I found a falafel restaurant that served up a plate of chips and a falafel wrap with a can of pop for all of $7:00.

I need to fuel myself up as well, never mind the car, for the return journey because I quite often have dietary issues on the plane as you know.

air france skyteam aeroport pierre trudeau airport dorval montreal canadaHere’s my plane for the journey back home.

We’ve had the usual stress issues at the airport again, but on a more positive note, this time we had free internet and a pile of electric plugs to help pass the time and that’s a change from the stinking reception that I have had in Dorval in the past.

And it gets better than that too. On the aeroplane one of the films was Some Like It Hot and then we had a whole pile of albums by Hendrix, Springsteen, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young.

I’ll fly by Air France again, even if I don’t ever get to sleep.

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Thursday 26th April 2012 – THIS PHOTO …

laval rocket on lorry montreal quebec canada… had me tickled pink, as it clearly had several other people too. Because there really were some people who believed that the rocket really was being carried on the trailer of this lorry.

I went out for an early morning constitutional, like you do, and noticed the rocket on display on a plinth across the motorway. And so I waited until a convenient lorry drove past.

I had meant to go for a closer inspection after breakfast but somehow, Brain of Britain forgot.

I was up and about early – and by “early” I mean 04:00. So that gave me plenty of time to catch up on my notes and photos of yesterday and even some from 2011 too. Can’t take a shower too early.

And yes, we’re back in a Quebec motel. The C and F on the taps doesn’t stand for chaud and froid like you might think. It means “Cold” and “Freezing”.

But the towels were something else completely. So luxurious! I had no end of trouble trying to close my suitcase when I left. Makes a change from some motels where I’ve stayed, where they actually stole the towels from the guests (and YES – I have had this!).

Shopping was next. And never having been to Laval before, I had done my research. It didn’t take long to find the Canadian Tire, Walmart and Home Depot, located quite close together down the road.

And a Dollar Store! They had packets of seeds on sale at three for $1:00 – including some sweet corn! I was tempted by that kind of offer – after all, growing crops at my altitude is challenging – but seeds destined for the short Canadian growing season sound just the job to me.

Finding a bank was something else, though. No trace of a Scotia Bank (where my UK bank has an arrangement) in the vicinity so we had to resort to the telephone directory and the Lady Who Lives In The Satnav.

I’d seen a supermarket – an IGA – on the side of the motorway last night driving down here, and I’d made a mental note. But seeing it was one thing – finding my way to it was something else completely.

All of that took me until lunchtime, would you believe. And those raisin buns that I had bought in the Dollar Store were delicious. Went down a treat

This afternoon saw me at my storage box at Jarry. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I rent a storage box in one of these self-store units. Just 1m³ but I keep my bed, my camping stuff and my fittings for the Dodge in there.

I spent most of the afternoon fitting out the Dodge and then hitting Highway 40 east.

Straight into the rush hour.

If that wasn’t enough to be going on with, the temperature suddenly plummeted 10°C as I sat and watched, and we were greeted with the most tremendous downpour. Nothing that I had ever seen in the Auvergne came anywhere close to what we were having just then.

And with the traffic having sat stationary for about half an hour we were joined by a pile of fire engines, ambulances and police cars. That prolonged our stay.

We eventually moved off, four lanes compressed into one – in the rush hour – due to a major fire on the hard shoulder. And it was black as pitch, torrential rain and freezing cold.

I slipped off the motorway, wondering if it would be quicker to advance by going via Repentigny, but a Motel welcoming sign greeted me with rooms reduced to a special price “for tonight only”.

copulatum expensium, as we Pompeiians say. I needed cheering up.

So here at the Motel des Pinions Rouges at Bout-de-l’Ile it gave me an opportunity to charge up the Ryobi batteries that I had bought in Home Depot, and to cook myself a meal in the slow cooker.

I’ll organise myself better tomorrow.

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