The Land of Dwarfs and Giants Part 2 #81

My last blog ended with a left turn from Main Street in Fort Kent, Maine on our way to our weeklong adventure. We decided to take two trucks to our destination, Keith’s and Paul’s. Keith, Phil, Chris and Raymond were in their truck and Paul and I were in his truck. Just before leaving, Keith had handed Paul and I a walkie talkie so we could communicate between vehicles. That would prove to be beneficial immediately. Paul and I turned left, followed by Keith, and we all crossed the bridge over the Saint John River. Just before we stopped at the Canadian Customs, the radio came to life with the now famous words. “Phil forgot his passport, we are turning around and going back.” As we turned to look back, we saw their truck making a U-turn on the Canadian side of the bridge and headed back toward the American Customs. Both Paul and I knew this was not good and that came to bear. We stopped at the Canadian Customs and went through the standard questions after passing the officer our passports and then were waved through. We turned left and found a parking lot to wait, and wait we did. Now, remember, they had to go back through American Customs, get Phil’s passport and then come back to Canadian Customs. As is the case when turns are made, the Canadian Customs alerted the American Customs and they had to explain why they had passed into Canadian territory, and had not reported to the Canadian Checkpoint as is required, even when you turn around before reaching the checkpoint. They got through, and fortunately did not have a long way to travel to retrieve Phil’s passport. When they found their way back to Canadian Customs, the customs officers were waiting for them. They made them pull to the side for a check and for some reason, they only focused on one guy, Chris. Paul and I waited patiently in the parking lot and I could see the guys walking around the truck. Well, they finally released them and the truck began to move. We pulled out and were finally off. The drive took us up Route 120 by Lac Baker and Lac Long. Just after passing Saint-Marc Du Lac-Long, we turned northwest on to route 232. This road would take us to Cabano and after passing through there, we continued on Route 232 until we reached Route 234. That route would take us all the way to the coast of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. If you have never been there, you are missing some of the most beautiful views anywhere. We moved on to Route 132 and continued northwest along the coast to our destination of Matane, Quebec. This is where we would cross the Saint Lawrence via ferry. We arrived in Matane and drove immediately to the ferry entrance. Paul had made reservations and it was a good thing. There were a number of cars awaiting their turn to load on the boat. The cost to take the two-hour ride was $49.00 for each vehicle and $19.60 per person. This was all in Canadian money, which I might add was roughly worth 74% of the US dollar at that time. 

We lined up and then the cars began to enter the boat. 

Our turn came and  we eventually entered and parked where we were told to. I had heard a lot about the ferry and was looking forward to exploring it. We left the vehicles and headed up the stairs to Deck 5 where the passengers stayed during the crossing. Now, like I said, this was a little over two hours, but you had lots that you could do. We immediately made our way to the canteen where we got our lunch which we took into the lounge. We washed down a beer with our food and Phil had a glass of wine instead. Once we were finished, it was time to do some exploring. We worked our way to the top deck where we could see for miles in every direction. The Saint Lawrence was beautiful and calm that day. After we took in the sights, it was back down stairs where we took a little nap. It had already been a long day and it was not finished. Two hours passed quickly and before we knew it, the captain was announcing that we were arriving at our next destination, Godbout, Quebec and to please go back to your vehicle and prepare to off load. 

We found our way back to the trucks and drove off the boat and turned west toward our final destination for the day, Sept Iles, or in English, Seven Islands where we had hotel reservations for the night. On the way, I could not help but marvel in the electric transmission lines that lined the roadway. They were everywhere.

After about two hours, we made our entry into Sept Iles and stopped at the Comfort Inn. We checked in and got our room assignments, dropped off our luggage and now were on a mission to find some good food. After Phil quizzed the desk clerk, we decided to go to a local restaurant that specialized in seafood. Remember, this is on the coast and the seafood is right off the boat. The restaurant was named Poissonnerie Soucy or in English, Soucy Fish Shop. The meal was excellent, but we were slipping fast. We had left Fort Kent at 9am that morning and had finally arrived in Sept Iles at 5:30pm. We paid our bill and headed back to the hotel. We knew we would have a long day tomorrow and needed to get our beauty sleep. We said our goodnights and closed the first day of our trip. I was really excited and could not wait for the next day to come. It had been a long time in the making and I wanted to get to our destination. Tomorrow would hopefully be the day, however, we knew we could not control two things, the weather and the method of travel to get to our final destination. Would we be successful? That my friends is coming up in part 3.