Crossing Canada Day #19: Returning to New Brunswick
We continue our Chronicles of Crossing Canada. Welcome back!
We got up and out of our comfy bed in truck-house at about 7:30 AM. Aunt Michelle had already been up and gone to work. We showered in her condo, then locked up and rolled out, heading East towards New Brunswick.

The telescreen (the new term we use for the apple map) took us on a route north of the St-Lawrence, bi-passing Montreal. Our pace was smooth, the view, spectacular. The highway cut through the Laurentian Hills (French: Laurentides), to our south, glorious farm fields
Getting gas was no easy feat, but I did get to practice my French. Through Trois Rivières, then over the bridge from Quebec City to Lévis....weeeeee...the Pond de Québec is so high! Driving through the province of Quebec, we saw very few pickup trucks and campers passing us going westward. It appears fewer people travel this route and I’m not sure why. It’s a darn shame because this route is spectacular.

The closer we got to New Brunswick, the more bitter and sweet I felt. We are the same people who started this journey 19 days ago, but the amount of appreciation I felt in my heart for this great-big country had grown 100-fold. Regardless of what my birth certificate or passport said, I felt more Canadian somehow. But the end of our travels was near, and this made me sad.
At the border of New Brunswick, we were greeted with a sign (in English and French) that read: “we are happy you came back”. I read this sign as though this message was just for us. The beautiful Appalachian Mountains were highlighted with the colours of fall – red/orange highlighting the contours of the foliage.

We arrived at the Jim’s parents place, no worse for wear. Jim’s dad commented that it looked like we lost weight. They hugged us with relief. We shared some of our snapshots and stories from our adventure.
There was some election talk at the Lightle’s. We watch the election poll coverage on the news which showed just how divided our country was politically.
Potato cheese onion pie for supper and date squares for dessert – trying to put the pounds back on. This would be our last sleep outside of our home province. All I know was that I was nervous about the return home. What would we be returning to? We knew we our province would be implementing vaccine passports effective in October.
Jim writing….
We got up and showered. Michelle was at work, so we were not able to say goodbye. We will see her again; I could feel this in the bottom of my heart. Jaime drove the first leg of the Journey today. She drove like a champ until Lévis where we switched out. I was relaxed and able to continue the drive as chipper as can be. The drive through New Brunswick was the classic 110km/hr speed limit which made for a quick drive. The Fall colours were starting to take effect in the northern part of the province. The hues of oranges and reds dotted the landscape. We arrived at my parents’ house and had supper: Potato cheese onion pie.
