Author: wellsmarsha

Last night our campground near Quebec City was mostly full. After supper we walked around most of it and found only one other non Quebec license plate. A couple from Edmonton, Alberta.

Once up and jumped started with coffee then breakfast we head out finding a large grocery store stocking supplies for our travels along the more remote areas heading towards Labrador. Our route is along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as it widens becoming the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The first hour after leaving Quebec City traffic is heavy but over time it thins out and we make tracks. Temperatures in Quebec City quickly rose towards eighty degrees but as we traveled further north and east the temperature continued on a downward trend. At the end of travels today around 5 pm the temperature was 59 degrees. No worries tonight in sleeping with it too hot!

At one point our route rose to well over 2000 feet elevation and a few minutes later we are back at sea level. We’re camped close to where we leave the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and head due north 600 km to Labrador City. Parts will be paved while others gravel. We don’t expect to make long distances each day for the next several days.

Settling into a routine while on a trip takes some time. From the packing and arranging where specific items go so they can be efficiently found takes time. Once on the road for a while all falls into place. Today is a day of miles. Once along on the trip miles are not a priority yet we know most of the territory we are traveling through on day one.

Starting with showers and everything clean we hit the road at 9 with plans to head across the southern Adirondacks to the Northway and head straight north towards Montreal. Then it’s a left turn heading northeast towards Quebec City. We are hoping to camp somewhere between Plattsburgh, NY and Quebec City. Travel gods are with us and we make good progress. We hit some traffic between Montreal and Quebec City. We push onward and make it to a campground in the Quebec City area. All is good.

Time for another adventure… Since our three week trip to Newfoundland in 2017 we’ve wanted to return and explore so much more. Thus we hatched the concept of traveling to Newfoundland via Quebec and Labrador. While part of the Province of Newfound and Labrador have 75% of the land in the entire Province it has around 6% of the total people in the Province. Of the roughly ½ million people less than 30,000 live in Labrador. Let’s just say Labrador is not well traveled. The highway is paved for about half the length of this 800 mile highway with only a few locations to purchase gasoline. Once to the eastern end there’s a ferry to the Newfoundland island.

Don’t expect daily updates since internet connectivity is not possible along much of our route but we’ll update here when we can. Feel free to ask questions in the comments here or drop us an email at wells.horton@gmail.com

After exploring Newfoundland we’ll head to the other Atlantic Provinces on our return home in September.

We are heading to just outside of Manasas, Virginia to Bull Run Regional Park where the Battle of Bull Run took place. We’ll be here two nights then drive home on Monda

 

We made it home on Monday May 6 after traveling 10,026 miles, 19 States, and 2 Countries.

Wells miss judged last night how far it is to our friends, Barbara and Nico. We are headed to their place in Timberville, VA. This is where we spent the first and second nights of this trip back in mid-March. Wells figured it would be a 5 hour drive to their place from here. It’s not the case. Turns out it’s more that 360 miles and much of that we travel again on up and down and twists and turns. It’s a day of driving. Not fast driving in fact it is an extremely scenic drive. Much of our route followed Route 60 and it takes us through Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and Western Virginia. We arrive a bit before 6 pm and enjoy reconnecting. Tomorrow it’s on to see our daughter, Marni, outside of Washington, DC.

We get up and head northward to Berea. Berea is a folk artist and crafts capitol of Kentucky. Berea College is all about the artistry and fine crafts and is located in historic downtown Berea. The town is well maintained and there are galleries and artisan shops all over the place. We first head to a café and enjoy a nice breakfast. Then we check out many of the local artisan shops including the one owned and run by Berea College. Wells notices the total lack of photography works and wonders if photograph counts or does not count as art.

Midday we first head north then a bit east then south and finally east once again. It’s a full afternoon of twists, turns, ups, and downs. We take the slow and scenic route towards the eastern part of the state. Around suppertime we stop at a small state park, Jenny Wiley State Park and Resort. There’s a big lake as part of the park so maybe that is where the “Resort” part comes.

At the park we enjoy showers, supper, and a thunderstorm.

Are goal for today is Mammoth Cave National Park. A 53,000 acre park that is pretty much woods. There’s not a lot to see here since the woods blocks most of the views but the real prize is what lies below. In the 1930s maybe 50 to 100 miles of underground caves were known. Since then more cave exploration continued and now more than 400 miles of passageways are mapped.

There are a number of various guided tours one can sign up for so we elect to do the Drips and Domes tour. Many of the other tours are in caverns that are totally dry. We meet at our assigned rendezvous’ point at two in the afternoon and our National Park Ranger Guide gives us an introduction to what we will see. The tour starts with a bus ride then we stop at a pull off in the woods. Our guide is a black man who was born and raised in the area. His father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather all were cave guides. This great great grandfather was a slave and as a slave led white tourists on cave tours.

The part of cave we are entering was discovered around 1930 and explored over the next few years. Shortly afterwards the private land and underlying cave were acquired though emanate domain and made part of the National Park.

We return to the surface at a different location and load into the waiting bus. We’re back at our rig shortly after 4 and decide to head towards Berea, Kentucky. Along the way we find a county campground and stop for the night.

Today’s goal is to cross the Mississippi River. As we have progressed eastward the countryside has become greener. Almost everything has leafed out and grasses are in their spring growth. The further east the water become more readily available. A rough guide is the 100^th meridian where to the west there is less than 20 inches of precipitation in a year while east of that invisible line it’s more than 20 inches. Land uses change and one can see it yet it’s such a gradual transition.

We cross the Mississippi River where the Ohio River joins. It’s two long bridges where it appears one is crossing a single vast river where part of the bridge is on an island. Rather it crosses the Mississippi touches land and crosses the Ohio right away. Flood control levies are evident but one wonders how these simple dirt structures can tame such an amazing river system.

We head to the “Land Between the Lakes” area in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and  stay at an Army Corp of Engineers campground on one of the huge lakes. These are was created from the Tennessee Valley Authority back in the 1930s.

We break camp and head into Pawhuska for breakfast. While at the campground last night we heard about Pioneer Woman Mercantile. It’s a place that Ree somebody and her husband created. She is Pioneer Woman on the Food Network and we guess is well known to much of the world. We were clueless. Anyway we heard “good café” and “good bakery” so we went for breakfast which was excellent. Afterwards we head out of town to the preserve. We see plenty of birds and some free roaming bison, stop at the visitor center then continue our eastward journey.

We make a long day of driving and reach Chadwick, MO just east of Springfield, MO and find a National Forest Campground. It has two other campers in the whole campground so we enjoy our open space.

We break camp and retrace the 35 miles east to Boice City. From there we continue eastward. Western Oklahoma is unpopulated. The towns are far apart and not very big. Along the route we see Turkey Vultures and Pronghorn and plenty of open space.

Our goal for today is to camp near the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy. We find a place near Pawhuska, OK. Upon signing in to the campground we discover the mother of the woman who runs the campground grew up in Afton not far from our home in Sherburne.