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1 to 15 August 2014 16 to 31 August 2014

Friday August 1, 2014

We are on the road by 7:15 and heading to St Ignace-de-Loyola near Berthierville in Quebec.
We will be visiting Patrice, Manon and the kids.

Montreal is as usual, we made it through no problems.
Once on the east side of Montreal, we leave the autoroute and take the secondary highway 138 because it follows the St-Laurence river.
We also have to stop at a small campground and visit our friends Charles and Agnes.

We must have talked for over an hour. It is always fun to see them again.
Charles, Agnes, we hope our path will cross again this winter.

The scenery along the St-Laurence river.

We have a pleasant surprise at Patrice's place, Manon's sister and her family are also visiting.
The weather is hot and the pool is inviting. A super water gun battle takes place.

We are sleeping in the 5th wheel, but first we have to fill the fresh water tank.

Benoit and his friend Roxane arrived a few hours later. They will spend the next two days with us.
We are very happy to see our son Benoit.
Here is Roxane happy to see us again.

Antonie and Emile working hard in the garage.

Antonie's masterpiece.

Tonight we have a small "concert" from Rock.
From L to R, Emile, Patrice, Rock and Benoit.

On the couch, Antonie, Michèle, Denis, Karine's husband.
On the floor, Roxane, Manon, Catherine and Karine.

We sure had a great day.

Saturday August 2, 2014

It is still hot and muggy today.
We spend a good part of the day in the pool.
We can't help it and have a few water gun fight.

The winners!

Karine, Denis, Antonie and Emile have to leave us and go back home.

Roxane and Benoit.

Our Benoit.

Some crazy faces...

Corn on the cub, hummmm!

As usual when we are at Patrice's place we play games. Tonight we are playing Le Tricheur (The cheater).

Patrice and Manon.

After a few games of Tricheur we play Loup-Garou (Werewolf).

Another great day.

Sunday August 3, 2014

Patrice has to get some stuff from his truck, off we go to his truck.

A nice 2014 Mack.

A few years ago I noticed some transport trucks with single wheel where it used to be two wheels.
I finally got a closer look at the BIG tire.

Some pedicure going on.

Our son Benoit.

Since we are all here we take a family photo.

And with our Benoit.

Benoit and Roxane are leaving us!

What a week.

Monday August 4, 2014

We have a busy week ahead of us.

Monday is a hot and humid day so we spend a lot of time in the pool.

Tuesday August 5, 2014

Today, I am a car mechanic.
The two front wheel bearings for the car have arrived. We have to change our front wheel because the one on the car are starting to make noise and it is not a good thing.
I change the right front one and the rain starts!

The left front wheel bearing is changed in the garage.

Our host, Patrice and Manon.

Wednesday August 6, 2014

Today, we are off to Montreal to shop in the indoor flea market.

We are disappointed of the flea market. All new stuff and same price as in the major stores.

Once we are out of the city, we leave the Autoroute behind and drive the old king's highway, route 138.
We are driving along the St-Lawrence river.

Thursday August 7, 2014

We have a big day ahead of us.

We start the day with a visit of the Forges du St-Maurice in Trois-Rivières.
A crazy selfie...

And the visit starts.
This is the first iron industry in Canada. It was established in 1730 and finally shut down 150 years later.

Inside the "Grande Maison", the Big House, many exhibits introduce us to the 150 year history of the Forge.

A multi-media presentation introduce us to the Forge and the area.

The basement of the Grande Maison also contains exhibits.
Rock and Catherine doing some crazy stuff.

Some of the product they made over the 150 years.

Now, I did not know how they made axe blades back then.

Back in the days you had to have legends...

Mademoiselle Poulin.

The devil.

And the village strong man, Mr Tassé.

After the Grande Maison, we walk to the upper blast furnace.
The pipe structure you see represents the outside walls of the building.

The iron forgers!

After the upper blast furnace, we head toward the river and the lower blast furnace.
We had to stop for a photo of Rock and Catherine.

The chimney of the blast furnace.

Do you remember the story of Mademoiselle Poulin?
Here is the devil's spring.

A short break by the St-Maurice river.

125 steps later and we are back to the Grande Maison.

The visit of the Forges du St-Maurice was very good and instructive. We really liked it.

After the Forge, we have a good lunch and then go to the Musée québécois de la culture populaire, we are still in Trois-Rivière.
Inside the museum you have many small museums. We will not be able to visit them all.

We start with the "La Petite Vie" museum.
La Petite Vie was a very popular tv show back in the 90.

After La Petite Vie, we go to the next museum, this one is about "Québec en Crimes" or "Québec Criminally Speaking".
This museum is about the major crimes that took place since 1900.
We did not do the guide tour and for that, it was a little boring.

The highlight of the museums is the "Go to Jail!"
This is the old prison here in Trois-Rivières, it was built in 1822 and finally closed in 1986.
Our guide is the gentleman behind the counter.

As the guided tour took place we heard facts, stories and other "information" about this prison.
Not a nice place to be!

We really enjoyed the visit of the prison.

After our visit we went to the restaurant "Le Sieur de Laviolette" and Valérie joined us after work.
From L to R, Catherine, Valérie and Patrice.

Rock and Michèle, myself and Manon are not in the photo :-(

We really enjoyed being with Patrice, Manon and the "kids" for this day.

Friday August 8, 2014

At the "Petit Musée de l'Île Dupas" or "Small Museum of the Ile Dupas", they have a display about De La Vérendry.
Off we go, it is close by.

The museum is actually inside the old church. The church was built in 1852 and transformed into a community hall in 1985.

The church is pretty and this is about the only good thing I have to say. A good thing the exhibit was free...

We are back home for lunch and then lunch is pancake.
The chefs at work.

Hummmm!

With our belly full, we spend the afternoon by/in the pool.

Catherine has a soccer game, Michele and Manon went to watch it.

When they got back at home we played "pass the ace".

Another great day.

Saturday August 9, 2014

The Metro, a groceries store, where Catherine works has a hot-dogs lunch and the proceeds are going towards a local charity.
We love hot-dogs, so off we go!

With lunch over we head back home, but first we check out one of the farmer's field for this year "hay bale" creation.
This year it is "Stuart" from the movie "Despicable Me"

Patrice and me hard at work...

This was another hot and humid day.

Sunday August 10, 2014

Michèle wanted to do some "buckwheat pancake" or "galette de sarrasin".
Here we have Manon cooking the buckwheat pancake.

Some corn on the cubs...

Patrice got the first pancake!

I cannot remember eating buckwheat pancake before, but I like it!

Michèle and Manon left us late afternoon to pick up Manon's sister and her two boys.
We have a nice campfire going when they arrive.

A very good week with Michèle's family.

Monday August 11, 2014

A little before we left Patrice and Manon's home.

A big thank you to Manon and Patrice for having us at your place like you do.
See you next year!

We are spending the night at Rolland and Suzie's place. Tomorrow morning, we're leaving with them for our place in Ontario.
Once again, Rolland is putting me to work!

We take it easy for the rest of the day because tomorrow we have a 6 hours drive.

Tuesday August 12, 2014

On the road again, but first we will stop at Tim Horton for breakfast.

The weather is not the greatest for traveling... The rain is not too bad, just annoying.

When we finally arrive at the campground, the first thing we do is get a cold beer.

The weather forecast for the next few days is not very good. Rain and cooler temperatures.

Wednesday August 13, 2014

In the afternoon, we go into town and visit the National Air Force Museum Of Canada with Rolland and Suzie.
An Halifax from the WW2.

Like most museums there is a lot to see and read.

A CF101 Voodoo pilot!

The official photograph!

And in the Tutor (CT114).

With the inside of the museum done, we now head to the Air Park.

The museum is in a relocation stage and many of the exhibits were not available yet.

Thursday August 14, 2014

I finally got to the grass cut and it was long and hard to cut.

Close to our place there is this small restaurant/chip truck and it looks pretty ragged.

The reason we are there is actually to look at the old double decker bus.

We guess it was the chip truck at one time. On the left you see the inside where the kitchen was and on the right, the dinning room on the second floor.

After the bus, we visit two cemeteries, why? The answer is "why not!".
One of the oldest headstone dated from 1811. Rolland and I find the headstones very interesting. You can learn a lot of the local history in a cemetery.
Hamburger for dinner and the Chef at work.