Welcome to Camp Walmart

July 29 to 30, 2012 – Riviere du Loup, QC, CA Our Current Location

We've left Quebec and are traveling the Transcanadian Highway, also known as Autoroute 20. We remark on how heavy traffic is but then remember that this is the only east west route south of the St. Lawrence River, so naturally there will be a lot of traffic.  Plus it is Sunday afternoon and all those partying Camping Canadians are headed back home too.

We rolled into town at about 4:30 Sunday evening in search of the local Walmart for an overnight stay.  We were not prepared for what we saw. When we arrived there were already about 20 RV's in the parking lot.  People had their chairs and tables out and once again the party was going strong. There are no Super Walmarts in Quebec Provence and this one closed at 5pm.

Riviere du Loup is a crossroads for continuing on into New Brunswick or to the Gaspe Peninsula.  So it is a natural place to stop and stock up on supplies and fuel. But these folks are treating it like a regular campground.  And apparently they do it a lot because we are seeing people walking around greeting each other like old friends.

After we got set up and unhooked the Element, we drove around town and found a great park on the St. Lawrence River where folks go to watch the sun set. The folks in Canada really utilize their parks.  We see lots of folks biking, walking and spending time with their families, eating picnic meals and getting ready to see the evening spectacle. Great stuff!!

We drive around some more and find signs with the question mark and follow them to the end where we actually find a visitor center.  That's open. Until 8pm.  On a Sunday night.  We get some information and find out where the old town area is and head over to see it.

On the way back, we stop at the local IGA grocery store and get some tilapia and chicken to grille out tonight.  Yes, we're joining the crowd and pretending it's a regular campground.

Just before retiring for the evening, we took a stroll around the parking lot and counted 46 RV's parked for the night. It was a pretty full lot.

On Monday we had some stuff we wanted to do around the RV and catch up on the blog since we also have internet access via the McDonalds (Le Coin Gourmand) in Walmart. It was really fun connecting  and seeing only French for logging in.  We needed  to do research and figure out where we are headed next so we decided to stay over another day.  Besides, we wanted to see if tonight's parking lot show would be as good as last nights.

Not ones to stay in the RV all day, we took a break and headed out for another look around town. Part  of town is built way up on a hill so we took off to explore that and we found a Parc de Chutes, too.  That's French for waterfall park.

We spent a quiet night back at the RV and did another tour around the parking lot just before retiring for the evening.  This time we counted 38 RVs at Campground Walmart. Not as festive as last night, but it was still a full house and a nice sunset.

After all of our research, and our desire to seek a more English friendly environment, we decided to go on into New Brunswick and head down to the Bay of Fundy. Looks like we need to make reservations if we want to stay in the National Park, so we need to pick weekdays as the weekends are full. There are several routes we can take and things to see along the way, so stay tuned for our next installment.