Saint Leonard, NB – July 31 & Aug 1, 2012 Our Current Location
The tar like resistance of inertia has engulfed our tires again. We are still in Riviere du Loup, Quebec which, although a small town, has a number of interesting attractions. It was going to take another day to discover some more of them.
We re-visited the Parc de Chutes, only this time we went to the lower portion of the park where Frank checked out the small hydro-electric plant.
While EJ viewed the falls from another angle. 
We also found this interesting structure at the park. How does someone come up with an idea like this? It was pretty neat.
Later in the day we returned to sunset park just in time to see the ferry leaving to cross the St. Lawrence River. We walked on the wharf by the marina and could see all the boats sitting in the mud. There were also trails in the mud left by some of the boats that were really risking low tide getting back to their berths.
Back to Camp Walmart in Riviere du Loup. Tonight there are once again 45 RV’s taking refuge here.
Aug 1 and we were taking our time getting ready to leave, having a bit of breakfast and making reservations to stay at Fundy National Park. We heard a noise that sounded like something hit the side of the RV, but we couldn't figure out what it was.
Later as I was attempting to brush my teeth I couldn't get any water out of the faucet. After checking switches and voltages I looked out the window only to find a stream of water running across the parking lot. Our water. The evil pump spirit had struck again and emptied our much needed water supply into the parking lot. Again. We were dry camping and had no way to get more water.
Having been through this once before we had the drill down pretty pat. I emptied the compartment of it's soggy contents and EJ used a scraper to scoop as much water out as she could. It turns out all this mayhem was caused by a single 50 cent piece of hardware. A "C" shaped clamp that is supposed to hold a fitting into the pump housing warped just enough to allow the fitting to come out of the discharge side letting the pump merrily empty the contents of our water tank. I continue to be disappointed in the quality of products produced by the ShurFlo pump company. Zip-ties, spit and little cursing now hold it together until I can find a hose clamp to completely compress the faulty piece. At least we caught it before the pump was damaged.
After purchasing 5 gallons of water in Walmart to test the pump and having mostly dried out, we are ready to continue our trip. We made reservations at Fundy National Park for 5 nights starting Monday Aug 6. We have just five days before we are due in Fundy. I’m sure we can find places to spend our time. Oh my a schedule!
Our hopes that French would once again become a second language when we left Quebec were confirmed. As soon as we cross into New Brunswick, the road signs were in English. The visitors center is at the first exit, so we stop for some info. English is no problem here, but we did find out that we had now crossed into the Atlantic Time Zone and lost an hour.
Being worn out by the days events, 60 miles of travel, and in need of fresh water and a dump station, we seek out a real campground. We find one in St. Leonard, NB that is reasonably priced as the owner let's us know when we try to bargain with him. They want $30 to spend the night with a 3-way hookup. By Canadian standards, that is positively cheap and we accept before he changes his mind. This is the only Canadian campground we've found where the RVs weren't crammed in side by side. It turns out this was a former Provincial Park which is equivalent to our state parks. It is now under private ownership but is still nice and roomy. They even have a really cute roadside diner.
We settle in for what we hope is an uneventful night.
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