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QUÉBEC VACATION, Plans B and C For six months we had been planning our summer vacation in Québec, Canada. We had carefully laid out the route we would take and overnight arrangements for visiting nearly a dozen French-Canadian friends we had met at our winter resort in Texas. We would stop first at a resort between Montreal and Québec City where most of them spend the summer. Then we would go on to Québec City to stay in the home of another couple. They had promised to show us the beautiful and historic areas in and around their beloved city. Then we would begin our southward trip by traveling along the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River. That was Plan A. We were right on schedule when we arrived at a lovely campground at AuSable Chasm in northern New York state. This two-mile long canyon is an area of spectacularly beautiful water falls, rapids and unique rock formations carved over millions of years by the AuSable River. The afternoon we arrived, we walked around the area, drinking in the beauty before a downpour of rain drove us inside the Visitors’ Center. By the time the rain stopped, it was too late to begin a formal tour. Instead, we drove about two miles down to a tiny port on Lake Champlain. Regular ferry service takes passengers and vehicles across the lake to Vermont and back. On a hilltop above the port, AmTrak offers regular passenger service to nearby points of interest. It was a delightful little jaunt except for the troubling cloud of white smoke that persistently emerged from the tailpipe of our truck! Clearly not a good sign! Next morning, Bruce located the nearest Ford dealer in Plattsburgh, New York, twelve miles away. The service manager there confirmed our suspicions that clouds of white exhaust smoke are not signs of a healthy truck! An appointment was made for a diagnostic evaluation. Suddenly we were left without a self-propelling vehicle! Enterprise Car Rental, a block from the Ford dealer, had no rental cars available and could not predict when they would have! Rent-a-Wreck, however, could meet our need and kindly drove the two miles into town to pick us up! The "wreck" they rented us was a better car than many we have driven in our lifetimes! To celebrate our acquisition of wheels, we drove up into the Adirondack mountains to Lake Placid. It is a lovely little town which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980. Olympic reminders are everywhere. I could go on at great length describing the beauty of the Adirondacks and Lake Placid, but our story has just begun. The Ford service department called us in the afternoon with good news and bad news. The problem was not the head gasket, as Bruce had feared, but the cooling fan clutch and the EGR (anti-pollution) system. Immediate repairs were necessary which would take at least three days and cost about $5000! The warranty on our truck is for "100,000 miles or five years, whichever comes first." The mileage is only 93,000 plus, but its been five years AND FOUR MONTHS since we bought it! We had no choice but to tell them to proceed with repairs while we transferred some money! Our Québec vacation Plan A had us departing for Canada in two days. Now that would be impossible. It was time to fall back on Plan B: cancel out with all the friends we had planned to visit! A frantic round of e-mails began breaking our sad news to friends who had expected to see us soon. The anticipation of the repair bill was sobering enough for us, but having to cancel out on Québec was the real disappointment! Then a glimmer of hope appeared, and Plan C began to take shape. Our friends from Québec City e-mailed to say that they were in Montreal helping a family member move. They would be happy to drive the two hours south from Montreal to pick us up and drive us to their home. They would show us around their city for a week while our truck was being fixed. Then, the following weekend, they would bring us back to our New York campground on their way back to Montreal for a family vacation! We could hardly believe their kindness in offering to spend an extra eight hours on the road just so we could enjoy the hospitality of their home and their city! Bruce phoned them to make sure they were willing to be both chauffeur and host for our visit to Québec City. They were not only willing, but eager. So, we accepted, and our Québec vacation Plan C was underway!
Now we are back in our own "almost-good-as-new-again" truck and fifth-wheel staying at that summer resort where our other French-Canadian friends live. We will be here for a week before we head south for another round of family visits. Our financial bank account has shrunk but our "experience banks" have grown by delightful leaps and bounds! What a wonderful disruption of our plans! 3 Aug 2010 - MarySue Rosenberger
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Water falls at Ausable Chasm in northern New York. |
View of Adirondack Mountains in New York. |
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Click on a photo to enlarge it. Then click on BACK to return to this page. |
Click on a photo to enlarge it. Then click on BACK to return to this page. |
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Probably the most photographed building in Quebec, the hotel, Château Frontenac. |
Notre Dame Cathedral (Basilica) of Québec.. |
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Porte St-Jean, a gate in the old city wall. |
Colorful scene in Old Québec. |
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Rue St-Jean, a typical scene in Old Québec. |
Mural painted on wall of building in lower Québec. |
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Notre Dame des Victoires Church. |
Interior of the sanctuary of St Anne de Beaupré Cathedral. |
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View across the plaza from Notre Dame des Victoires Church |
View of Lévis, the city across the St. Lawrence River from Québec. |
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Waterfalls known as Chute Montmorency. |
Ferry crossing the St. Lawrence River from Lévis (background) to Québec City (foreground) |
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