Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5
And then on 8/1, we arrived in Quebec! On that evening, we were tired of fancy food, so we went to PFK! Yep! That’s Poulet Frit Kentucky! Then the following day, we took the boat across from Levis over to Quebec City.
We began by climbing the “Broke Back Steps,” where, it turns out, I gave myself a stress fracture of my left foot. This would continue to vex me for much of the rest of the trip.
Then we hiked all over the old part of town, visiting Chateau Frontenac, the Plains of Abraham, the Citadelle, and Martello Tower. Lots of history here, including the Seven Years War (French and Indian War).
We ended the day with a stroll through the Joan d’Arc Parc and then a great dinner at Le Ciel, atop the Concorde Hotel. It’s a revolving restaurant with, of course, fabulous views.
Not a far drive from Quebec City, we found Jacques Cartier Parc Nationale. We had a picnic there in our car, because there were so many mosquitoes. We did a little walk around, too. Once we got away from the picnic area, there were not so many mosquitoes!
We did return to Quebec City on Sunday August 4th, taking our car. There was a little historic church we attended that morning, and the pastor invited us to park in his tiny lot for as long as we wanted. This was the day we visited the Frontenac Hotel. I took no pictures with my phone that day.
By August 7, we were in Ottawa, Ontario. We arrived downtown in a driving rain. We found a parking garage underground and took a spot.
Upon exiting the garage, we took the elevator up and it let us out… in a shopping mall! Perfect for a rainy day. We enjoyed the break from normal tourist stuff and looked at normal Canadian stuff.
The following day it was raining, too, but we dodged the raindrops to see some sights.
The following day, we left, driving all the way to our next camp reservation at Sturgeon Falls. We arrived in the early afternoon and the desk clerk said she didn’t have a reservation for us. Well, nuts. She said that they had a reservation for us for the following night, though, and we were able to switch it.
I was puzzled, though, because I’d made the reservations online and it just seemed odd that they had us down for the wrong date.
In the rhythm of a trip like this, when we’re “done” with an area, we get going again to the next. And this is what we’d done with Ottawa. Well, we had actually left a day early! We had only thought we were done with Ottawa.
After an overnight in Sturgeon Falls, we drove to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. This is where we drove our little car into town and found a charming little city park. We walked all around there and just enjoyed the day.
We went to an Italian family restaurant where we left all of our remaining Canadian cash to our server.
Then we headed into Michigan. We stopped at Houghton Lake to visit briefly with Uncle George. He was in fine spirits, though very forgetful. We were happy that we stopped to see him.
Mt Pleasant was our next stop. We stayed at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. The RV park there is top-flight. This was our basecamp for the next several days.
We were in Mt Pleasant when we got new tires for our car. It was feeling shaky and, sure enough, we had bad cupping. It was time. The new ones took us in fine style to Bronner’s Christmas Store in Frankenmuth and around and around Mt Pleasant, as we searched for landmarks remembered or imaginary.
Pete and Janet hosted us in Big Rapids. It was good to see them again.
It was in Big Rapids where I went finally to have my foot looked at. The doctor said that it was a stress fracture and gave me a hard plastic thing to put in my shoe. That, my cane, and taking it a little easy with the walking, and I was doing far better pretty soon.
After a few days there, we headed off to Ludington.
We had maintained a long-time goal to take the Badger across Lake Michigan, and we DID it this trip! The Badger is the largest car ferry to ever sail Lake Michigan and has been in service since 1953. It goes from Ludington to Manitowoc, WI and back.
Rob and Ione came to see us off. It was a really fun ride. Bingo is a must. We played and I won!
When the ship docked, all of the vehicles were driven off by professional drivers.
We made the short drive to Algoma, Wisconsin, where we spent the next few days. This was our home base for Door County.
Our RV camp outside of Algoma was comfortable and right next to a beautiful trail which was long. We walked on it every day we were there.
When we travel, we often get ideas for “gotta-do’s” from locals or from other travelers. One of these things that we’d never heard of before was a Fish Boil. We attended one of these at Pelletier’s. This is in Fish Creek, WI. It was all fun and good, but the highlight to me was the cherry pie.
We visited my Aunt Carola while we were in Door County. Then we relaxed that evening with some colored beverages!
Sunday found us at the Algoma Methodist Church. And later that day, we went to Lambeau Field — home of the Packers! Lunch was a delicious and calorie-packed feed at 1910.
On 8/27/19, we moved camp, staying at Baraboo’s Ho Chunk Casino. The RV park is adjacent to the casino and was perfect for us. They have a fitness room and I did the bike for the days we were there, giving some needed rest to my foot.
The next day, we went to visit Jim and Kathy in Stevens Point. They took us for a fabulous lunch at Sentry World and then gave us the tour of their town.
Baraboo, Wisconsin is home to Circus World! This park is full of all things circus, and we had a great time there.
The most interesting part for me was the circus wagons. All of the adornments on these wagons were hand-carved from wood. As a sometime carver myself, I was amazed to learn this.
Wisconsin Dells! We did the boat tour, which we both thoroughly enjoyed.
