Maritimes - Day 11

We have made it to the Maritimes!  We left Sherbrooke early in the morning and drove back to the Trans Canada and headed towards Quebec City.  The road was busy around Quebec City, but as we kept going, the traffic lessened.  Along the route out of Quebec, all the traffic was semi-trailers or campers, and there were fairly regular rest stops, and we stopped at one for lunch.

We also stopped at Saint Louis du Ha! Ha!, a small town right before you leave Quebec.  Jonathan had learned about the town in school, as it has a very unique name, so we stopped to take his picture at the town sign.  Then it was into New Brunswick, where there is an unofficial pull off area by the sign and Bradley and Sandra had their picture taken.

Then it was a very calm drive to Fredericton.  No traffic, four lanes, but lots of hills and huge signs warning us of moose.  We arrived in Fredericton, Alex and I took a quick trip to the local gaming store, as it had Flames of War models, and then we had supper and relaxed.  Tomorrow we will finish the day in Moncton and plan on going down to Hopewell Rocks twice to see the high and low tide.

Since today was a fairly boring day, here are some interesting observations I've found during our trip.

1. All the speed limits in Ontario are around 20 km/h less than similar roads in Saskatchewan.  Four lane or more highways are 100 km/h, the Trans Canada in northern Ontario is 90 km/h, while regular highways are 80 km/h.

2. Everyone in Ontario drives 20 km/h faster than the speed limit, so I guess the difference is moot.

3. Bradley is busy picking up a rock from every province.  However, he is often just grabbing stuff out of parking lots rather than anything special, and once I had to get him to put down a piece of concrete.

4. It is noticeably darker earlier in southern Ontario than home - you are quite a bit farther south.

5. After leaving Niagara Falls, it took until today before I saw another license plate from western Canada.  We saw a handful of Alberta plates and one BC plate on the drive today.

6. On the Thursday we drove to London, there was a massive Hell's Angel gathering in Toronto.  We passed a large group of them on bikes on the way into Sault Ste. Marie, and they ended up staying at the same hotel.  Nice bikes.  Big, scary looking guys.

7.  Google Maps is fairly useless in Quebec, as it pronounces all the French road names and signs as they would be said in English.  By the time you figure out what the voice actual said and match it to the sign, you are already past the road.  Also, it put a long pause after each exclamation mark in Saint Louis du Ha! Ha!, which was quite funny.

8. Also, Google Maps is dumb in that if it finds a faster route, you have to open your phone and click "No Thanks" or it changes your route.  Finding a faster route is nice, but if I don't want to go through Maine, I shouldn't have to look at my phone while driving.

9. All I hear the entire time on the road is "Duck Duck Car/Truck", which Bradley says every time he sees a yellow vehicle.  You are supposed to duck or get punched.  Kids.