Tuesday, July 30, 2013

July 30 – To Vaudeuil, Quebec


View Larger Map

It is a short post but it was a long day of driving. We did almost 600 km. The weather started out rainy and very foggy but by late morning it was bright and sunny. There wasn’t much to see so we just kept going.

We were on two lane route 132 for a short while.

IMG_1006238

Some fog wrapped islands shot quickly as we went by.

IMG_1006240c

IMG_9971

IMG_9985

Then we got on the 4 lane divided AutoRoute 20 to see lots of trees.

IMG_9995

IMG_0008

We occasionally saw the shoreline.

IMG_1006241

IMG_0016

We even got some peeks at the north shore of the gulf of St. Lawrence.

IMG_0031

IMG_0031c

We had lunch at this rest stop on the highway, along with a lot of others.

IMG_0039

We saw the bus factory with all its inventory parked outside.

IMG_1006251

We went through Quebec City at about 11:30 and it wasn’t too bad. Just more traffic but no slow downs.

We got to Montreal about 2:30. If there is one place that always makes me nervous when I am driving it is Montreal. The narrow lanes, high speed and aggressive drivers. Today was just the normal amount of scary and we made it through OK.

Speaking of aggressive drivers, I saw something I had never seen before. There were two cars just ahead of us in the slow lane and someone in the fast lane gradually overtaking them. A taxi comes blazing up behind him and starts tailgating. The front guy taps his brakes to get him to back off. Bad idea. The taxi veered over to the outside shoulder accelerates to pass the first slow car (on the shoulder) and then cuts between the two slow cars back into the fast lane, cutting off the car there and then slams on his brakes. I am not sure how we all didn’t end up in a massive pile.

We are now parked at a Walmart in Vaudeuil which is just east of Montreal. We got here around 4. I thought about going farther but there is really nothing between here and Ottawa and I didn’t feel like driving that far, especially when we would get there in rush hour.

IMG_1006252

Whereas last night it seemed like we were in a busy campground, so far tonight we are the only ones here. I went in to customer service to make sure it is allowed.

1 comment:

  1. I remember renting a U Haul truck to move Allison's stuff from an apartment on Sherbrooke to one on Stanley. We requested a 14 footer and when we arrived at the depot on Saturday morning all they had was a 24 foot cab over engine! I thought - driving this rig down the narrow Montreal streets, cars parked on both sides...riiiiight! But we did pretty well. I even backed it into the lane way behind her Sherbrooke apartment and we parked in fairly easily on Stanley! I think everyone gave us a wide berth! We're BIG! Like "The Beast"! :-)

    ReplyDelete