East Coast 2026: Day 11: Les Mouches

Was a beautiful morning in Mactaquac Provincial Park (I almost wrote state park, been a bunch of years since we stayed at a state park, hopefully we shall again). Morning was brisk and dewy. I headed off to the Eagle Trail but was thwarted by the condition of the trail. It appeared to be unmaintained and the wet grass was tall. I think my deer friends tried to warn me.

I followed some gravel roads and whatnot to get a decent walk in before returning to the van for food and to get ready for a shower.

The showers get bonus marks for having plenty of hot water. But that’s about. Not very clean and not well maintained. Sadly, I had sent Mrs Milddogs over to use them as well given we were mater managing as we did not want to have to drain nor fill when leaving.

Overall the park was nice. Given the time of the week and the time of the year, there were very few people there. We couldn’t hear campers but we could hear the road.

Before bedtime I took Amy out for her usual business. I was holding the flashlight and noticed a mus muscus (common house mouse) laying on the ground. Amy walked right over it not once but twice. I flicked it with my foot into the woods away from the van. No pictures of the terrified mouse nor the oblivious Amy.

We hit the road not really committed to any destination for the day. We discussed all of the options as we drove with a goal of making a decision when we got to Edmundston and stopped for a gas station lobster roll (quite good apparently). We even fired up the generator to heat up our remaining Hand Pies in the microwave. We rarely use the generator other than to run the generator to keep it working. In the end we decided to head towards Levi with a number of stops along the way.

There were some bad traffic spots and I regret taking the detours. Even though we may have saved some minutes the crappy roads made the stress level higher. To make it worse, our van had developed a chirp or rattle (not a mouse) post Edmunston and it was worse on the crappy roads.

We stopped at a lovely lookout just past Trois Rivière.

We did not stop at the Poissonnerie that we previously got the great smoked salmon at as it was closed today.

We did stop at the “White Sheep” (mouton blanc?) Fromagerie. At this location I made the mistake of parking next to the sheep barn. Amy and I and the van were inundated by flies! They were even landing on the van to eat from the dead bug buffet the front of the van had become. Far too many of those flies ended up in the fan and are now tormenting us. Fortunately we carry a fly swatter. Unfortunately the possibility of collateral damage is high in this confined space.

Finally, after far too many hours, we arrived at our favourite spot In Lévis. Spots available near the same three RVs that were here a few weeks ago. We snuggled up to one for cover.

We had some leftovers for dinner and tried to limit Amy to 2 suppers. Our cake is now all gone.

Post dinner we took a walk down to the waterfront to enjoy what was left of the beautiful evening.

We saw a lot of cyclists today. I wanted to get out and join them, but not the ones on the busy roads.

That’s about it. I tried to get a shot of the moon with the steeple. Not so good. But I tried.

Hopefully we will have continued success in our little parking lot. It’s a bit busier tonight, must be an even on nearby as the people are arriving all posh. Hopefully posh people are quiet.

Tomorrow we will probably head home. But we better find a baguette somewhere on the way.