{"id":3926,"date":"2026-09-13T19:29:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/?p=3926"},"modified":"2026-09-13T19:29:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:29:52","slug":"east-coast-2026-day-1-parking-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/?p=3926","title":{"rendered":"East Coast 2026: Day 1: Parking Lot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I told a friend the other day that it has been a year since we went of a van trip. I was mistaken. The accurate statement is that it has been a year since we went on a van trip in our van. You may remember our epic van trip in Scotland<\/a> in April 2026. Our van has helped with some important adventures this year. Adventure 1 was being the support van for offspring #1 as he raced in the Paris to Ancaster Bicycle race ( a muddy mess, van shower was helpful). Adventure 2 was using the van as a moving van to deliver offspring #2 to her new fort in Toronto (I know, right?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, we Milddogs are motoring our way east in our happy little van. The journey has begun. The mission? See some stuff. Go places we have never been. Go places we have been. Boulangerie. Patisserie. Lobster. Maybe a whale sighting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a book I like called \u201cAlone Together\u201d by Christian Williams. You should read it. Anyway, in that book he describes the challenge of coming up with a pithy phrase to kick off the narration of his journey. I have not given this blog series opening nearly as much thought. Or maybe I have and this is the best I could do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We set out today around 10:00 am. No rush as we were only covering about 500 km. We had an uneventful stop at the last gas station in Ontario where we all had a pee. Not together. Not all of outside, just Amy. Yes, Amy is with us. It\u2019s been a year since she was on a van trip. She will settle in by the penultimate day, I\u2019m sure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stopped in St Hyacinthe to visit one of the few boulangeries that appeared to be open this Sunday. Mrs Milddogs selected a baguette, some croissants and some brie from the other store. Our route into town took us past some of the less desirable parts of St Hyacinthe. Or, maybe a representative cross section of the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next stop, Levis. We were a bit concerned as our favorite parking lot no longer appears on apps like iOverlander. We arrived in a heavy rain, confirmed the signs had not changed, identified that there are three other RVs here and decided to stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had planned to walk over to the pub \/ food truck in the park about 600 meters away. But the heavy rain gave us the opportunity to replan and headed out to that great Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois original, St Hubert. We picked up our food and drove back to the parking lot to eat. Amy loved the chicken she was offered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post dinner we had a window of opportunity between the rain bands and headed over to the aforementioned pub. Surprise! It\u2019s not open until 22:00 like the internet says, it was closed at 18:00. Well, it was a nice walk. Last year we attempted to go and there was a private event on so we weren\u2019t allowed in. Zero for two is not a great record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Pierre Laporte Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Our spot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Us with other RVs <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s about it for today. Tomorrow we head further east. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I forgot the Myer\u2019s Rum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I told a friend the other day that it has been a year since we went of a van trip. I was mistaken. The accurate statement is that it has been a year since we went on a van trip in our van. You may remember our epic van trip in Scotland in April 2026….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,44,13],"tags":[14,46,35],"class_list":["post-3926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-32","category-ec2026","category-vanlife","tag-vanlife","tag-boulangerie","tag-rv"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eskg-11k","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/milddogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img_9911.jpg?fit=2000%2C1500&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3927,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions\/3927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milddogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}