The next day we had breakfast at the motel. Turns out that I have to change my breakfast assumptions and strategies a bit: They offered some mini-yogurt containers that had to be taken from a small fridge. I did not like the banana-yogurts in the first row, but after a quick glance I saw a strawberry in the 2nd row. I should have really taken my time and peruse everything in the whole mini-fridge and get me a plain yogurt. Then I picked up 2 slices of toast-bread and a bagel with the assumption that there was some cream-cheese in mini-plastic containers somewhere. It turned out that this was not the case. Only butter and jam/marmalade items. Then I picked up a muffin, which turned out to be very sweet. I also helped myself to some scrambled egg, some fried beans (on the sweet side), and some age-old (cold) fried potatoes which I should have simply ignored (but my mind was reminded how good the potatoes were in last nights shawarma place). And last but not least I overlooked that there was a water dispenser. I ended up at the juice dispenser that offered too sweet apple juice. Toasting the toast bread slices was also peculiar: The slices were only toasted on one side (I am not sure if this was a bug or a feature and neither was Margaret). They offered fresh bananas which looked good, but felt too sweet after I had eaten all my other items. All in all, my breakfast turned out to be too sweet for my liking. I could have addressed that partially by taking my time selecting items despite a crowded breakfast room.
We started driving at around 9:00am. Traffic in and out of Quebec City across the bridge was smooth. The weather was nice all the way. I drove until Riviere-du-Loup. Then Margaret drove until Fredericton. Then it was my turn again until Saint John. This section of the Trans-Canada Highway runs mostly in uninteresting backcountry without interesting views. Only the Quebec section offers a bit more views and also has every so often some rest stop picnic places. There are no picnic stops in New Brunswick, only the usual big gasoline stops on a few exits.
It is possible to break this somewhat boring drive up by taking scenic routes (which we did not). There is a route going through the smaller St. Laurent Valley towns which is much more interesting (we have done that a few years ago). The same option exists interestingly in New Brunswick. I have some memories from this portion of New Brunswick when I visited the area 30+ years ago with Gongyu. It turns out that the old road still partially exists and that this route is more scenic. Margaret and I detected this as we adhoc decided to follow some street signs indicating an alternative scenic route. We were looking for a picnic spot with some benches and maybe a loo. This route was indeed more scenic but the villages offered no obvious picnic spots. So we decided to join the TCH-2 again to try our luck with one of the gas stops. We ended up stopping at Perth-Andover. Margaret went into the local Tim while I perused the stand of someone offering blueberries and corn. Turns out he had only one wild blue-berry box left that was so large that it made zero sense to contemplate buying it (about 6 to 8 times as large as I had in mind). So I walked into the "Community Market". I thought this was a store offering local produce. But it was a combination of liquor store (about half of the large shop) and gasoline station fare stuff the other half. This was a bit underwhelming. By then Margaret was back from Tim's. We decided that the parking lot area was not pleasant enough for a picnic. Margaret applied her Google Map skills and located the the local Perth-Andover Waterfront Park which was only 2km away and exactly what we were looking for. A very nice little park overlooking the local river with benches. We enjoyed some of the Costco items we bought the day before and everything was good. The scenic road (and its signs) that we had tried 30 or 40 minutes earlier also was there.
TODO: Add picture from park
We continued on the TCH-2 to Fredericton. The intent was to fill up the gas at a local Costco and then visit the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. They had long opening hours on that day. I liked a few items in the gallery: There was a small corner in the library with some items from Claude Roussel (of whom I had never heard off) which I found interesting. There were also a few items from Group of 7 folks. The room with the Dali pictures were not so much my thing (I am happy looking at Dali pictures, but these ones were not so interesting). The British section, supposedly most interesting and important part of the gallery, was not my thing. Victorian and post-Victorian pictures of princes, Churchill and the name-giver of the gallery itself did not resonate with me. We spent about 1 hour in the gallery.
The subsequent drive to Saint John was again uneventful and to some degree boring (we again took the highway and not the scenic route). We arrived at the motel by about 19:15 local time and checked-in.
We decided that we still had time to have dinner in downtown Saint John. Driving into town was interesting. Really interesting. There is marsh-land with waterways as one drives into town. Then suddenly the Irving paper (and convenience products?) manufacturing plant is right in your face. The facility looks newish. In the distance one can see the Irving oil refinery stuff. Across water toward downtown there is an active harbor area. Downtown itself turned out to be a cross of a rundown industrial brick-building area and revamped hip areas with businesses and a food market. The town appears to be alive and from an industrial perspective reminded me at Edmonton (when one approaches Edmonton by train it is also clear what drives the city). The rest later (we will visit the downtown again during the next day). Talking about plants: There is a self-proclaimed potato-capital of the world with a museum along the TCH-2 which we did not visit. There are also several large paper mills and McCain potato manufacturing facilities along the TCH-2 that all look like having active investments by their respective companies.
The market was still open (a night market now). We picked a seafood place there. The meal was very good (hmmh, after this amount of driving, maybe everything tastes heavenly). I did like my fish and chips (definitely among the top I had in my life) and Margaret's fish tacos and the accompanying salad was also good. My accompanying French fries were not salty at all and had a sprinkle of thyme. I guess they do know a thing about potatoes here. The 2 large fish pieces were good. The name of the place was Billy's Seafood Company.
TODO: Add pictures.
So far, so good: It is breakfast time. I thought I was up early. But the one-hour time shift makes all of this being up a mirage ... I am looking forward to see the town in day-light today.
Maybe next time, with lots more time at hands, using the scenic route from Edmundston to Fredericton is something to be considered. The various river areas feel worthwhile to be visited.
