Katrin & Jojo

September 21, 2008

Today we rose early and didn’t waste too much time before taking off. We had to leave Acadia National Park, unfortunately, and headed straight for Bangor. At Bangor we took the I-95 towards Waterville where we switched onto Route 201 North. The lady at the information center in Freeport told us to take this part of the trip early, as it is hunting season right now and wildlife might cross the road. Now, a badger isn’t that big a danger to a car like ours, but a moose, that’s quite a different story. Also she warned us that the area around the 201 would be remote. Well, she was right ;) We got through quite fast though, and had nice weather most of the time. I, again, am missing the words to describe the sheer beauty that is the Maine landscape (the indian summer got more visible up north by the way). Katrin was driving today so I had the chance to take some really good pictures. After cities like Moscow and Jackman we crossed over into Canada. The weather, which had been somewhat foggy, moist and cold up until the border immediately changed to warm and sunny. The roads also got better. After driving through some of Quebec (and stopping once at a really crowded Tim Horton’s) I am inclined to make the following observation: While Maine claims to be “The way life should be” (which is right in most aspects in my opinion), Canada is “The way the US should be”. This means cleaner roads, less ads along the roads, better tended houses and front-lawns and way, way less fast-food stores.
In the afternoon we arrived in Quebec (the city), where we first visited the tourist information center which was really nice and where an employee helped us find a cheap motel close to public-bus service into centre-ville. We even went there for about two hours and I can’t wait to spend the whole of tomorrow there.