Cross-Canada: Day 14
Rivière du-Loup to Moncton Distance: 592 Kms Time: Approx. 7.5 hours
When doing a drive such as this it is important that you get a good nights sleep before another full day at the wheel. Drowsy driving has now become a real problem on our roads and, in some instances, is just as dangerous as drunk driving. We did our due diligence before we left, making sure that we weren’t driving too much between stops and that the hotels that we had chosen were quiet, reasonably priced and not too far off route. Everything up to this stage had worked out nicely, until last night! We found Canada’s noisiest hotel! Maybe it was just the positioning of our particular rooms but every time someone came into the building and up the stairs, the noise of the door banging and heavy footsteps reverberated right through our rooms. What made it worse was there were people coming and going well into early hours of this morning. Having only a few hours of uninterrupted sleep is not the way to go. We can now attest to this first hand!
We left Rivière du-Loup early and headed for highway 85 eastbound, or so we thought! On trying to enter the highway, the on-ramp was closed for construction. The only alternative offered was entering the highway, in the opposite direction, and traveling 8 km in the wrong direction before being able to turn around. Now after a lousy nights sleep this was not greatly appreciated especially when we passed the “construction” which consisted of one man and a ladder!
Highway 85/185 forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway, here it is a two-lane road that winds its way through the Quebec countryside. Just outside of Rivière du-Loup the expanses of farmers fields start to disappear and the forests of pine and silver birch trees start to close in on the road. The landscape here reminded us very much of Northern Ontario. We went through the town of Cabano that sits on the banks of the Madawaska River. The road through here is one huge construction site. It looks like they are expanding the highway into two lanes in both directions with the addition of several bridges and over passes. While the construction is huge the passing traffic was light and therefore didn’t impede our journey.
We continued to follow the river until we hit the unmarked New Brunswick border. Once in the new province the time changed again and we lost another hour. Here the Trans-Canada becomes a four-lane highway again, with one of the best surfaces we have driven on since leaving Vancouver. Just over the border is the town of Edmundston where the Madawaska River joins the St Johns River. The St Johns River forms a natural border with the U.S. state of Maine to the south. The border continues along the river until the town of Grand Falls where it moves off the river and shoots off south. We continued on the Trans-Canada and were amazed at the few cars that travel on this section, the ones that did, judging by their plates, seemed to be mostly from Ontario. The highway rises and falls quite steeply in places as 
it cuts its way through the rolling hills. The rocks that are exposed in the deep cuts are a bright copper colour that is a sharp contrast to the surrounding greens of the trees. On this stretch of highway we were constantly reminded of the dangers of wildlife on the road, especially deer and moose. Strangely enough, on both sides of the highway, there was a high deer fence that seemed to run the entire length of the road to keep the wildlife safely away from traffic.
From here we headed through the Provincial Capital of Fredericton stopping off in the military town of Gagetown for a Shell fuel stop and then on to Moncton for an overnight stay.
Tomorrow we are heading across one of the worlds longest bridges that takes us into Canada’s Smallest Province, Prince Edward Island.
Don’t forget, if you see us on your route tomorrow give us a honk and a wave. We will be stopping at the Shell gas stations in the following locations, so if you see us gassing up why not come over and say "Hello"?
Summerside Water St.East
O'Leary Main St.
Charlottetown University Ave.
