Day 25 August 17, 2026 Cochrane Ontario to Quevillon Quebec 282 miles
The weather is about 50% clouds. It did rain sometime last night because the hood of the car is quite wet. Not sure where the water goes however because the parking lot doesn’t look wet other than where it runs off the roof.
We spent about an hour in the grocery store this morning. We thought we hit the jackpot. Several things we wanted to buy had been reduced. We purchased several bakery items so we have dessert and breakfast items for a few days. Interestingly many of the produce items are sold by the pound. So you can compare Honey Crisp apples were $4.50 Canadian per pound. One of the produce displays had small baskets of carrots, beets and cucumbers. They had lots more beets for sale than we do.
Before long we encountered the largest construction project to date. They were completely redoing several miles of road. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the pilot car to get to us. When we got to the end there were eighteen vehicles waiting.
The next new to this trip thing was several signs warning for horse and buggies. Then we saw a horse drawn buckboard loaded with something in white bags. A lady was driving which is somewhat unusual. We also noticed several houses with washing hanging on the line. Not sure which religion they were but the province of Ontario has over 6,000 Amish.
Further down the road we saw a bird that looks very much like a small chicken. Google says it was most likely a ruffled grouse. It was just standing in the middle of the road. It never moved and we drove over the top of it. It did not move and we did not hit it. Maybe it had been eating some of the legal Canadian marijuana seeds.
Not long after that a small dark brown mammal ran into the brush along the side of the road. Best guess for that one is a weasel. Only saw the south end.
When we crossed into the province of Quebec the signs all became in French only. In the other provinces the signs are in English and French. This included road signs, building signs and billboards. By the way bill boards are almost always small and only present close to town.
The other thing we noticed was the hay here is stuffed into long plastic tubes much like sausage. Would like to see them stuffing them. Some farms have one very long tube and some farms have several shorter ones. They are usually along the edge of a field.
The cemeteries are another interesting thing. Most headstones are black. Only a few are grey. Sometimes only a white cross marks the grave. Many of the headstones have flowers that are mostly silk or plastic and they are placed on top of the headstone. Most cemeteries are surrounded by a fence.
Came to another section of construction but we got there just as the line was moving. This one wasn’t as long.
The prison looked very quiet. It sits right on the road. Lots of high fences and barbed wire. Not a large facility however.
Still lots of lakes and rivers. Less forest however and a few small farms. Towns are rather far apart and small for the most part. We had to pay attention for the gas stations. People in some of these places must have to go a long ways to get anything. Even in the farm country the houses are closer to town. The roads are like small roller coasters with lots of small ups and downs. Still lots of potholes and serious bumps.
Our room tonight has a small balcony with table and chairs. We ate our chicken salad out there which was really nice. No mosquitos.
Spoffords Travel 