sue – Page 6 – The Destinators

Quebec 389

Quebec 389 is described as dangerous by public safety organizations, beautiful by tourism publications, and remote by both. It is unquestionably remote, winding its way through the boreal forest 547 km/340 miles from Baie Comeau on the St Lawrence River, past a series of ‘Manic’ dams owned by Hydro-Quebec (Manic-1 through Manic-5, all named after Lake Manicoualan which they hold back) and multiple open pit mines on the way to Fermont (French for Iron Mountain). There are 2 tiny settlements and 3 fuel stations along the way. There’s cell coverage at the fuel stations. For safety, there are 10 good, old-fashioned telephone booths spread out along the road (more than remain in the entire state of Vermont) for anyone who’s stranded. It’s the only road north from the Côte Nord/North Coast of Quebec and, once connected to the Trans-Labrador Highway, allowed for overland passage to the coast of Labrador. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

Saguenay Fjord National Park

Saguenay Fjord National Park spans both sides of the Saguenay River, providing educational programs and access to the famed escarpments and coves while protecting and managing the natural beauty of the area. At 100 km/60 miles in length, Saguenay Fjord is one of the largest fjords in the world. Its width ranges between 2 and 4 km/1.2 and 2.5 miles. The deepest point is 270 m/890 feet while the escarpments rise over 300 m/1,100 ft above the Saguenay River. The tallest of these at 411 m/1,348 feet is Cap Trinité/Trinity Cap, with its 3-plateau rock wall, at the edge of Baie Éternité/Eternity Bay.

Quebec City, partie 2 – famille et la vieille ville

Mon arrière-grand-père Achille Fréchette a amené sa femme et ses 9 enfants de Tingwick, au Québec, dans le nord du New Hampshire pendant la dépression car il n’y avait pas d’emplois dans l’est du Canada, tandis que les usines du New Hampshire avaient des emplois et embauchaient. Alors que mon grand-père Félix et tous ses frères et sœurs sauf un sont restés en Nouvelle-Angleterre, son frère Orad est revenu au Québec et s’est installé dans la ville de Chicoutimi. Pendant mon enfance, j’ai souvent entendu mon grand-père et mon père parler d’Orad, que je n’ai jamais rencontré, et à un moment donné, j’ai appris qu’Orad avait une fille nommée Suzanne qui était juste un peu plus âgée que moi.

English version follows, or click here.

Quebec City, part 1 – Drums

We met Stephane Chamberland, an internationally known drum educator, at the Drumeo meet up in Toronto last July. His session there was amazing – a series of small yet effective changes that would radically transform the sound of our drumming. At that time I knew that if I ever made it anywhere near Quebec City, I’d be signing up for a private lesson. We’re in Quebec City. Time for a lesson!

Heading north! (again)

We’ve been wanting to explore the Maritime provinces, Canada’s east coast, for a while. As we started checking out maps, two fun thoughts popped into our heads…

What on Earth happened?

It used to be that in the spring we’d restart our blog with a recap of the previous year’s trip. That tradition was suspended in 2020 because of COVID and has remained so until now for that and a couple of other, unrelated reasons.

Home

We’re home after a quick (hey, it’s all relative…) month-long trip to visit my mom in Florida. Although it’s not our preferred pace, we took just 3 hops to get back to Vermont from there. The timing for the whole trip allowed us to see friends on the way down, visit 2 National Parks we’d never seen, and spend a week with my mom. However, the timing of events and appointments between Florida and back home required a northbound skedaddle. Fortunately, on a previous trip we’d scouted out the best/shortest/most direct route should we ever need to get to my mom’s in a hurry, and we used that route in reverse to get back north.

Halloween visit with mom

My mom loves Florida! In fact, she claims no desire to ever be in New England again, so we’re grateful that she lives is a senior facility with exceptional staff, where she loves the people and the activities that are customized for her. Although we’d like to see my mom more often, we only get to visit 3-4 times a year due to the distance (1500 miles/2400 km). We try to drive at least once a year which allows for an extended stay, a few stops along the way, as well as bringing along some music gear. Then, of course, we aim to pack all of her favorite things to do into that visit!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Twilight over the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains

Asked which is the most visited National Park in the country, most people would think it must be Yellowstone or Yosemite or some of the other large parks in the west. Nope! Great Smoky Mountains National Park takes the top spot. Its location – within a day’s drive of half the US population – and its incredible beauty attracted 14 million people in 2021. (Zion with 5 million and Yellowstone with 4.9 rounded out the top 3.)

GSMNP is a wide area in the Appalachian Mountains that spans the North Carolina and Tennessee border with a seemingly endless series of forested mountain ridges. The natural vegetation in the area releases organic compounds with a bluish tint that mix with the natural morning fog to create a blue-tinged, smoky appearance – hence the name. The park is well known for its views and waterfalls, its elk herd, and its hiking. Hiking!

Jams with friends, part 2

Each time we drive down to visit my mom, we select a different route, aiming to see different sights along the way down and back, meet up with friends, and hopefully find opportunities to play music. For this trip, we opted for a relatively western route through the Appalachian Mountains. The timing would be great for us to visit 2 national parks we’d not yet visited, and it would be peak foliage season in both – New River Gorge and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.

Coincidentally, and serendipitously, 2 Drumeos we met in the last year were in our most direct path through the mountains. Wanna jam?