So…if you made it through the last post, did you think we had disappeared into the fog? Truth be told, we thought we might a few times. I won’t presume to say that everything that could go wrong did, because it could have been a lot worse and I feel fortunate that as bad as some things seemed in the moment, in the given situations, we managed to hold onto the feeling of being lucky. It could have been a lot worse. Some things had us a bit antsy; others just seemed to be so perfectly timed to compound each other that it might have been a comedy of errors. And as mentioned in the previous post, this was one of our most adventurous trips east.
For the scary part, did you know that one thing worse than windshield wipers stopping working in the rain while on a highway might be if said wipers weren’t working when driving in country at dusk? Bugs. Windshields. I’ll let you do the visualization.
It’s ok. We kept safe. We managed through that and a few other things. And, no, the trip is not usually so eventful.
As for blogging on the road, I knew there might be some glitches but I was looking forward to testing out how things worked. I ran into some issues. For instance, I had the WordPress app set up on my iPad. It worked, I tested. But…while I had my iPad plugged in overnight to make sure it had a full charge, I woke up to find it black. Dead. No life. I had intended to update my iPhone so I could install the WP app on it as backup, but, well, didn’t. So, now stuck but determined, I logged onto my blog with my iPhone via mobile Safari to see what I could do there. Frustrating as hell. Slow and glitchy are a few kinder adjectives. Some of it might have been cell reception, but the deal-breaker was though I could add in images to the blog, I could not navigate the necessary popup window to the insert the photos into the actual blog posts. No amount of trying to resize, zoom, scroll would allow me to see the entire popup window. Those huge Android phones have always looked rediculous to me, but this was a time in which one would probably come in handy.
North of Quebec City, the countryside gets increasingly pastoral.
Undaunted was I. In the past, while USB chargers in the car worked great for charging iPhones and even my first iPad, the extra demands of the iPad 3 resulted in only a trickle charge. The iPad will tell you it’s not charging, but in reality, a small charge does go through. It wasn’t enough to charge the iPad, but could slow down the battery depletion if being used in the car. Since we had such a long drive, I figured, what the heck, let’s see what happens! What happened was rather amazing. It charged! I had recently updated its iOS and had noticed that my iPad seemed much peppier. It seems that peppy also means faster to charge. It wasn’t a fast charge in the car, but, hey! So, I tried the WordPress app when I noticed that there was enough charge to use. Turns out, as least as far as I’ve been able to find out so far, that the app doesn’t allow access to a blog’s media library, so to add in a photo, I had to take a photo with my iPad instead of using one of the images I had already uploaded via my iPhone. So, yes, if you saw someone in a black car holding an iPad up to a car window on Hwy 20 on Saturday, that was me. I was able to add in an image, but cell use and photo taking cause batteries to die much more quickly, and I used a lot of power just tethering my iPad to my phone – another glitchy thing. It went dead again, so back to charging and waiting for more of a charge this time.
Between trees that had been planted along the highway and the fog, this was one of the few views of the St. Lawrence River.
Going back to my iPhone, I now had one image in the post. I could still add in images to the blog itself, so … I switched to HTML mode, copied the code for the post, pasted it in again, but changed the image reference numbers to what seemed logical successions for the other images I had added to the blog’s media. It worked!
But I had spent so much time trying to problemsolve and figure out a way around the popup window problem that I used up all my remaining data!
There were a lot of trucks on the road. After Trois Rivieres, unless we were passing a town of any size, this was typical traffic.
For the most part, though, while the rain and fog may have made some amazing photos on land, in a moving car, well, not so much.The beautiful landscape along the St. Lawrence north of Quebec city was mostly blanked out by fog. The amazing greens of New Brunswick were frequently masked by rain streaking on glass. I did, of course, take some photos, as you can see here.
We arrived 30 minutes before sunset. The tide was low, the air smelled fresh, the sky had partly cleared but the sun had dropped below the clouds built up on the western horizon. Our cottage is very much a summer home. It was a mad dash to remove the shutters from the windows, make the bed, unload the car, then socialize with family who were in the area.
The drive was worth it.
Oh, my iPad? It was dead after the overnight charging because the USB to iPad connector was faulty. It’s currently happily enjoying it’s life of being useful once again.
The Trans-Canada Highway passes through and along some picturesque farmland. It’s a pretty time of year – colours are vibrant even in the rain and the contrast of the greens with the newly tilled fields is tremendously restful for the eyes.
The Trans-Canada through New Brunswick is spectacularly green. I’ve never been on it when the traffic has been dense. Passing towns, it might pick up a bit, but then as the town recedes in the rear view mirror, one can often find oneself alone on the divided highway for long periods. Watch your fuel gauge and be aware that if you have Rogers as a cell provider, you may find yourself without cell service many times through the drive. For amusement, I frequently checked the fellow’s phone when mine lost signal or dropped to E. In all cases he had 3-5 bars. He uses Telus, which is the reliable service in the Maritmes.
This is my favourite tree on this drive — which we’ve done many times. It stands between the divided highway like a craggy sentinel.
His and her lanes. It’s interesting to see the effects of the type of pavement used over the years. Or maybe that’s just me – I like pretty colours.
Cows! The sky lightened up about 3 f-stops as the clouds began breaking up, starting the magic light process on the countryside. We’ve left the Trans-Canada, taking a shortcut across the border to our little part of paradise. While the cows are standing in New Brunswick, that’s Nova Scotia behind them!