Down to only three QMJHL rinks I hadn't seen, one of them was in Rimouski, a place not exactly easy to reach from Western Newfoundland.

Rimouski had presumed #1 pick Alexis Lafrenière though, which ramped up the appeal of setting out for the mainland, and enduring the arduous journey towards Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula.

Even when I was back in Nova Scotia, I mulled over making a similarly long drive as Michael Frolik was playing in Rimouski at the time. I wasn't going to let another burgeoning star pass me by. The Sherbrooke Phoenix were scheduled to play in Rimouski on Thursday night, and accepting the idea of leaving Newfoundland on a Wednesday night, the makings of a solid birthday weekend - with a few extra weekdays thrown in - were coming together.

Wednesday came and we knocked out the two-hour drive down to Port-aux-Basques with no trouble. Isy likes to get to the ferry terminal a bit early to let the dog out and to avoid worrying about the Marine Atlantic cut off, which is fine with me since I get to walk around one of my favourite Newfoundland towns, Port-aux-Basques.

The ferry was uneventful, with Isy going to sleep quickly, while I stayed up too late watching BMX DVDs on my computer, since you can't trust the Newfoundland ferry to show anything on their TVs besides that stupid blacksmith show where they cut through watermelons and slabs of steak.

Landing in North Sydney the next morning, we now had an 11hr30m window to cover the 10hr45m drive before puck drop. I told you it was a long drive and a narrow window.

We managed to run a tight ship though, as we only briefly stopped in North Sydney so Kingsley could use the washroom after having to stay in the car all night. Other than that things were going off without a hitch, save for a bit of winter greasiness as we made our way over the higher elevations of Nova Scotia's Cobequid Pass.

There were actually two rough spots to this drive as I screwed up and had us travelling on American Thanksgiving. My beloved day of gluttony, excess, and Lions football, especially Lions football where they were stuck with backup quarterback David Blough.

Bummed out about missing their usual November debacle, the AM radio near Miramichi miraculously had the game on for some reason, saving me and letting me listen to approximately 45 minutes of the clash with the Bears.

Anyway, things were splendid time-wise. We stopped for gas in Stellarton, then motored on until Isy needed a washroom break near Bathurst (so we went in their QMJHL arena, lol). As we stopped in Bathurst, I thought about checking out their skatepark in the daylight, but it didn't seem worth trudging through knee-deep snow.

Entering Quebec, we were down to only two hours until our destination. As such, I soon fished around for my printed trip documents in the door panel, retrieving the menu and phone number to the Korean restaurant in Rimouski.

Isy didn't want to call them because the conversation would be in French, so a few minutes were eaten up pulled over in Amqui while I struggled with trying to order the food to be ready in an hour. Soon enough we were moving again and actually beating the Google Maps estimate for drive time.

Fast forward an hour and Parfum de Corée was acquired and their 4.6-Google review stars didn't tell a single lie. About the only thing we could've asked for was more of the delicious food. It was good enough that Isy would later have no time for her father's doubts of truly delicious Korean food in remote Rimouski.

Knowing that we'd be tight for time upon arrival, I was elated to find a nearby AirBNB that both allowed unattended dogs and was within a five-minute walk of the arena. Even with so little time to work with - and stopping for Korean - we made it to the arena only a few minutes into the game.

This was definitely a long drive and a tight schedule, but walking inside, I was so psyched that we made it work.

Rimouski's arena was built in 1966 as the Colisée de Rimouski. This wasn't old enough that I was overly excited about my visit, but I thought it would be better than some of the more modern rinks I've encountered.

Boy was I wrong in underestimating Rimouski's arena. This wasn't Chicoutimi with its wood ceiling, or Rouyn-Noranda with its mixture of modern and new, but Rimouski still had plenty of quirks and I'm happy there doesn't seem to be any plans to build a new rink here.

The Rimouski Oceanic one of the better known junior hockey franchises for its stability and good attendance, and also because of some big time names who've played here, names like Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier, Juraj Kolnik, and Michael Frolik.

As much as I like their colours and the obscurity of this distant hockey outpost, there wasn't anything for me in the team shop besides my customary puck. Certainly not any of the jerseys, haha.

There were two ways to get around the arena. First there was a sort of moat between the first row of seats and the ice surface, and second, the more customary concourse underneath the seating bowl.

I really enjoyed that the Oceanic had life-sized stickers for all of the current players along the concourse. I've seen this in other QMJHL arenas for the superstars, but it's pretty neat to have the life-sized stickers all the way down to the 6th defenseman and the backup goaltender.

Heading back to our seats, I guess there was one positive to not having enough Korean food: it left enough room for the customary poutine!

Look at those beefy curds and all that gravy! Still though, it wasn't so good that it hit me in the face and lodged itself in my memory, so I'm going to give Rimouski ranking spot #8, behind Bathurst and ahead of Sherbrooke.

As for the game, I was surprised by how little I noticed Lafrenière. Then again, they were playing the best team in the QMJHL, as the Sherbrooke Phoenix ended up going 51-8-3-1 before the season was cancelled due to Covid.

We saw one of those 8 losses though, as Rimouski downed Sherbrooke by a score of 3-2. Lafrenière had one shorthanded assist, but teammate Jeffrey Durocher did most of the damage for Rimouski with his two goals.

Following the game, I tried to talk Isy into a nearby bar that looked dive'ish, but with the dog alone back at the unfamiliar AirBNB, she said I was more than free to go myself but she was going to go back to check on the dog.

This was reasonable, and not wanting to go deal with a dive bar in Rimouski solo with my limited French skills, I decided to retire back to the house as well.

Our AirBNB had an amazing hangout room on the top floor though, one that I would bet money on being better than that Rimouski bar. I hadn't got a chance to post up here prior to the game, but now I could look out over our quiet Rimouski side street, watching cats run from house to house, while an amazing handrail sat snowed-in across the street.

I loved chilling up here.

I went for a walk the next morning in order to get an exterior shot of the Colisée Financière Sun Life, home of the Océanic and site of last night's game.

Peering up at the outside of this weathered stadium, I think it's pretty awesome that this is where the QMJHL decided to host the 2009 Memorial Cup following renovations in 2008.

Disappointed with my lack of pictures to this point, I tried the door and finding it unlocked, helped myself to a look around.

A couple of dudes in the standard issue, hockey-logo branded, track suit jackets were milling about, but they seemed busy with whatever else and not at all concerned with me.

Amidst yesterday's surprising amount of excitement for a Thursday night game and also being a bit tired, I don't think I gave the Colisée Financière Sun Life the appreciation it deserved. Being jammed in with such a well attended game didn't lead to casually taking many pictures, plus the game didn't last very long.

Last night definitely left me open to the idea of attending another game here sometime, while this morning's walkabout changed that to really wanting to see another game in Rimouski someday.

This morning's breakfast would be another excellent Rimouski meal thanks to crepes from Le Crêpe Chignon. Where I used to think I didn't like crepes, meeting Isy and trying her crepes changed my mind, but the crepes from Le Crêpe Chignon would have also changed that opinion.

Deciding to go for a walk, I couldn't help but notice the looming and vacant cathedral right across the street. Obviously with my interests I scoped the outside for any gaps in the fence, but there was clearly some care being given to the empty Cathédrale Saint-Germain.

Quebec is facing the same problem as many other places, where these old churches have a dwindling congregation due to age, and younger generations aren't attending church in anywhere close to the same numbers.

The problem is even more pronounced in Quebec because of how big the church used to be societally, where parishioners built these cathedrals based on the size of the congregation and their religious devotion.

Closed since 2014, I grew sad with the outlook of Cathédrale Saint-Germain as the architectural centrepiece of Rimouski, but they surprisingly got permission to hold Easter service inside in 2022. There's been various calls for renovation or adaptive reuse, and obviously I hope they succeed with whatever they eventually attempt.

Across the street I stumbled upon another vacant structure - the old parking lot for Rimouski's downtown mini-mall!

Points to Rimouski here as this would be a great spot to get inside and BMX away from the rain and light snow. Then again, the St. Lawrence River was just across the street and today alone, the light onshore breezes were cold enough that I wouldn't want to be out biking.

Drab high-rises and car parks, I liked the English feel of this Rimouski shot.

Going into this trip, I spent a lot of time on Google StreetView, excited that I'd be able to ride new street spots instead of the dried-up, exhausted spots of Western Newfoundland.

Alas, the weather gods always have a say in bike riding. There were some dry parking lots here and there, but all of the spots I'd marked in my GPS were inundated with snow. I briefly ruminated on the pros and cons of purchasing a snowshovel to free this flat rail, but eventually decided against it.

Returning to the AirBNB with a delivery of crepes, we'd hit the road shortly after and cover another arduous distance today: 10km (6mi), over to the impressive Pointe-au-Père Lighthouse that marks the headland just north of Rimouski.

The Pointe-au-Père Lightstation was established in 1859, with the lighthouse you see in here constructed in 1909. The design was created by civil engineer Henri de Miffonis, who worked with William Patrick Anderson, a champion for the early use of reinforced concrete.

Miffonis and Anderson came up with this lighthouse design supported by flying buttresses and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans installed them in random places across Canada and the British Dominion. From Belle Isle in Newfoundland, to Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior, to Estevan Point on Vancouver Island.

Belle Isle being near me but also ridiculously difficult to reach, I was quite happy when I finally saw one of these flying buttress lighthouses on Anticosti Island in 2014. That was an excursion though, where I always had Pointe-aux-Père Light in the back of my mind, as a consolation in case I failed to see the Anticosti example.

Researching this lighthouse, I was forced to use my trusted lighthouse websites, as the official Pointe-au-Père website says this is the second tallest lighthouse in Canada...

...and we know that is incorrect because that's Point L'Amour in Labrador; which at 109 feet is one foot taller than Pointe-au-Père.

Isy had long ago fled the cold winds and escaped to the car, while I stood out on the rocks and appreciated the ruggedness of this wild place. I could hardly think of anywhere else where I've had that feeling of harsh, humbling ocean power that Newfoundland gives you, but I was getting that feeling here in Rimouski. Heh. If only people knew how much gas and ferry money they could save by simply stopping in Rimouski for that Newfoundland feeling they're seeking, haha.

Returning to the car, I was surprised that Isy was asking about the nearby submarine museum, which I assumed she would dread because of her claustrophobia. Turns out, this didn't apply to submarine museums!

We didn't have time though, especially when we'd have to take turns doing the 90-minute tour while the other would stay behind with the dog.

Instead we headed south, not towards the place where we live, but rather more adventure.

Continue to Part 2...