(Continued from Part 4)

I came up with an ingenious plan to extend my vacation. Isy didn't have the time off to stay as long as I desired, but why couldn't she fly back to Newfoundland from Windsor, while Kingsley and I drove back by ourselves?

Thinking this was a great idea, she was off on an airplane one morning. And while I didn't even think twice about driving alone back to Newfoundland, my Mom volunteered to come along and keep me company.

Only two days later, Donnie also asked if he could come along for the ride! I stated that I already told my Mom she could tag along and I didn't know what to do here. Thankfully he said he'd stay behind since my Mom asked first.

Who knew so many people coveted a ride to The Rock?

Following last night's shenanigans with Donnie & Steve, Mom & I didn't get that early of a start eastbound on the 401. Mom was fine with this, but insisted we at least get some driving done today.

This worked out great though as we woke up in Belleville the next day and I'd discover that Belleville is home to a pretty fun skatepark.

If you're wondering about the colour scheme, Mentos - the FreshMaker - partnered with the city to paint the park and add two basketball nets. Mentos envisioned that the basketball nets would bring together the local skateboarding and basketball communities?

I was here early in the morning, so thankfully there weren't any basketball players in the bowl, lol.

Sizing up any Thousand Islands lighthouses along our route, I decided to head 45 minutes south into Prince Edward County and the Point Petre Lighthouse.

There used to be a stone tower here similar to the Nine Mile Point Lighthouse on Simcoe Island, but that structure was demolished in 1967 when the new tower was built.

The local historical society was in negotiations with the feds to try and save the old 1833 tower, but it was demolished without notice and the historical society were left with nothing to save (although a lamp and some stone pieces were salvaged). Continuing that trend - and even though the Hastings Prince Edward Land Trust applied to take ownership of the lighthouse and grounds way back in 2013 - the feds would also demolish the keeper's house and radio shack in 2022.

Over time, I've come to be okay with standing just outside of a fenced lighthouse and still counting it (as long as the fence it quite close to the lighthouse). Fences like this fight vandalism and I'm not sure how much I need to risk a trespassing ticket and ripped clothes, just to hop a fence and cover the last three feet of separation.

Especially with my Mom in the car and lots of elderly hikers about in this fancy area of Ontario, I decided this counted as standing before the Point Petre Lighthouse.

Hilariously enough, when I got back to the car my Mom asked if I'd hopped the fence.

There were a couple more Prince Edward County lighthouses to get, but I'd already heard from Isy that my plan was a mistake. Coming home to an empty house without Kingsley was excruciating. As someone who loves coming home to an empty house and hates how dogs get rambunctious upon the arrival of humans, I couldn't relate but I still understood. Mom and I couldn't make this trip a three week lighthouse conquest; we needed to get Kingsley home in some sort of timely fashion.

So we raced up to Victoriaville, a six-hour drive from Point Petre. I probably could have lingered for one or two more lighthouses along the St. Lawrence, but tonight I had special plans as this was would be my first live sporting event since the start of Covid!

Getting Mom to drop me off up the hotel road and sort of near the arena, it was a perfect fall evening to pick my way through streets and an agriculture pavillion over to the Colisée Desjardins.

I've been to the Colisée Desjardins before and even though it isn't that old - built in 1988 - it's still one of my favourites when it comes to the Q. Maybe because it was my second QMJHL barn; maybe because it's old enough to make for a memorable experience.

Mavrik Bourque and the Shawinigan Cataracts were in town and took the game 2-1 from the home Victoriaville Tigres.

As for this being Covid times, it was nice to get back to a game but the Tigres didn't jam-pack the arena the last time I was here, so it didn't have the gravitas of reduced capacity or being close to strangers after all this time. The other COVID thing would be the long break from attending live sports, but that happens normally with living in Newfoundland.

Tackling the 40 minute walk back to the Hôtel Le Victorin, how could I not stop for provisions as the Max Poutine?

After inexplicably ordering a heavy wheat beer to drink, my medium General Tao's poutine came out and boy was it MAX. I hardly made a dent in the thing (especially after also eating at the Colisée Desjardins, lol.)

Mom would ended up spending a few hotel mornings with Kingsley on account of all the morning skateparks. I suppose I could have brought Kingsley to these skateparks with me, but Mom had much more time for the old boy, as evidenced by her not being bothered at all by his days-on-end stress panting in the car.

So I was off to ride the solid Victoriaville skatepark by myself, and that "by myself" fact could have really spelt trouble.

Only a couple months prior, I needed some new pegs and laughed at the fact that the local Corner Brook bike shop still had a pair of 1664 BMX pegs. Even texting Donnie about how these were a collectors' item, I threw the pegs on and didn't think twice.

Fast forward to the Belleville park where there was a halfway-legit rail down stairs and I grinded it more than a handful of times. Here in Victoriaville though, on my next ride, I went for a grind on the flat ledge and my front peg snapped right off!

Not so funny to have an antiquated 1664 peg as I thought! I thanked my lucky stars that peg didn't snap back in Belleville as I went down that stair set.

(I also had to be thankful for the local Victoriaville bike shop where the BMX guy did his best in English to show me the BMX section and get proper pegs right back on my bike.)

Once again circumstance helped Kingsley get back to Isy here as today's lighthouse closed their grounds after 5pm.

Racing through the Eastern Townships up to the south side of the St. Lawrence, we turned off the Autoroute 20 at Mont-Joli and up to the shore at Métis-sur-Mer and the Pointe Mitis Lighthouse.

Speedwalking up the road, it seemed like there were a lot of cabins closed for the season and that was relaxing with regards to the curfew, but still, it was nice not to risk a tongue-lashing.

The 5pm curfew also works to give anyone renting the keeper's house privacy at a reasonable hour. I was in and out before 5pm if you're wondering.

As for this lighthouse, it was originally a circular tower until concrete reinforcement gave it a hexagonal shape. Built in 1909, it was eventually used by the Canadian Forest Service with closed grounds for years, but transfer to the municipality in 2016 and to a heritage group in 2018 means that it's now accessible to us lighthouse lovers. In fact, I was here in 2018 and under the impression that it was still private property. Today was a pleasant surprise.

Back at the road and looking for somewhere to spend the night, hilariously the only dog-friendly options were in Matane - a city I'd sworn off back in 2018 because of its pricey accommodations.

One positive of spending the night in Matane was getting another opportunity to ride their enjoyable, funky skatepark.

We had a full day today though - and we were also losing an hour crossing into the Atlantic Time zone - so I actually had to predawn the Matane Skatepark, haha.

I ended up psyched with landing a fakie-to-fakie on a bank to slanted wall.

Heading east of Matane instead of down the QC-195 towards Amqui, today I was going to tackle more than the first 63km (39mi) of the Gaspé Peninsula⁰. I've long wanted to circumnavigate the whole Gaspé peninsula due to its lighthouses, remoteness, scenery and small Quebec villages - but I've kept saving it for some trip with Isy where we could take our time to wander and camp.

I still wasn't going to complete the 717km (446mi) peninsular drive today, but I was at least going to cover 149km (93mi) to the last highway that shortcuts across the peninsula (the QC-299).

0 - Saint-Flavie is considered the start of the Gaspé. Yesterday and
in 2018, I'd driven the Saint-Flavie to Matane portion.

Passing through small village after small village, the next town of any size was Cap Chat and as we approached, the road gained elevation and I could see the next lighthouse coming closer on the GPS. Pulling into a property dotted with campsites, yurts, cabins and a keeper's house you can also rent, I thought of how I need to come back and spend the night at Phare Cap-Chat.

Parking in the main lot, Mom, Kingsley and I enjoyed our short stroll to the cliff top Cap-Chat Lighthouse.

Cap-Chat was gritty and windswept and felt much more like the lesser Gaspé towns I'd envisioned than Matane. When you also consider that I'd already spent the night in Matane, I wished we could have made Cap-Chat work as an overnight, but dog-friendly motels were non-existent in this, the fringe season.

The beauty of the Gaspé was really starting to show as the road no longer went over hills set back from the sea, but almost seemed like it was paved right on the tidal flats. We were so close to the sea that road signs showed a wave and a car up on two wheels, warning us of waves that would be saturating the car and creating slick conditions in inclement weather.

The turn south on the QC-299 to avoid going around the whole Gaspé was in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, but that would have to wait, as we blew right past in order to get a few extra lighthouses.

The village of La Martre was only 26km (16mi) up the road, so going that short distance was an easy decision. Especially as the La Martre Lighthouse was easily my favourite of the Gaspé (and I obviously liked it more than Point Petre Lighthouse back in Prince Edward County as well).

The La Martre Lighthouse is a 63-foot, wood octagonal tower that was built in 1909. The last keeper was Paul-Roger Caron in 1972, at a time when the Coast Guard was increasingly automating lighthouses.

Another type of keeper came after Caron though, as Yves Foucrault acted more like a caretaker, petitioning for small things like paint brushes and paint, plus summer student help, in order to simply maintain the lighthouse on a shoestring budget. Foucrault is credited with never allowing this lighthouse to fall into disrepair or ruin, leading to its naming as a recognized Federal Heritage Building in 1988.

A lot of these lighthouses here on the Gaspé have opportunities to go inside or tour an adjacent museum, but obviously none of that was open at this time of year (most close sometime in September).

This didn't bother me too much as I like having lighthouse grounds to myself, but apparently here at La Martre, they allow you to lift the weights that set off the geared mechanisms which spin the original Fresnel lens up top! Man, it's a good thing I hope to come back some day because that's now on the bucket list.

The next lighthouse was another 67km (~42mi) up the road and...I figured we could make that happen. Things were getting tighter with time, but getting up at daybreak was paying off.

Cap de la Madelaine Lighthouse is a 37-foot reinforced concrete tower that really reminded me of the Matane Lighthouse, just more squat. Both lighthouses were built in 1907 by the Steel Concrete Company of Montreal.

The next lighthouse was 68.6km (~43mi) down the road and we still had a lot of distance left to get to Bathurst today. (And especially if we wanted to make it there for puck drop!)

At least this was far enough that it made the decision easy. We turned around and backtracked the 94km (58mi) to the QC-299 that cuts south through the interior of the Gaspé (overview showing highways).

As much as it annoyed me that we couldn't continue to the Pointe à la Renommée Lighthouse - especially as it's a 2-for-1 lighthouse stop! - I couldn't complain about now heading towards the entire length of the QC-299, a quite obscure and remote road.

The QC-299 provides access to the Gaspésie National Park, one of those provincial parks that Quebec calls a national park. And if Quebec calls it a national park, I thought it would be large in area and we'd be driving through it for some time.

Except that we were in and out of the Gaspésie National Park in no time. Then it became a matter of looking for something else worthy of stopping to photograph or hike, but the lack of towns or pull-offs made me keep going down the road. Down at the bottom near Cascapedia there were some great river views through a scenic valley, but again I didn't see a great place to take a picture.

In the end, I let my rushing win out. When I come back for the Gaspé Peninsula, I'll have to add in another spin through the QC-299 starting at Cascapedia.

Only 5km (3mi) from where the QC-299 ends, we could reach another Gaspé lighthouse - this detour was an easy decision.

This is the Pointe Duthie Lighthouse, built in 1903. I briefly pondered whether this lighthouse actually counts since they dismantled the lighthouse in 1914 and moved it in three separate parts, with the upper section being destroyed by fire once at the Carswell Farm.

In 1989, the newly formed Gaspésian British Heritage Centre acquired the two surviving pieces of the old lighthouse and put them back together, while also building a new top section.

In the end, I think of stone lighthouses once in total ruin like Rose Blanche and how I easily count the reconstructed lighthouse that stands today. I ended up counting Pointe Duthie for Quebec lighthouse #18.

The Gaspésian British Heritage Centre is home to 23 other buildings and an airstrip.

Without much signage, Mom and I were pretty confused with where we found ourselves while just trying to cut through and visit a lighthouse. I'd guess the lack of signage and/or activity though, has to do with the heritage centre closing in 2017.

The town has since taken over the property and offers up some of the buildings for overnight stays, but at the same time, their facebook page doesn't seem to be working so who knows. Google reviews point towards them opening some of the buildings for museum-like visits, while working to do what they can with a limited budget.

If they are actually renting the buildings, one of the buildings you can rent is the lighthouse, so that's certainly another thing to add to a future Gaspé itinerary.

We rushed another two hours down the road in order to make it to Bathurst New Brunswick by game time. I assumed that the dated but clean John's Motel where I'd previously stayed would have no problem with Kingsley, but was caught off guard by their no pet policy!

Thankfully there was a forgettable place just up the road, where I was able to quickly offload the bags, mother and the dog; then get a cab back over to the KC Irving Regional Centre. The cabbie was a woman who upon hearing that I enjoy visiting all of the QMJHL arenas, said that she once dated a guy who wanted to see all the Canadian Football League stadiums and that's why she's randomly been to every stadium in the CFL.

As I've been to a Acadie-Bathurst Titan game before, I won't revisit my thoughts regarding their arena.

One funny thing is that I saw an old timer drinking a High Life and I was about to ask him where he got it since I thought I'd checked out everything (which was sadly only one chip stand, one beer stand, and one food stand).

Thankfully it clicked in my head what was going on before I went over¹.

1 - he snuck the beer into the arena.

The Titan are obviously dead in the water these days, already having signed on to relocate to St. John's for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Soon after this trip, I had some regrets with rushing through the Gaspé to go to another game in Bathurst, but with the Titan leaving - and me not making a Bathurst game in the next month as of this writing - I now appreciate going back and living the QMJHL Bathurst experience one last time.

I stopped at Le Club Soda Bar afterwards for a night cap; also because I'd been getting more fired up about dive bars of late.

It was one of those places that only exists because there's video lottery terminals, but the bartender ended up being really solid and we had a good chat. The funniest thing was probably how he sometimes plays music at this old folks' home and there's a 98-year-old who's always the first to dance and how she's still so sexually active that her 78-year-old boyfriend at the home hides from her, lol. Go on with your bad self!

Another guy came in and he was the owner of the bar across the street. After insisting on paying for my drink, he told me that I should come check out Lou's.

Lou's Pub had a cool space that was like a Duly's pool hall, but there was also live music and nowhere to sit that wasn't already occupied. I actually played the VLTs to pass the time of having a beer before getting out of there. I much preferred Le Club Soda Bar.

Heading back to our accommodations, I had about an hour's walk ahead of me. The night was pleasant and my walk passed through parking lots where I salivated over embankments and traffic islands that I wished Corner Brook had, so it didn't really end up being too bad. It only got a bit hairy when I was out in the county only passing mid-century homes while walking on this dark road.

I'd make it back and hit the hay after watching a bit of sports on the TV, ready for a couple more days on the road.

Continue to Part 6