Eric Stendal

Date: Sunday, 6 September 2026

City / Region: Rivière-du-Loup, QC –> Moncton, NB

Weather: 8° this morning turning into 12° later in the morning with a final of around 15° but rainy at the tail end of our trip today.

Morning Summary

We woke up this morning after a pretty good sleep. We both woke around 3:30 am but then went back to sleep until 7:30 am -ish. Then it was getting ready for breakfast and go.

We went downstairs and there was no where to sit. There wasn’t much there to eat, either. No powdered/whipped eggs, no cereal, no oatmeal, coffee and tea were sparse. No seating left and it was crowded with no room to move around. The garbages were overflowing with thrown out plates, napkins, food, and other things from previous diners.

I was able to grab a coffee in my Tim Hortons travel mug and we simply left there opting to hit the road early. We had gassed up the night before so we hit the road.

We downed a couple of Premier Protein shakes and made our way east.

Afternoon Summary

Other than stopping at a gas station in Nouveau Brunswick, we did nothing but drive most of the afternoon.

Closer to Moncton, we did stop, however, at two places. The first was the world’s longest covered bridge. Shelley reminded me that we have driven through the world’s longest tunnel in Norway, and now we were going to pass through the world’s longest covered bridge.

The second stop was “Recollections by Jazz Antique Mall” located in Salisbury, NB just before Moncton. It was a very well laid out location with three floors of perusing. Shelley found some Christmas gifts for some of the grandchildren here. So, our shopping has begun!

Evening Summary

Shelley was VERY excited to see that there was a Carrabba’s Restaurant attached beside our hotel. She raved about how good it was when she and her Mom, Connie, went there in Florida many years ago.

We settled into our room and Shelley, Maggie, and I made our way down for supper. It was delicious.

After supper, we went for a little walk a few block away to the grocery store where Shelley bought some supplies. We put a little netting over Maggie’s carrier so she wouldn’t get too wet from the misty rain that was falling.

We came back to the hotel to change, and get ready for bed. Off to Halifax tomorrow and it’s only 3 hrs and change in driving time – better than the 5+ hrs today I did!

Photos

A few photos from our driving day today.

Daily Highlights

• Our best moment today was arriving at the hotel, but the stops and scenery along the way today was beautiful.
• Funniest moment? When our waitress confessed that ours was the second only bottle of wine that she had ever opened without a ‘screw top’.
• Our biggest surprise today was seeing how beautiful downtown Moncton is and that Canada has a Carrabba’s!
• We learned that “Covered Bridge” potato chips were made here in Harland, NB and are named after the bridge we drove through today.

Logistics

• Not much walking done today because of the long drive. We’ll hit this tomorrow we hope.
• We bought a few ‘snacks’ but just gas and supper this evening. We did get a start on Christmas shopping (can’t say more than that….)
• Only three and a bit hours of driving tomorrow to Halifax. We have our AirBnB all set and will provide details tomorrow.

Closing Thoughts

It was a long day of driving today but the scenery was magnificent at times. Long, sweeping vistas of rolling mountain ranges and large expanses of land cleared and blasted to provide a path for the wide highways here.

Looking forward to breakfast at this Hyatt Hotel and then hitting the road to Halifax.