One night in Matane July 19

It was drizzling when we left this morning, but within minutes, there was a look out and I gamely tramped up all the stairs to see..... not that much. Very misty and foggy over the water.
The town of Gaspé is only about 45 miles from where we started. We had a choice of how to get there, and I could not entice Michael off the main route.
It would have meant driving down this isthmus.
And we still had a 4 hr drive ahead of us. So every minute counts!
The last few drops fell as we approached Gaspé
and we stopped at a tourist info, which is right next to a Via Rail station. They had a train parked there
but they haven't had any service for 5 years because of a storm that washed out the bedrock, in a beach area, in the region. At this point, not scheduled for repair until 2027!  How dumb is that?! They cannot get any level of government to agree to pay for it. Until then, they had service 3 times a week.
We took a quick drive down the main street of town . Cute.
At this point, we had to decide whether we were going to continue the drive on route 132, around the Forillon National Park, which the tourist bureau told me would take about 2 hours, or whether to take a short cut, cutting across the penisula, and rejoining 132 further along. Guess what Mr. Destination chose. Sigh.
As a footnote, as per Wikipedia, 'Route 132 is the longest highway in Quebec. It follows the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River from the border with the state of New York in the hamlet of Dundee, west of Montreal to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and circles the Gaspé Peninsula. This highway is known as the Navigator's Route. 
Length: 1,612 km". Speaking of distances, we have over 12,000 km on the odometer now.
To remind us that we're getting closer to home.......
And all of a sudden, the fog rolls in again.
I found it strange that for the entire time we drove down the Quebec coast, we've only seen one fishing boat. Granted, there could have been many more too far out for us to see.
And some more pics from the drive:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WfPDgarVe1rUFEA59.
And our 4 hour trip did not take the expected 8 hours. We rolled into the hotel in just 6 and a half hours. A record time for us. But it started to rain again, for a short time, just as we reached the town limit.
        (view from our room)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kK4UUAvLTbvEJnFy5
Video shows the back of the motel (and how did that dead tree get here?). The motel is actually very nice inside, totally refurbished in this older building.  Maybe 500 feet away is their completely new building, with a fancy hotel and swimming pool, spa, etc. When we arrived, the water was fairly calm. A little later, it sounded like ocean waves crashing the beach. I sat out for a little while and walked a little on the beach. Felt like I was at the ocean when I saw all the clam (mollusk?)shells on the beach.
Was hoping to schedule a whale tour tomorrow morning, but seems like all the group tours run from the north shore (Tadoussac) and can only arrange an expensive private tour. Not THAT interested.
I saw a cartoon in yesterday's paper that has stuck with me.
Wouldn't it be grand if life was just that simple?

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