September 21, 2004 - Day One - Tuesday

It didn't happen. Ivan the Terrible has been having his last gasps on the Gulf, battering Cape Breton and Newfoundland. The ferries have been tied up for two days. That's OK. It's just given us more time since we got back from the training sessions in Gros Morne. We've got our list; checked it twice. We're watching the ferry schedule very carefully and, as it now stands, it looks like we'll be making our way to Port Aux Basques tomorrow night and taking our chances. ALL reservations have been cancelled, so it's a first come first served basis. It's nice to have the luxury of leaving when we want to; however, in this case, we're anxious to get to Vermont because Liam is leaving shortly for his North American Tour. We may have to cut short our stay in Nova Scotia on the way up and tack on a few extra days on the way back.

September 22, 2004 - Day Two - Wednesday

10:15 am - Looks good! The boats are running and I think we'll get across the Gulf tonight. Just took Piqa for her first walk today. Will probably take her for at least one more, hoping that she'll sleep well tonight. All our bags are packed, we're ready to go... standing here, etc. The van is going to be pretty full. I'm concerned about the weight a little because of the maximum towing capacity. We're going to be pretty close to maximum. Piqa wants to be fed... gotta go.

Off we went to the boat, a little worried about our reservation and getting across that night. When we arrived, our reservation was confirmed. We were there early, as the lady on the phone had suggested, so the man at the booth told us we could go into town if we wanted. So off we went for some supper. We went one place, waited for about 15 minutes to get a menu or something, then left. It looked like it might have been a good place to eat if you were planning to spend the evening there. We went to a Chinese restaurant, got served quickly, and had a lovely meal. Then back to the boat. On the boat. Left Piqa in the van (first time in the van for her on a crossing - previously we snuck her into a cabin).

September 23, 2004 - Day Three - Thursday

The crossing was a smooth as a baby's arse. Piqa came out of it fine. We drove to Halifax; paid Connie a quick visit and had some lunch; then on to Laurencetown to spend the night with daughter. Neala has a nice spot there with a lovely area just behind the apartment where she can run Myla. Piqa and Myla had a great run. Piqa was happy to be out of the car and she ate for the first time in two days. We had a lovely evening with Neala.

September 24, 2004 - Day Four- Friday

Up in the mornin', out on the job, work like a devil for me pay...   Well, actually, that's Neala. And she doesn't get paid. And it's not really a job. And she has to pay them; but she does work hard. Neala was off to school early; we were up early. We had decided to take the ferry from Digby, NS to Saint John, NB. This doesn't make economic sense, but in this case it made practical sense. The boat didn't leave until 1:00 pm, so we didn't have to leave Neala's until 11:00. We were at the ferry at 12:00; left on time. It made practical sense because we didn't have to retrace a two hour drive to Halifax, and then drive to Truro, Saint John, NB, etc. It only saved us about two hours time-wise, but it saved us about six or seven hours driving. The crossing took three hours, on a beautiful day. We drove to Maine. Nice drive. No trouble at the border except the border agent was crooked. We spent the night at a cheap motel in Newport.

September 25, 2004 - Day Five - Saturday

Nice day. We were up early because we're still on Newfoundland time. Drove to Augusta and had breakfast at one of those nice little local spots we like to find. They didn't take credit cards; I had no American money at this point; I had to convince the waitress to take our Canadian play money with all the funny colours. She even let me tell her the exchange rate. I dropped a twenty, which actually gave her a nice tip also. I don't know if she believed that or not. We stopped on our way out of Augusta and got some of the money you have to look at carefully.

Our plan was to visit North Conway. We made a wrong turn. Not serious. There was another turn we could take.  When we got there, the traffic was backed up all the way FROM North Conway. We decided to pass. We didn't want a two hour tie up in traffic, and another two hours battling crowds of shoppers, so we headed "straight" to Liam's. Well, not actually straight, because it was on small roads, through the mountains. Our choice. It was beautiful. The colours have started to appear. The traffic was relatively light. Wonderful drive. We arrived at Liam's about two hours earlier than we had expected to. Lovely evening. Watched the sunset over the mountains. Took the dogs for a walk. Lua was a little unsteady, having had a seizure the night before. But he was friendly and happy to see us. Every time he comes near Piqa she yips and runs away. Big sook.

September 26, 2004 - Day Six - Sunday

Just up. Dog's been fed. Carol's abed. Liam's gone for a walk with Lua (I think). I'm drinking my tea, updating this journal, and eating an oatmeal cookie, looking out over mountains and the ski slope. All's right with the world. (TBC)

This was a lay about day. Beautiful. I went for a walk with Piqa up around the base lodge. Carol and Liam and Piqa and Lua went for a hike along the ski trails and the mountain bike trails. It was very relaxing today. I read a lot. Carol chatted a lot. Today (Day Seven) will be much of the same. It's bright and clear. All the humidity is gone out of the air so it's also very comfortable. A fella could take a lot of this.

September 27, 2004 - Day Seven - Monday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my tea. I'm a dog sitter today, which will be fine with me. I expect Carol may want to do a little "twacking". That's fine too. We may start moving about a little more tomorrow. For the second day in a row I'll just be content to sit here, reading, looking out over the mountains and the colours and going for a little walk with Piqa. All's well.

September 28, 2004 - Day Eight - Tuesday

Today we made our first real infusion of cash into the American economy. We started slowly, so as to not throw the entire market into disarray. We went to the valley of the boxes, in Williston. We cased out Best Buy, Circuit City, Bed Bath and Beyond (I've heard there's a gun shop called "Bloodbath, and Beyond"), WallMart, Marshalls, with a lunch at Chilli's thrown in the middle. We bought only a few things as a kind of appetizer. I think after a day's rest, we'll go back on Thursday of Friday for some serious work. Liam is gone on a marketing "retreat" for two days where they'll do some serious market bonding. He'll be back Thursday evening. Burton had better be prepared for our excursion there on Friday.  Liam is leaving for his North American Pro Tour on Sunday.

September 29, 2004 - Day Nine - Wednesday

I'm sitting here right now, drinking my tea. Piqa is gnawing on her marrow bone. Carol is doing what she does so well this time of the morning. We may take a run down the road today. There are interesting things south of here: Green Mountain Coffee plant, cheese and wine, flea markets, etc. I wonder what Stowe is like this time of year? The Von Trappe family estate is down there too. We've never been.  Hmmmm... Well, obviously, from the pictures you can see what we did today. We wandered on down the road to the Von Trappe Family Lodge. What a lovely drive and what a lovely spot. Not much to do there unless you're staying there, but worth the trip if you have nothing else to do.  Carol just cooked supper; Lua and Piqa are chasing each other around the room; I'm typing. L8R

September 30, 2004 - Day Ten - Thursday

Another glorious day it was, but a lazy day for me. I read a lot. Just soaked up the relax I did, looking out over the hills and the colours. Liam got home from his marketing retreat late this evening. Tomorrow will be his last day at work before he begins his North American Tour on Sunday. His first stop is New York City, then he's back with the tour here to Burlington. We probably won't get to see him when he's back here for two days. Then he's off to Denver and parts beyond. We dog sat today. Lua is getting better, showing a lot more energy. It's a week now since his last seizure. Tomorrow will be a more active day. TTFN. NMPS.

October 1, 2004 - Day Eleven - Friday

Nice drive today. We drove back through Stowe again and continued on up through Smuggler's Notch. This is a road we hadn't travelled before because it's closed in the winter. You could see why. It's very steep, very twisty, and very narrow. The trees canopy the road, and at that height they're almost in full colour now. It was very pretty. Inconceivably I didn't take a picture. At the very top of the road, where the trees were the best and the road was the narrowest, there were a hundred cars or so pulled off into every nook and cranny, with old retired folks (hmmm....), wandering around on the already too narrow road taking pictures. There was a fella playing something, a flute maybe. Pan. Then we continued on and did the consumer thing. Sigh.

October 2, 2004 - Day Twelve - Saturday

Saturday, nice day to stay at home. A lovely day it was, home with Liam and Ara. They had their first cord of wood delivered, and Liam and Ara and Carol spent a good part of the day stacking it. Liam had to go to work for a period of time because he's leaving tomorrow. Liam and Ara went to Jake's annual bash in the evening. I read. Carol chatted. We'll probably not do much tomorrow either, as Liam will be packing, going to work for a while, and then leaving. Lua (Belgian Malinois) had two seizures this morning. That's sad. He'll be doped up for a few days now and will have a hard time getting around. Drinking my tea now I am, updating this journal. Liam and Lua are just coming down stairs. See y'all later.

October 3, 2004 - Day Thirteen - Sunday

Drove Liam to the airport last night. He's going to be on tour now until October 26th. (http://www.burton.com/burton/events/worldTour/) He'll be back here on Friday as part of the tour, but he'll be pretty busy. We're not going to be here anyway. Lua had three seizures yesterday.  The third happened while we were on the airport run. This was unusual apparently, having seizures so far apart on the same day. It may be a new emerging pattern. He also threw up last night, but that was probably because of a piece of jagged plastic he ate. One of the side effects of the drugs is a RAVENOUS appetite. He spends the day pacing around the house looking for food, and he's a master at breaking into things. He tore the lid off his "secure", very heavy duty food container yesterday. He's a big, powerful dog. It's sad to see him like this. On our way back from the airport last night we had a lovely meal at Trader Duke's. Carol also did some grocery shopping. We'll spend the next two days getting ready to leave early Wednesday morning. We volunteered to stay home with Lua today. Hopefully he'll be fine. At the moment, I'm sittin' here, drinkin' my tea, looking out over the valley. It's a recurring theme huh? Nice!

October 4, 2004 - Day Fourteen - Monday

I'm sittin' here, drinkin' my tea. 11:45 NL time. I already wrote that ^ up there today. I added the pictures at left, the top one being of the Base Lodge, and the second obviously the two critters. So this is in real time. Lazy day. Will probably run in to the valley of the boxes to buy a few things we "need" for the camper. Will try to clean up the van. We're a little apprehensive right now because Lua is wandering around, quite groggy, searching for food. Carol just had him out for a second. It's really sad; if he stops moving he falls over. He won't lie down; he keeps fighting the feeling I guess. Piqa knows there's something wrong with him. TBC

October 5, 2004 - Day Fifteen - Tuesday

(I've gotten three days behind in this, so this will just be a quick update of the next three days. I'll fill in some details later.) Today we did a lot of packing early in the morning. Carol did some house cleaning because we would be leaving early the next day. In the afternoon we left a little early to drive to Montpelier because we were having dinner with our friends Lynne, Dennis, and Ryan Del'Amico. We met Lynne through the "WeimList". They have a four year Weim named Amy. We did a quick walking tour of downtown Montpelier, took some pictures around the State Capital Building, and strolled the streets, Piqa soaking up praise from the numerous passersby. Then we went on to Lynne's where we had a wonderful meal and spent a very nice evening. Thank you Lynne and Dennis and Ryan.

October 6, 2004 - Day Sixteen - Wednesday

Off to NY to pick up our camper. We started the day with a lovely breakfast at one of those little small town restaurants that we love to find, filled with interesting people not in a real hurry to get anywhere. I had on the camouflage hat that Liam gave me, so I fit right in. We took side roads to get out of Vermont and over to I-90. It was glorious. Vermont is just about in full bloom. The further West and South we went, the less the trees had turned. The driving got a little less interesting after we hit I-90 and started towards Buffalo. It was a long drive, the latter part not being particularly pleasant. We arrived at the RV Dealership (Great Outdoors RV), around 4:30, not with any intention of doing any business that day. We just wandered around the lot and identified our poptop. It looked quite nice, in excellent shape. We were looking forward to the next morning. Off we went to find a motel, have a bite to eat, and watch the Yankees lose (but they didn't).

October 7, 2004 - Day Seventeen - Thursday

The start of an horrendous day. (This day is going to be the subject of quite a little story that I'll add to my "rants" page, but that will take a while. I'm usually adequate with words, but in this case words may fail me. Stay tuned.). To make a long story short, we did not buy the camper. We were treated horribly. The only explanation for the way we were treated that makes any sense to me is that we were mislead from day one. The bottom line is that we got our deposit back and left Great Outdoors RV after I'd spoken my mind to both the sales rep and the sales manager. Neither Carol or I were terribly disappointed as we both felt (feel), that we did the right thing and that we had no other options. Maybe the staff at GORV thought that, having driven 2000 KM, we wouldn't possibly walk away from the deal. We did. The 2004 "lightly used", "excellent condition", Fleetwood Niagara, had a leaky roof. It would not be covered by warranty for us because we were not the original owners. This whole episode is a long, convoluted story. I'll try to explain later.

There's not an upside to that story, but there is an upside to the remainder of the day. We drove. As I said, neither or us was particularly disappointed or upset. Remarkable really. Driving along we saw a huge RV dealer off the Thruway. "Should we go in there," I asked Carol. "Sure," she said. We did. We were greeted promptly, and enthusiastically. A salesperson was paged and immediately came to us, all nice and enthusiastic. When we told him what we wanted he was quite apologetic that they had nothing available. They had had their fall sale the week previously and had sold every unit. (We told him a short version of what had happened to us earlier, and he had some interesting responses, without tearing down the other dealer.) "What way are you headed?" "North (West) on I-90," we said. "You may be in luck. Our Buffalo dealer is having THEIR fall sale at the Erie Fairgrounds starting today. They'll have a lot of units on sale. Here's the directions."

We went. We saw. We bought. A 2002 Coleman Niagara. Better condition, better treatment, an altogether better and different experience. A full day's seminar on two different ways to deal with customers and sell your products. I'm looking forward to writing about it in some detail.

So, tonight we're in Toronto instead of camping in the Adirondacks. This certainly wasn't part of our plan. We're staying with our good friends Carol and Joe Dunphy. As an added bonus, Kelly and Ben and their two wonderful children (and I'm not just being fulsome here - they ARE wonderful, two of the most remarkable young women you'd want to meet). Kelly and Ben are amazing folks themselves and have had bookable experiences. We're picking up our camper tomorrow, special treatment for us doing the "no cost" dealer prep on the camper.

Click the button immediately below for the full story.

October 8, 2004 - Day Eighteen - Friday

I'm sittin' here, drinkin' my coffee. The events of the past two days have driven me back to coffee. I'll wean myself off it over the next week. I'm in Carol's (Dunphy's) computer room, having just done an update of the last three days. Carol's home is just a few minutes walk from Bloor Street West, one of the most interesting streets in Toronto. It's a neighbourhood onto itself, filled with small shops, coffee houses, restaurants, etc., and with High Park set right in the middle of it. I'll be taking Piqa for a walk to High Park (where they have an off-leash section), later today. I've got some banking business to do today, and may get some work done on the car. More later... 

It's later. Carol and Carol went shopping. They came back. I walked to Bloor Village. Went to Shakey's and had ten hot wings and a Guinness. Quite loverly. Walked again and had a slice of pizza. Walked home. Met Kelly as she was returning from work. Ben and I made a flying trip to the Beer Store where we bought a half dozen Smithwicks and a dozen Kilkenny Creme and a few bottles of wine. Ben prepared a wonderful supper for us and we had a beautiful evening with Ben and Kelly and the Bronte sisters (or at least that's how I think of them). I went to bed; Carol stayed up for Carol who got off work at midnight. Early departure tomorrow morning. l8r

October 9 and 10, 2004 - Days nineteen and twenty -Saturday and Sunday

Up in the morning, on the road again. Mauzy old day to start. We hadn't been to Niagara Falls for a while, so we decided a little side trip would be in order. Let me say this about that: The Falls are always a treat; the "city", specifically the falls area, is a fly trap, with those little sticky things that suck you in. What a shame that the Falls are ruined by their surroundings. This should be a protected environment; never should anyone have been permitted to build within two miles, but I guess the building started well before we became conscious of the commercial potential of the area. Too late now. Sigh!

Off to Buffalo. Pleasant border crossing; pleasant border crossing official. Fastest border crossing we've had and at one of the busiest crossings in the country.

Things just got better.

We were five minutes early to pick up the trailer. They were ready for us. Paperwork was done; trailer was ready; got the tour (no charge); nice young man (Scott), had a little trouble with the hitch because it was so stiff; worked on it; got it working. All very nice. Made a few additional "repairs" when we noticed stuff. Parts department fellow came out and offered us a deal on some "extra" decor packs he had in stock. EXCELLENT deal on a few extras for the trailer. I think they liked Carol, or the dog... not sure which, but it makes no never mind.

I was a little apprehensive at this point. Would the van have trouble pulling the trailer? Would there be any sway? (I was warned about sway with the Niagara.) Was the hitch too low? All kinds of stuff I found to worry about.

Trailer pulled fine, straight as a Presbyterian. We drove to a hastily arranged campground two hours down the road. That's where we are now as I write this.

We just got back from town where we bought groceries and few things we need to outfit the camper. Carol just cooked our first supper in the camper, pork chops, potatoes, peas, with no gravy (no flour). Piqa had a great meal with the juices on her food.

This is a wonderful rig. It's obviously been used quite a bit, and has the dings and scraps to show for it, but we think it's been well cared for. It's clean and clean smelling.  The dinette slide out gives us a lot of room. The beds are huge, plenty of room for two of us (and even Piqa) on one bed, and plenty of room for me to stretch out.

Carol is outside right now, trying to re-arrange the van. There's absolutely no sense my being out there because she'd just change everything I did anyway. We're moving as much stuff into the camper as possible. We're supposed to have as much weight as possible toward the front of the trailer to keep it from swaying. The 2002 is put together exactly the opposite of the 2004. The door is toward the back. The 2004 has the door toward the front and supposedly that corrected the sway problem (that and the other things that were consequently moved toward the front). But I didn't experience any swaying on the Thruway driving down here and it was quite windy and there were lots of trucks, so I think we'll be OK.

We decided to stay the extra day here at this little non-descript campground just to get ourselves in order. Oh yeah, it's also the middle of the holiday weekend and the few calls we made showed us that camp sites were at a premium.  Tomorrow night should be easier and we hope to be at the North Pole Campground near Lake Placid. This is where we were supposed to have spent Thursday night; that was before the fiasco.

So all's well. See y'all later. Time for beer and cheesies and a little bit of a read. MMPS.

October 11, 2004 - Day twenty-one - Monday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my tea. Piqa and I were up early this morning, and went for a stroll down to the Ausable River. It's just a five minute walk from our campsite here at The NorthPole Campground, near Lake Placid/Wilmington. We're in a pine forest. (The picture over there <<<< is our first campsite in our new camper.) The only thing we heard last night, along with the coyotes howling, was the sound of pine needles dropping on the roof of the camper. Our camper is working out fine; from arrival to complete set up (complete setup including Piqa peed and pooped and me sitting at the table drinking my cup of tea) was 25 minutes. We'll get better. The toughest part at the moment is unhitching and getting the van unhooked. Our Reese Mini-hitch is very stiff. We had to get a crowbar to lift the weight distributing bars on and off the hitch. It was a little easier last night as the bars are starting to get a little more flex in them with use. It's an interesting setup; the hitch serves both for weight distribution and as a sway control. We were very pleased with the way the van pulled the camper yesterday; it showed no signs of strain or overheating. There were no steep hills, but lots of moderate ones and the van handled it all with relative ease. I was a little worried because we're pulling close to the maximum that the Odyssey is supposed to pull. The electric brakes are working fine; they took a little adjustment. I made one too quick turn into the campground and the brakes and the setup let me get away with it. I don't think the folks behind me were too happy though. We spent a lovely nite. The cable is all hooked up as is the high-speed cable modem. Camping you say? Oh well.  L8R   NMPS

October 12, 2004 - Day twenty-two - Tuesday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my tea. Just back from a shower and a short walk down to the river with critter. Herself is showing signs of life, commenting on how wonderful the bed is. This is actually Wednesday morning I'm writing this, so the time lines may be a little off here. We went in to Lake Placid for groceries and we also did a little drive about. We wanted to do the drive the eight miles UP to Whiteface Mountain, but the road was closed. Maybe it's closed for the season. There's a toll on it; there's a toll even on some of the hiking trails around here. Lots of leaf peepers still around, but not enough to make money off I guess. (We're really spoiled; in Newfoundland in all its natural beauty, making money off tourists is almost an afterthought. But we'll get there I guess. Sigh! At the moment the tourism industry is limited to providing services; the exploitation stage hasn't been reached yet.)

Everything is finding its place in the camper. It's getting relocated a little, so I couldn't find the tea this morning.

We're sleeping well. The mattress is good and the duvet is wonderful. It's quite cold here. The temp last night was about -3C. The furnace, which is set at the lowest possible temperature, cut in about three times last night. Piqa still hasn't found her place. Her bed is on the floor, but its next to the furnace and she doesn't much like it when the furnace cuts in. 

Nice bacon and eggs this morning. Piqa enjoyed the bacon which I conveniently left in her reach, right at her eye level. "How could I resist Pop?  Huh?"

We went for a few short walks. The picture above (right) is "down by the riverside", just five minutes from our campsite. There are actually sites right there, but I guess they're closed right now. I'd love to let Piqa go for a swim, but she'd never dry off because it's so cold.

I want to talk about the geese. When we drive this way in the fall, somewhere along the way we'll cross the flyway of the Canada Goose. It's a natural and remarkable phenomenon. How many hundreds of thousands of them there are I don't know. (I'll have to do a little research.) For days the sky is filled with HUGE V-Shaped formations. I expect you could sit and watch them all day, but early morning seems to be the best time and the sky is filled with honkings. Some of the V formations are flying in the wrong direction; tourists who've run out of money I expect.

So we're having a nice time. Some longer hikes might be in order today. Piqa needs to have a good long run. Maybe we do too. L8R NMPS

October 13 - Day twenty-three - Wednesday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my tea (I couldn't find it this morning. It had been relocated.) It's REALLY Wednesday morning now. Herself is showing some signs of life, lyin' there commenting on how nice the bed is. I'm promised pancakes this morning. Maybe for lunch. More later . . . MPS ...  Nice pancakes. Piqa didn't get the bacon. Carol put it in a pot to keep it warm while she cooked the pancakes. Today was a sit-around day. We needed it I think. It was quite relaxing. Even Piqa enjoyed it. Just a word on Piqa:  She is showing no signs of getting over her anxiety while driving in the car. She will stand and pant behind our seats for the entire drive, be it 15 minutes or eight hours. In an effort to calm her down we gave her Gravol on the trip from Syracuse to here. It had NO impact. She's enjoying her stay here because we're not moving much. There are no other campers in our section of the campground, so we let her run free out the door of the camper and on our three or four short walks a day down to the river. Last night the coyotes howling woke me up about three in the morning. It's a much shriller sound than you'd think. They were at it twice last night. Piqa doesn't seem to pay it much attention. It's hard to know how she'd react if they tried to lure her away. On the one hand, she probably wouldn't go too far away from us; on the other, she loves to run and would probably give chase; on yet a third hand, any sign of aggression would send her running back to us. She's MUCH more anxious when either one of us is away from the camper. She'll sit and watch until the return. She likes the little cave her pack is living in though, and she's finally found her spot.

Damn Yankees!

October 14 - Day twenty-four - Thursday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my coffee. Coffee is just so much nicer than tea in the mornings. It's 10:30. I've been up since 7:30. Piqa and I have been down to the river, down to the river to play. Herself is just looking at her watch. There's movement. Not much though. A sigh. Ah!  Words. We stayed around all day yesterday. I think we should do something today. Don't you?  I'll let you know later.

We went to the 200 Acre Woods in search of Winnie the Pooh. He wasn't there, but there were plenty of trails. Piqa had her first good stretch out in a while. She also had a good swim when we walked down to the public beach area, which is just down the road a bit and off the road a bit. We were gone for a little over an hour.

When we got back we had a visitor. A couple who had used our website for Newfoundland information and who had contacted us for additional information live just around the corner from here. They told us to get in touch when we were in the area, so we did. He dropped in on us and invited us to dinner tomorrow evening. We gladly accepted. The couple who had travelled with them to Newfoundland will also be there. It will be a nice evening I'm sure.

Then we did a loop. We were looking for a grocery store to buy something to cook for supper. I guess nobody around here eats at home. There are zillions of restaurants, but few grocery stores. We ended up doing a loop:  Jay, Upper Jay, Keene, Lake Placid, and back here. It was a lovely drive in the early evening. We stopped at an IGA in Lake Placid; it was a horrible little store. We bought sausages and some nibble-ons, then game back, cooked supper, had a glass of wine, watched the ballgame, went to bed. C'est ca.

October 15 - Day twenty-five - Friday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my coffee. I've been up a while. Just went online and paid our mid-month bills. Modern technology: no matter where you are there are bills to pay and you can pay them. Maybe that's what technology is all about, being able to spend money and pay your bills. Sigh! We're supposed to go hiking today, but it's a mauzy old day. Yesterday's visitor made some suggestions as to appropriate hikes for us. I hope Carol remembers his directions; I have a head like a Tetley tea bag (thousands of tiny little perforations). We'll be going over there later for supper; looking forward to that. Then when we get back to the camper we'll start packing things away so we can leave early tomorrow morning.  We have to be in Bolton before 1:00 pm so we can leave the camper at a spot Liam has arranged for us; we're afraid to tow it the five miles uphill to his house. Then we'll be staying there until Wednesday morning when we'll head for Danforth Bay Campground in Freedom, New Hampshire. TTFN

It's later. Quite later actually. I'm sittin' here, drinkin' nuttin. It's 7:30 am, Sunday morning. We did go for a nice hike on Friday. We went to Mt. Joe, one of the trails maintained by the Adirondack Hiking Club. $4.50 to park. There were lots of hikers on the various trails in the area. I don't know if they're that busy all year round, or maybe even busier in the summer and on weekends. We did approximately half the climb. We met our next door neighbours (from the campground) who were on their way down. They told us we had about another hour. We decided to abort because that would make us late for dinner.

Dinner. Wow! Great folks, great meal, great spot. Off on a little road, nearest neighbours miles away, idyllic environment. I'd tell you more about these folks but I don't want to invade their privacy by putting it on a website. I won't even post the pictures here without their permission.  It's not enough to say that we had one of the nicest evenings we've had on this trip. It's always wonderful meeting new people, and when they invite you into their home and wine and dine you, then it doesn't get much better. Thank you. 

October 16 - Day twenty-six - Saturday

Today was a moving day. We were up early, packed up the camper. It had rained overnight, so the camper was quite wet and covered with pine needles. We did our best to clean it up and dry it off. We had gotten directions to the ferry across Lake Champlain from Ray, so the route we took was quite pleasant, mostly small roads, little traffic, and very nice scenery. The trip was uneventful. We dropped the camper off at at spot Liam had prearranged for us, and came on up the hill. We made a quick trip to Waterbury for lunch and groceries. Then I went into Williston for a few odds and ends and to pick up Lua. Lua was quite happy to see me. So we're fine. We'll be here until Wednesday morning and we'll be pretty much house bound. We may make separate trips into town, but there's really no need for us to do so. Y'all take care now, y'hear. I may not write anything else until Wednesday evening.

October 17 - Day twenty-seven - Sunday

Drank my tea.

October 18 - Day twenty-eight - Monday

Drank more tea.

October 19 - Day twenty-nine - Tuesday

Ara got home today. She was at "Bridge Day" in Virginia. She showed me an article about the rappelling, and the bungee jumping and the promotional efforts they were involved with. 'Twas very exciting; more exciting than drinking tea. Last night was a VERY tough night for Lua - six seizures. We were glad we didn't have to deal with that by ourselves; it was also extremely difficult for Ara and Carol. I slept through most of it. This morning (Wednesday), we had to carry Lua down to the car. Carol and I felt bad about leaving, but there wasn't much more to do. It's really quite sad.

October 20 - Day thirty - Wednesday

Most of our driving days have been very nice, but today was the best so far. After we picked up the camper in Richmond, we drove from there to Danforth Bay RV Resort, through the Crawford Notch and through Mt. Washington Valley. 50% of the foliage in VT has blown with the wind, but as we came further south and east, we came back into the colours. Driving on 302 was like driving through a golden canopy; it was magnificent.

It's very cold here tonight. Beautiful campground. We thought we were out of propane, but I had had a senior moment and turned the valve the wrong way. We may stay put tomorrow or drive back to North Conway to pay homage to the great god, consumer. We'll see. The picture below is of Mt. Washington. Great view. The little puff of black at the top of the mountain is from the cog train that puffs its way to the top.

Go Sox! (Cable and wi-fi... another great campground)  :-) 

Mount Washington - New Hampshire

October 21 - Day thirty-one - Thursday

Today we were sucked into the great dark underbelly of North American consumerism. North Conway is as vile a town as exists on planet earth. It's like a Venus Fly Trap, designed specifically for consumers, the pointy little spines letting you go in no other direction than L.L. Bean, the Gap, Eddie Bauer, Settlers' Green. Once upon a time, if my memory serves me correctly, outlet stores were where you went to buy seconds, or returns, or slightly damaged goods at wonderful prices. The word "outlet" became the scent that drove consumers wild. Once retailers realized this, outlet stores became all the vogue and they began popping up in strip malls in rural American. Small towns such as North Conway and Freeport became clogged as their arteries became blocked with fat consumers. On a busy weekend traffic will start backing up miles OUTSIDE town. A few weeks ago, we couldn't even make the turn at the junction of two highways because traffic was backed up that far. Today we had a nice meal at the Muddy Moose where they had BASS on tap. :-)  Carol had a hamburger; she asked me to remind her not to ever do that again; I had ribs and BASS. I had a choice to get either fish or a rack of ribs. Get Scrod or get the rack. That was the choice. The masochist in me chose the rack. I won't dare tell you what Carol said to help me make the choice.

We escaped North Conway having spent only about $10.00, and that on necessities. Maybe we just have everything.

October 22 - Day thirty-two - Friday

Sittin' here, drinkin' a Michelob Ultra. We went for a drive through/to small town New Hampshire, into tourist/cabin country. We got lost. It was a lovely drive. We stopped at Hart's Turkey Farm and Restaurant for lunch. Because we'd missed our Thanksgiving and were still a week or two away from American Thanksgiving, we decided to split the difference. We both had a turkey dinner, Carol small and I large. Wonderful! Fresh turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash (Carol beet), fresh rolls, corn bread, carrot relish. We passed on dessert. Carol, super nose, had to leave early because the fella that sat down behind us had bad BO. It was great up to that point.

Then we went for a walk on the boardwalk, on the bor...ooorrrrddd... walk. Took some pictures. It was pretty.

We stopped at a Country Store, one of the oldest in North America, 221 years old. It was BIG, with little nooks and crannies filled with "stuff". Like Alice's Restaurant, you could get anything you want. Neat.

Then we got lost. All that resulted was that we did a square to get back to the campground. It would have been very pretty had it not been dark.

I think we're going to stay here again tomorrow. There's a craft fair back the road a bit. We may go there and try not to get lost again.

We'll be leaving on Sunday morning, early I hope, and making our way to Newport, Maine to camp for one night, then we'll be crossing the border on Monday. We may or may not camp in New Brunswick for a day or two before making our way to Halifax. So, TWIMC, we'll be back in Halifax either late Monday or sometime mid-week.

October 23 - Day thirty-three - Saturday

Sittin' here, drinkin' my tea. It's another beautiful day, cool, mostly sunny, but a little windy. We've been SO lucky with the weather. Both the females are still abed, Piqa because I won't take her for a walk, and herself because, well, just because.  We were having problems with the lights and outlets in the camper; toward the middle of yesterday evening all the lights were starting to get very dim, because they were operating off battery. Two outlets were still working, those at the front end of the camper, so everything electric we needed to do was running off those two outlets. I'd searched everywhere for a fuse or breaker. I was convinced that the GFR under the refrigerator and under the sink had tripped and wouldn't reset, but there was this mysterious BIG black box next to the furnace that I couldn't seem to access. I poked and prodded at it, and then applied a little force not knowing what would happen, and lo, the front plate folded down and there were two breakers and several fuses. One of the breakers had tripped from where we were running both the electric kettle and the ceramic heater off the same circuit at the same time. Let there be light. That's a relief. So now we have light, and propane, and we're quite comfortable again.

Gotta go take Piqa for a walk. L8R...

Well off Piqa and I went for our walk. We went up to the camp store/office to pay for another night. Then we went down the road to the ball field. This is an ENORMOUS campground. All the sites have water and electric; most have sewer. Down at the far end of the campground, near the ball field, most of the sites are filled with permanent campers and it was quite busy this morning. There are the strangest units down there. You know the type of house you see in a trailer park? Yeah, mobile trailers, those. Well, these are mobile cabins. Prefab cabins. Neat little things. All kinds of windows, decks, a story and a half some of them, probably with some kind of sleeping loft inside. All trimmed around. Very nice. I saw two new ones being hauled in yesterday and a fella with one of the wide load tractor-trailers trying to back a cabin in between two huge trees. It was pretty tight. And they all have boats; and they all have golf carts. Yep! Golf carts. You see them scooting all around the campground. This being a weekend there are a fair number of folks here in the livyer section. ("Livyer" is a Newfoundland word for folks that "live here" all year round; it is used in northern fishing communities where a lot of fishermen used to come only for the fishery and then go home.) But the funniest thing I saw was this. And I saw two fellas doing it. They had leaf blowers and they were blowing leaves off their campsites. Just think about that. Here, camping, in the middle of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in the forest, there were two fellas blowing leaves off their campsite. One of them was even in the trees around his site blowing the leaves out onto the road. Hmmmmmm....   I guess there's something I don't understand. I've never seen anyone blowing leaves off a campsite in Newfoundland.  (Carol had just commented the other day that she didn't see the point of leaf blowers at all.) More L8R...

Are you going to Moltonburough Fair...  Well yes, we did. It was in a junior high school, kind of like going to Curling Junior High for their fall craft sale. And the stuff wasn't much different, probably not as good. There was a nice hand crafted jewelry display; I bought a ring. There were some lovely beeswax figurines and stuff, from moulds, not too moldy. Carol bought one and kicked herself for not buying two; now she has a dilemma.

Then we went on down the road a piece and went into the Scottish shop. There was a little old lady working there, looked a little like Bilbo Baggins. She expounded on everything from the lies that were in the New York Times and the Washington Post, to everyone's claiming they were Scottish lately. She gave us a running commentary on every item we passed by. On the way out she gave us a paper to read that she said had some real news in it. She commented that the only good news she could listen to was on CBC radio where sometimes she heard the truth. She didn't seem terribly upset that we didn't buy anything.  She had all the tartans there, even the Newfoundland tartan. She was sorry that all she had was a tie and a lightweight scarf. She had puffins.

Then we had lunch at the Open Pit BBQ. We both had chicken and ribs. Dark ribs, undercooked and tuff. Dark chicken, dry. Very nice Pig's Ear dark draft beer. I should have had a second. There were lots of Bubbas working there, and all kinds of "stand by your man" women. Nice folks. Lousy food. The lady in the booth next to us was served a dessert that was bigger than she was. She was only 120 lbs when she went in there. When she was leaving, and she backed up, she beeped.

May the hair on your toes grow longer . . . Won't get to write anything tomorrow. We'll be on the road and the campground we're going to doesn't have cable or internet, really primitive.  ;-)

October 24 - Day thirty-four - Sunday

Movin' Day! Off we went from Danforth Bay Campground to Newport Maine. Four stops along the way: Breakfast (disappointing - Carol's waffles were cold), Maine Mall (Carol found a pair of pants for $3.00), Freeport (we escaped after spending only $100.00, and that on stuff we'd been looking for), and lunch (Ground Round, Augusta - VERY nice meal, inexpensive, nice Sam Adam's draft) and then the campground. We were most lucky at Freedport for two reasons, the first was the escape, the second was that I finally found a ski helmet that fit me. Well, actually, Carol found it in the LL Bean factory store, for about half price. And I got two pairs of pants for $13.00 each. We were in Freeport for approximately 25 minutes. I talked about North Conway previously. Well, North Conway is only the evil spawn of Freeport. Freeport is Shelob, and you have to get past her to get home.

The campground was self serve. No one working there this time of year, but still open. Pick your site, set up, leave your money in the box. Done! We didn't even bother to unhitch, just popped her up, braced her, slept in her, and scooted off the next morning. Had to write a cheque to put in the box because we couldn't do the credit card thing and we had no American cash type money. Hope the cheque works.

October 25 - Day thirty-five - Monday

Well, today was the only really boring day's driving we've had. Once you get on the thruway there's not much to see and the only excitement is the occasional TT that blows you off the road. We did our thing at the border, and that was a little worrisome. The paper work was done inside; not a problem getting all the trailer stuff finished up. Then we were sent outside to the nanobots so they could creep and crawl our van and the camper. They were in a nice mood; one poked around in the van for a few seconds and sent us on our way. Altogether yesterday we were on the road for about eleven hours; it was a tough day. Boring! 

When we arrived at Connie's there was no one home. We sat for a few minutes; called Paul. He came over and let us in. Went back to Paul's and parked the camper in his driveway. When I got back Connie was just getting home.

Here we are. Warm. And I'm sittin' here, drinkin' my tea.

October 26 - Day thirty-six - Tuesday

At Connie's. Did nothing. Beautiful!

October 27 - Day thirty-seven - Wednesday

We're done in the valley. We drove down to Neala's in Lawrencetown. Carol bought enough food to feed scooner's crew. We had a nice supper. Neala went back to school where she spends about 14 hours a day. It's a tough program. She just got back now. Only one TV channel. Worse than camping. We just managed to get the internet up and running. I won't see the Sox game tonight. Maybe they'll wait to get back to Fenway to clinch it.

October 28 - Day thirty-eight - Thursday

Went for a drive today. Just around in a circle. Again, we're still blessed with great weather, and the trees down here still have some colour in them. This is a nice area; flat. I don't know if I like flat. But it is a valley (The Annapolis Valley) so there are hills surrounding it. We were supposed to find a hill. We didn't. Maybe we'll go looking again tomorrow.

October 29 - Day thirty-nine - Friday

We found a hill. We went for a walk around a provincial park. Very nice. Piqa and Myla had a great run. We slogged through the leaves. Weather still beautiful.

October 30 - Day forty - Satuday

I'm sittin' here, drinkin' my tea and eatin' Connie's home made toast. It's nice. Sun is shinning gloriously. Today we're going to try to take in a part of an agility trial. This will be our first. We may also venture to Skate Canada sometime this evening, if we can get tickets. Tomorrow will be Sunday. The agility trial still goes on, so we may venture there again. We'll see.

Neala decided to come up from the valley after all. We went to Boston Pizza, all of us, and had a wonderful meal. Myla spent the night with us.

October 31 - Day forty-one - Sunday (Halloween)

Today was the FIRST dirty old day we've had since our trip began, but it was a super day nonetheless. Ged and I had a two hour breakfast. We knew we were in trouble when the waitresses stopped filling our coffee cups. We spent another half hour or so chatting in the rain. Kyle and Amber came to Kim and Connie for their Halloween festivities. They made cupcakes; they carved pumpkins; they put on two marvellous costumes, and off they went on their rounds. (Pictures later.) Connie prepared a wonderful meal for all; Jennifer came to visit and partake; we had a few sips of the creature; all's well. We also went to our first agility event today. Piqa wasn't entered, but after we'd seen today's "game", we realized that she should have been. The "jumpers" event was just jumps and tunnels. Piqa may have done well. We met some wonderful folks who gave us more information about the various games in CPE agility. We hope to be able to enter Piqa in some trials next year. She'll have to master her contacts, weave poles, and teeter-totter to be able to enter them all. We should all have a lot of fun with this.

November 1 - Day forty-two - Monday

Tea's all gone. Time to come home. When I finish here now, I'm packing up the computer, taking Piqa for her walk, then getting everything else in gear for the trip home. We'll be leaving here sometime around noon, in Sydney around six, then off to North Sydney and the boat later that evening. Crossing tonight of course; home around 11:00 tomorrow morning. After the trip has had time to age for a day or two, I'll do a little synopsis, leave it for a couple of weeks, then take it off the site.

November 2 - Day forty-three - Tuesday

Home. Rough night last night. HORRIBLE crossing, the worst one we had in a good many years. Carol was terribly sick. Piqa must have had a bad night in the van. She didn't do any damage, but everything she could get at was tossed around and/or torn up. All the tossing and noise must have caused her no end of fright and worry. When I went to get her in the morning, however, she was asleep on my seat. We stopped at the Irving station at Doyle's for breakfast. By this time Carol could have a few slices of toast. The drive was good; still a very few leaves on trees and a little colour. Last nite? Snow. Great to be home.

It's been wonderful talking to you all. Thanks for reading and staying interesting. See y'all in a bit.

Website awards for best costumes by a boy and a girl:  Kyle and Amber