Tuesday, June 30, to Caraquet

a.m. temp 55F.

Before getting on the road, we launched the canoe from the rocky beach and paddled along shore, trying to stay in the lee of a rocky point to our NW. We quickly turned back, as it was choppy and gusty. We should have taken it out last evening when it was calm.

A beautiful drive along the water. We had planned to stop somewhere near the Acadian Isles at the NE corner of New Brunswick, but we saw the entrance of the Acadian Historical Village and stopped to investigate. It turned out to be a large-scale historical restoration site run either by the government or a foundation. They collected about 100 old houses and farm buildings from around New Brunswick with connection to Acadian settlements dating from the early 1800's to the early 1900's. The Acadians, who originally settled in Nova Scotia, were deported by the British in the 18th century. Some came here. The historical village reconstruction gave us a good look at the history of those people, who lived in isolation and poverty until the mid-20th century. There is still a movement among the remaining Acadian people to maintain their culture. They even have their own flag. Bought one.

By the time we finished with the historical village (could have used another hour), it was time to make camp, so we drove a few more kilometers to Caraquet (pronounce the t) and a campground which couldn't have been a sharper contrast to Black Point. It has hundreds of sites, a pool, even a waterslide park. We settled down to a gourmet dinner: lobsters are in season and we bought some this morning, already cooked. We had lobster, asparagus, rolls, a good bottle of white wine, topped off with ice cream from the campground store. This camping life is rough.

A good day

Monday, June 29, at Black Point

a.m. 53F, wind 20-30, rainy. No good reason to go anywhere. We slept as late as we could, relaxed over breakfast, read and did puzzles until after lunch. Weather eased up and we drove to nearest town for a few items we needed, mostly for something to do. By evening the weather cleared up and people emerged from their campers and set up campfires on the beach, burning driftwood. We didn't join them as they are all French-speaking. This north coast of New Brunswick is spotty: some English speaking towns, some French. A relaxing day. Tomorrow we move on.

Sunday 6-28, to Black Point

Again, 48F in the morning.

From the park in the middle of the Gaspe peninsula we drove south to the shore of Chaleur Bay, which separates Quebec from New Brunswick. Someday we'll drive out and around the end of the Gaspe but not this time; can't do everything. I remembered that 45 years ago there was a ferry across the bay, but it has been discontinued and I was embarassed to ask how long ago that happened. So we drove along the north side of the bay until were able to cross a bridge at Campbellton, where the bay narrows to a river. Now in New Brunswick, we stopped at a tourist info center and got good maps and guides which will help us in this province.  We continued a short distance to Black Point, on the south shore of the bay, and checked into a mom-and-pop campground. To our surprise, we got a campsite right on the beach and even have electric and water service on the site. Most of the people here are locals who have set up RV campsites and will stay for the whole season. The weather is good, but the forecast is for a storm starting about midnight and lasting all night and most of tomorrow, so we plan to stay here until Tuesday, when the weather should be better.

We are now in the Atlantic time zone, one hour later than Eastern time.

Saturday, 6-28, at Lac Cascapedia

We put our canoe in the water near our campsite and spent about 2 hours canoeing the perimeter of the lake, covering about 4 miles. Gorgeous scenery. The lake is clear, dark with tannin, rocky near shore, and too cold to swim. Few birds. No visible fish, though people do seem to fish in the lake. Few other boats. The second half of the trip was against an increasing and gusty wind, but not more than we could handle easily.

Our campground happens to be a checkpoint on a four-race trail running event. Yesterday they did a 5K uphill race. Today they started at 5 a.m. on a 100K race which they should cover in about 24 hours. Hard to believe, but that's what they are doing. Our campground is about 25K from the start and from the finish. The course goes right by our campsite, so we clap and cheer when they pass.

Late in the afternoon we drove up to Ste. Ann des Monts to see if we could find a 5 o'clock Mass. We allowed too much time, got to the town at 3:55, found that their Saturday Mass is 4 o'clock. Some things work out. We even got back to camp in plent of time for a leisurely cocktail and dinner.

Our legs are very sore from our own hike yesterday.

Friday 6-26 at Lac Cascapedia

Morning temperature 48F, but it warmed up.

We took a long hike today; too long, in fact. 8 miles, but it included two mountains. The trail is very muddy, which made it slow going. We saw many moose tracks and piles of moose scat. Also saw one scay which was either wolf or a very large coyote. Not dog: full of fur and bones. S's new hiking boots were hurting her ankle, so it really would have been more fun if it were half as long.

A comment out of sequence. Yesterday we ran into a problem with voicemail on our ATT phone. Although I'd been told before we left home that I could use my phone in Canada as at home with no special requirements, when I checked voicemail it asked for a pass code. If I ever had one I didn't still know it, and I've never been asked for a pass code before. So I called ATT support. Instead of giving me a password reset, the tech mistakenly wiped out my voicemail. Then they told me that not only were all current messages erased, there was "no way" to set up voicemail anew until I again had an ATT wireless connection, i.e. maybe 2 months from now. I was not going to accept that situation, so that began what would be several days of repeated calls to ATT customer care, their advanced tech support, international tech support, and the ATT/Ensurion advanced tech support we pay extra for each month. Many dropped calls, many terminal holds, many times told we were out of luck. But I kept trying and made it a game not to let it get me mad. Finally, on May 29, my call to ATT tech support went directly to international tech support for some reason, and the young man said, "I can fix that. I'll set it up and call you in 30 minutes with your new passcode". And he actually did. Haleluia! Nobody has called in some time, but we are out of cell phone coverage so much of the time, voicemail is important. And we're back in business with it.

Thursday, 6-25 to Parc National de la Gaspesie

Thur 6-25: Our first full day in Quebec. Drove eastward along south side of St. Lawrence River.

Every time we've been in Canada before, the Cdn dollar has been strong- either close to parity, which they cheerfully rounded up to parity, or even a premium, which they carefully converted. This time, the $Cdn is only 81 cts, so we enjoy more reasonable prices. Of interest: gasoline is uniformly C$ 1.27.4 per liter, which converts to about $3.92 per gallon U.S. vs about $2.90 in the U.S. But the price must be regulated, since everyone charges the same.

There are many touring cyclists on the road along the St. Lawrence; more than we've seen anywhere. Not too surprising: we're at the beginning of good weather for them and the road is both scenic and in reasonably good condition.

Quebec is French-speaking, period. In other provinces, government offices require employees to be bilingual. Not here. Most people are monoglots.

As we drive eastward, the "river" gradually widens and becomes a bay of the ocean. Tides are about 15'. The shoreline changes from low to rocky cliffs.

At Ste. Anne des Monts, about at the northernmost point of the Gaspe coast, we turned south toward the Parc National de la Gaspesie. On our one previous trip through this area in 1970, I remember reaching this town coming from the south. The wind was blowing a gale, it was raining sideways, and the temperature was about 50 F. In the midst of that, we saw a little girl sitting on a sidewalk playing jacks. We knew then not to expect much fair weather, and indeed we got none. This time, though, it was sunny and cool- no complaints.

We drove to the visitor center of the national park to register for camping, but were assigned to a campground about 15 miles back the way we came. The last 6 miles of it was a winding mountain ascent on a gravel road. We camped by a high mountain lake, Lac Cascapedia. Very peaceful and beautiful. Habitat is boreal forest: spruce and birch.

An interesting day, but we need to stop driving every day.

6-22 to 6-24: Plattsburg, NY; Ste. Croix, Que; Riviere du Loup, Que.

Mon, 6-22 at Saranac Lake, had rained overnight but over by morning. Drove 1 hr. to Plattsburg, left trailer at parking-lot-type RV park, took car in for svc. Had planned to ride to Ausable Chasm while car svcd but lingering colds (D getting better) so we waited and drove there. Spectacular gorge, waterfall, rapids; a tourist attraction since 19th century. Back to camp, S did laundry while D took our fancy reunion clothes to UPS store to mail home.

Tue., 6-23: After 20 mi. crossed into Canada north of Lake Champlain. Rainy, dreary, many large farms, country roads. Skirted Montreal- been there recently- and followed St. Lawrence to campground at Ste. Croix. Many fancy seasonal RV's, only a few travelers like us. Lots of sports and games facilities at park, packs of kids riding their bikes around in the evening. Looks like a fun place for them. Good dinner and walked down to riverside.

Wed., 6-24: Sunny and cool. Feast of St. Jean Baptiste, legal holiday in Quebec, everything closed. A big holiday for getting outside, drinking. Some connection to Quebec separatist sentiment, uncertain connection to St. Jean. Driving along S side of St. Lawrence, passed Quebec City on opposite shore. At Levis spotted a bike path that looked good, stopped to dress out and ride. A big furry husky adopted us, parked himself in the shade of the car, and watched us get ready to ride. We were concerned he'd still be there when we got back, but he apparently had gotten bored and gone home. 17 miles on the prettiest and busiest bike path ever. Everybody out riding, skating, walking. Many picnic areas along the way. Lots of people out enjoying the beautiful day. After our own picnic lunch we continued east, stopped at large town of Riviere du Loup. May be our last good provisioning place for a while. S gave me a haircut. Did some general planning ahead: If we circuit all the Maritimes incl. Newfoundland, it's about 5000 miles to Richmond, and 85 days to get there. We ought to be able to handle that and be able to stay in any good place as long as we like.

Thur. June 18 thru Sun., June 21 Saranac Lake Tandem Rally

We had read about the Wild Center, which was the reason we came to Tupper Lake, and before driving the short distance to Saranac Lake we visited the Wild Center on Thursday morning. It is an outdoor and environmental education center focused on the nature of the Adirondacks. We enjoyed it, but not as much as the many fourth graders who were there on their class field trip. Kids in this area won't be out of school until almost the first of July. We learned one particularly interesting thing, about coyotes.  After wolves were exterminated in the East in the early 20th century, western coyotes gradually filled their ecological niche, and as we know they are common everywhere now. But coyotes are now commonly larger than they were a century ago, and DNA analysis has shown that they have significant wolf genes as a result of interbreeding with wolves farther north. Not only that; coyotes have always been solitary predators in the past, but they have recently begun to hunt in packs. As a result, they can now bring down deer, which they never did before. And of course there are more deer in the East than ever before. It occurs to me that coyotes may become more dangerous to livestock and maybe even to humans.

Tupper Lake is a gritty town, struggling to survive. The one big employer was a factory which manufactured wooden ice cream spoons, but it has closed.

Thursday afternoon we drove to Saranac Lake and set up camp at a state-run park just out of town. This will be our base for four days while we join a tandem bike rally. Unfortunately, we both have lousy colds and don't feel much like riding or like infecting other people. Saranac Lake is a much more prosperous town, the recreation center of the Adirondacks. Lots of canoes and kayaks on cars, lots of pontoon boats on the many beautiful lakes.

Friday, June 19. We took it easy in the morning, nursing our colds. In the afternoon we drove into town to register for the tandem rally. The organizers are an amiable local couple named Rich and Lindy Shapiro, who have put together quite a few bike rallies and organized tours in the past, here and elsewhere. There are about 30 couples registered for this rally. The Shapiros run a tandem bike shop out of their home just out of town, but the registration and rides start  behind an old downtown hotel which is under construction. After signing up we headed off on a short 19-mile ride with about ten other couples. It was a loop north of town, on rolling and winding roads through the typical local forest land, some hardwood but mostly pine and spruce. With many small lakes, the scenery is really enjoyable. The roads are in pretty good shape, even though they are subject to winter freezing damage, and the traffic is very light. Even though we were suffering with our colds, it was one of the best ride routes we have seen anywhere. After a break back at camp, we drove up to Rich and Lindy's house for wine and hors d'oevres. They put out an impressive spread. We are used to much simpler food at bike rallies, when it is offered at all. We got to know some of our fellow riders and had a good relaxing evening.

Saturday, June 20. 40 degrees at 7 o'clock, but the temperature is expected to be near 60 by the 9 o'clock ride start time. It turns out we are not the only ones at the campground participating in the bike rally. There is a similar fiberglass travel trailer nearby with a tandem on the top of the car, and its owner, Bill Lindensfelser, says there are a couple other campers here with tamdem bikes. Still feeling lousy, we made our way to the starting point and got our bike ready for the day's ride. Options ranged from very short rides to a couple as long as 55 miles. We usually do the long rides at organized events, but this time we settled on a 42-miler. We felt good for most of the ride, but by the end we felt much more sore and tired than we normally would. Saturday afternoon we were back at Rich and Lindy's for a great cookout, with burgers, hot dogs, bbq pork, veggie stuff, lots of side dishes, soda, wine, and a keg of beer. It went on all afternoon, but we ducked out before the end to get to church. Back at camp after church, Bill and his wife Shae Hanford joined us for cocktails. It turns out that besides their little fiberglass travel trailer similar to ours, they have a Bike Friday tandem at home, and even a canoe. Nothing in common with us there.

Rain started to fall about midnight.

Sunday, June 21. Still raining when we woke up, and forecast to mostly rain all day. We feel bad for the other riders, but in all honesty I considered it a reprieve not to ride today. That's how bad we're feeling. We did drive to the start point and pick up a map so at least we could ride the 67-mile route. About ten brave couples did ride, and we saw them on the road. Along the way we saw a number of state troopers, and one of them stopped and questioned us at an intersection. They had received a tip that the two escaped prisoners had been seen nearby, but were starting to discount that possibility. I guess we need to keep our door locked. Sunday afternoon we were back at Rich and Lindy's for one more great feast and farewell to our fellow riders and fellow wimp-outs. Rain is expected to continue until about midnight. Despite our health problem, we thorougly enjoyed this rally. And the Adirondacks region is about as good as it gets for a cycling venue. I hope we get back here, even though it is over 20 hours driving time from home. Who knows?

Wed., June 17 Pownal VT to Tupper Lake NY

Clear sky and sunny this morning, so we finally got our bike ride in. We rode out of Williamstown and up the Taconic Trail to Petersburg Pass. The climbing portion rises 1200' in 4 miles; a beautiful ride under any circumstances, but what makes it special is that I have ridden it many times at relentlessly advancing ages, though not always on a tandem. So it is a reality check on our ability. Since the grade averages 6%, never above 8%, we could climb steadily without getting winded. Not a demanding test, but we did pass it. We had a fairly long way to drive this afternoon, so we turned downhill the way we came rather than riding down the NY side of the mountain and circling back through Pownal VT.

The campground in Pownal VT where we stayed the last two nights ranks among the best of any we've visited: sits in a high mountain cove, grassy, small, quiet, and extraordinarily clean. If the shower thermostat were set a notch higher it would have been perfect.

After breakfast we broke camp and traveled 4 1/2 hours to Tupper Lake NY in the Adirondacks. I set the GPS to keep us off major highways (i.e. NY Thruway), so it was a scenic trip through rolling farm country, then through the forests and mountains of the Adirondacks. We crossed the Hudson where it is just shallow rapids and also crossed the Erie Canal. Staying at a muncipal campground with a sandy beach on a two-hour (canoe) lake. At 12:15 in the morning a warning siren sounded for several minutes. We heard a few quiet voices, probably people as curious as we were, but nothing else stirring. No threating weather, no earthquake, no air raid, no nearby nuclear plant. After S went back to sleep I thought maybe they had located the two convicts who escaped a week ago from a nearby state prison. So I locked the door and went back to sleep. Still don't know the reason for the siren.

Overnight temp 55F. We aren't in FL any more.

S and I both have colds; hope we shake them before the tandem rally at Saranac Lake on Friday.

Mon and Tues 6-15 and 6-16

Monday: The plan- after breakfast, drive 1 1/2 hours to Williamstown or a bit farther to our campground at Pownal VT, then dress out and ride up to Petersburg Pass, a climb I have done many times over the years, and which S did with me on a tandem 10 years ago.  The reality: it was windy, chilly and threatening rain all day, so we just went to the campground and relaxed. Rain started in the evening, but ended about bedtime. Our travel trailer was parked at Lake Taghanic State Park all week with no electric hookup, but because I'd converted all the interior lights to LED we still had plenty of electric juice when we left this morning. The refrigerator has been on propane power all along, but we only used half of one of our two tanks. It makes us feel better about our travels this summer, as we'll be in more areas where we'll have to rely on our own resources.

Tuesday: It was dry in the morning, but Weatherbug showed a small patch of rain approaching. We drove the few miles down to Williamstown and visited the Clark Art Institute. Their "Van Gogh and Nature" exhibit just opened last weekend, and it was a great experience. They have 70 of his paintings on display, some from their permanent collection but mostly on loan from the Netherlands and elsewhere. I was surprised to learn that his distinctive painting style of bright colors, swirling images, and bold rapid brush strokes only developed in the last three years of his life, during which he was furiously turning out paintings every couple of days. We also revisited the permanent galleries and saw many familiar great paintings we remembered from past visits. It started raining again as we left the Clark, so after lunch we visited the huge new college library (not the one they built in the 80's which was quickly obsolete because it wouldn't adequately accommodate handicapped people or new technology- they'll tear that one down.) The college has twice as many students as when I was there, but the library is probably 10 times bigger. No surprise: the endowment has grown from $30 million to $2.5 Billion in that same time. And for good measure, the yearly cost has gone from $3,000 to $60,000. Something is wrong there.  Anyway, it was still raining, so we drove around Williamstown to see what had changed and what hadn't, then back to camp. Maybe we'll get in that ride tomorrow.

Sat and Sun, June 13 and 14

Sat, June 13: Up early, once again, on the road down to Vassar for breakfast and alum parade. Since I was missing the same event at Wms, I wore my Williams regalia and marched with S and her class. Vassar's president was one of the earliest Williams graduates after they went coed, abt 1970. S's class had raised 12 million as a gift for Vassar. Anyone need reminding about income disparity? Afterward, we drove back to camp for a brief rest, then dressed for dinner and drove up to Williamstown. We had a very good memorial service for the 22 deceased classmates (the next 10 years will the be the sweet spot for classmates dying; even the actuaries know that). Then we skipped cocktails in favor of a great wine tasting, courtesy of classmate WO. Again dinner with friends D and J and wives. Both D and J seem smarter than I remember them. Maybe I'm just dumber. Nah, thinking back, I couldn't be. We wound up with my good friend PH leading us in The Mountains. Then back to camp for a late bedtime...

Sun. June 14: ... and again up early to head to Poughkeepsie. We made it to 8 o'clock Mass at Holy Trinity Church, up the street from the Vassar campus, significant because that was where we were married, 50 years ago today. Then a final brunch at Vassar and back to camp. We've put 800 miles on the car while our classmates sat still at their respective reunions. I had low expectations for this experience, thinking we'd do half-assed jobs of both reunions. It turned out we enjoyed ourselves immensely. There were a few old buddies who didn't make it to the reunions, but most did, and predictanly there were several people we enjoyed spending some time with whom we actually hadn't known well in college. But after several days of racing back and forth it was good to have the afternoon to relax.  We even took a circuit around the park's lake in our canoe. It is what we would call a one-hour lake, but we did it in 80 minutes. We got back into our church clothes and went out to an excellent anniversary dinner at a little Italian place in Rhinebeck, a half hour away. It started to rain as we headed back to camp, and promises to rain all night. Our hope is to get a bike ride tomorrow on a familiar route back at Williamstown, but only if the weather forecast is wrong. A good day.

Tuesday thru Friday: catching up

At reunions noon Fri, have a few mins for notes

Tues- Rainy, drove just a couple hrs from Del water gap to Lake Taghanic St Park. Knew no elec or water but also no dump station: will be an austere week of soft camping. Weather cleared. Campground completely empty.

Unfortunately, both Williams and Vassar have their reunions this weekend, and they are 2 hrs apart. We'll try to join in with as much as we can of each.

Wed- Drove to Williamstown, an hour and a quarter. registered, met a few classmates I knew and a few I only remembered. Had some time to kill, so drove up and over Mt. Greylock. Cocktails and hors d'o...  soph roommate JT and his wife B, old friends, great to see them. Old Phi Delt house completely gutted, will be renovated as admissions and financial aid ofcs. Back to camp by 10:30.

Thur- 40 min to poughkeepsie, registered, took campus tree-tour. S met several housemates, none of her closest buddies. afternoon took trailer to another nearby st park to dump tanks, then chgd clothes and back to Wmstown for dinner. Sr roommate DC et ux M there. tablecloths have collage of yearbook pics of class. dancing afterward but we danced out: back to camp at 11. Great visit over dinner with T's and C's.

Fri- back to Wmstown for breakfast. D and C propose to join us at Sun anniversary mass but it's very early. they may join us in spirit. Wms college mus of art, extensive andy Warhol exhibition. Then back on road to Vassar for dinner. Bus to local estate of Samuel F. B. Morse (think telegraph) for catered dinner. Pretty good dinner, punctuated by a fire drill. While S visited with old friends, woman on my right, S's classmate she didn't know, spoke to me in a soft inaudible voice for 18 hours, estimated, except for one interlude when I hid in the men's room. While we were at dinner there was a downpour and a tornado warning related to a larger approaching weather system. Heavy rain did hit about time we got back to camp, but no wind to speak of. Meanwhile, the empty campground had filled up with weekend campers. We're only 2 1/2 hrs from NYC. Some of them must have had a hard time of it with the overnight weather.

Monday, June 8

We find ourselves a day ahead of schedule: as of this morning we were only four hours driving time from our 'base camp' for the next week, and not due there until Tuesday. So I looked at the map and zoomed in on a green spot about midway. Thus, we find ourselves at Delaware Watergap National Recreation Area. We checked into a nearly-deserted private campground within the federal area. After choosing a campsite we went back to the office to register, and I remarked to the young clerk, "The bathroom looks like the last time it was cleaned, Jimmy Carter was president". My comment must have had an effect, because by the time we got back to the campsite, an unhappy-looking man was headed to the bathroom, and spent about two hours cleaning it. Fortunately, we have facilities aboard our little trailer if a campground's bath house isn't acceptable.  After lunch we took a hike of about three miles through the woods paralleling the Delaware River. The "water gap" is a geological feature where a mountain chain is gradually uplifted but a pre-existing river keeps washing away the uplift so it can continue to flow. The result is a river which cuts directly through a mountainous ridge. We remember visting this place many years ago when the kids were very small. After the hike we drove to a nearby visitor center to get information about possibly using our canoe on the river. The logistics of finding someone to shuttle us upstream may not be practical, and the river looks too fast to simply launch and land at the same spot. We learned that we are in a tornado watch for this evening. After dinner it did start to rain, but with no wind at all. We have no wifi or cell signal here (I'll save this and post it later) so we can't check on the weather. If you are reading this, assume we did not get a tornado. Meanwhile, we are snug and dry and glad we are not tent-camping.

We must have seen a dozen dead dear along the interestate highway yesterday. We nearly hit one ourselves on an on-ramp. Over the last few days we have seen about six wild turkeys and a couple of live deer. Even turkeys are smart enough to stay out of the way of cars. Wildlife spotted on today's hike was limited to two toads.