Honesdale, Pennsylvania

Boo! Happy Halloween. We pulled into Honesdale yesterday afternoon after a great stay in Yonkers, NY. The trip was surprising for the snow lying in the hills and on the side of the road an hour or so outside NY City. Locals describe this as "a little early in the season for snow". The sun shone brightly but it was a cool (44 F) and clear day. We are planning to stay through Sunday morning then begin heading the 300 miles or so toward Washington DC area in time for the Presidential Election on Nov 4. (Don't forget to vote - we did already!).

Yonkers, New York City

Arrived today and are getting ready for 3 days of visiting the Big Apple.

Long Island, New York

We're camping at Smith Point County Park at the eastern end of the Fire Island National Seashore. No-one told us about this well kept secret! We crossed a small bridge to get here and have a bay to the north of us (100 yards) as well as the open beach to the south (50 yards across a dune). Our site has power hookup and the rates are very affordable. This is also the commemorative site of TWA Flight 800 that exploded in mid-air in 1996 killing all 230 people on board. We did a somber tour of the site today. Tomorrow we are visiting a fellow Sprinter Westy owner and her family in Stamford, Connecticut before making our way to Yonkers and a 3-night homestay with relatives of some Seattle friends where we'll base to do our New York City exploring.

Stormville, New York

We arrived at Cousin Joanie's place a few hours north of New York City on Friday evening and will be here for the best part of a week. Doug goes up to Burlington, Vermont for a meeting Tuesday morning (about 6 hours drive one way). Travel updates for the past week or so will be posted soon...

Westborough, Massachusetts

We’re stopping overnight in Westborough for a meeting here on Friday morning before heading to New York State to visit family for a longer stay. We've been camping at Cape Cod for two nights (Tues & Wed), at Nickerson State Park, after spending two nights in Boston (Sun & Mon) and spending a fun time with our niece Laura and her boyfriend, Mark.

Cambridge, Mass.

Near Boston.

North Hampton, New Hampshire

Our friend Elaine lives a few miles from the beach in New Hampshire – which is hard to do since New Hampshire only has a small coastline. We last visited here 12 years ago. The house has grown larger – thanks to a remodel - and the family now includes a lively 9 year-old, Tess. We are boon-docking (or dry camping) on Elaine’s driveway and socializing in her house. The girls are having a blast checking out new books, dolls, and toys and playing their fantasy games with another girl of their own age and mindset. Last night the girls did a sleep-over with Tess in her room. Amazingly they were all asleep within 10 minutes of lights out after an exhausting day of play that had ended with a fine “surf and turf” meal by all. We arrived in North Hampton on Friday night (Oct 10), a little after 8pm. Tess was at a friend’s place enjoying a birthday party. Elaine greeted us warmly as we pulled into her driveway. We’d spent the day making our way from Acadia National Park to Augusta, Maine’s Capital (where Doug had an early afternoon meeting) then onto Freeport to visit the LL Bean flagship store. Everyone loved cruising around the LL Bean store. Excitement rose when the girls spotted one of the Dad’s from Ruth’s kindergarten class – handsome, stylishly dressed and attractively smiling from a huge poster on the wall behind Men’s Shirts. He is a part-time model for LL Bean! We opted to eat in Freeport before hitting the road again on our final leg to North Hampton. After some deliberation we decided to have McDonalds for the first time on our trip. It was the first time we’d eaten McDonalds together as a family and the first time ever that Ruth had eaten a McDonald’s meal (largely avoided up until now because of her food sensitivities). During the journey, Ruth seems to be getting stronger to her food sensitivities. We’ve been introducing originally controversial items back into her diet – like corn and wheat – on a test basis once per week. So far it seems to be going very well and we’re hoping for good things by the end of the journey. The last leg from Freeport to North Hampton was all night driving. Sunset is coming earlier these days (soon after 6pm) and it’s noticeable both for traveling as well as setting up camp. We’re increasingly eating in the dark and decided to invest on a good lantern for our campsite. We returned a LED-powered lantern purchased at Wal-mart earlier in the trip because it just didn’t throw sufficient light. We were enamored with the idea of it’s 3-way charging options – including solar – but it just wasn’t doing the job. Sticking with a LED solution because of long run-time energy efficiency, we upgraded to more powerful model but have yet to fully test it in a campsite situation. Inside the van it seems to work great! Arriving in Elaine’s street in North Hampton, Denise leapt from the van to read the house numbers. Our GPS, (who we fondly call, FIONA) is not always accurate when it comes to indicating the exact house location. To everyone’s delight we eventually found the right place and pulled into the long driveway that allowed us plenty of room to unpack on a nice level surface. We peeled out of the van to enjoy some “house” time which we hadn’t had since the last week in September in Ohio with the Comstock family. Tess arrived home late from her party and we all agreed to make a bigger day of it on Saturday. Saturday (Oct 11) was a beautiful clear and sunny autumn day. After a leisurely morning of showers and hanging out, the group decided to go apple-picking. Doug stayed home to work. Although plans were made to go to the beach in the later afternoon, the girls were so thoroughly engrossed in playing and simply playing around the house that we decided to focus on making a fun evening meal instead. Doug and Elaine worked on some house projects that included a run to Home Depot and a side trip to the local market for some “surf and turf” dinner supplies. Cooked by Elaine and Denise, the meal of barbequed swordfish steaks and marinated steak strips with stuffed haddock (fish), rice and green beans was delicious. A freshly homemade apple pie with ice cream for dessert topped off a perfect meal. The girls moved their bedding into Tess’s room and made ready for the night. After light reading, we packed them all into bed. Sleep soon followed… for the adults as well.Today (Oct 12), we are planning to head toward Boston when Elaine and Tess head for church. We’re planning to visit with Laura, Denise’s niece, who is living there. It’s a short travel day and we hope to spend Sunday and Monday with Laura – who has Monday off for Columbus Day.

Acadia National Park, Maine

Blissing out on beautiful Fall weather.... Internet and cell communications lacking.... more updates later. We'll be here through Friday morning, Oct 10, then heading for New Hampshire.

Boothbay Harbor, Maine

We made it! Our trip from Seattle on the west coast to Maine on the east coast was completed today as we entered Boothbay Harbor in Maine. It has taken us 42 days and 4,700 miles since we left Seattle. We arrived on a day with the sun breaking out of the clouds but with a cool Fall breeze in the air. We're staying two nights here the RV Park that is just outside the quaint lobster and fishing town of Boothbay Harbor. We had spent a second day in Quebec City doing a very engaging walking tour of the walled city. [More will be added about this day in a later update]. A Farmers Market just 100 yards from where we were camped in the Marina had quickly become a favorite spot to visit with its sheltered roof and rich aromas of fresh bread, pastries, fruit, vegetables, and cheese and assorted other products. We passed through on the way to and from the walled city walk taking note of a few items we’d get before we left town. The past few days of inclement weather of cold wind and squalls that had forced us into the van more than we’d like was beginning to wear thin. In between showers it was was great but sometimes our van was heavily buffeted as we sat around waiting for the harsh weather to pass. A call to a relative in Maine telling us that they had clear skies was enough to prompt us to break camp and carry on our journey to Maine on Sunday. We did a final shop at the Farmers Market picking up some Apple Butter (made by local farmer), 15 quail eggs (that we were curious to try) and the last of the great French-style pastries. We decided to break the 300 mile trip to Maine into 2 days driving and headed for the US border following a slower, scenic route south of Quebec. We crossed the border without incident, passing through a low-traffic crossing with amenable border patrol guards who were thorough in their job but happy to chat. Our travel leg between Quebec and Maine was rewarded with captivating fall colors as we followed the Kennebec River most of the way until our stop in Bingham. We lucked upon a deceivingly large RV park that was not evident from the road. They had showers (a must by this stage after a few days of Marina parking lot living), electrical and water hook up and a dump station – all for $24. The park was mostly geared toward river rafting and All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) users in the summer then snow-mobile users in the winter. We’d arrived at the river rafting end-of-season weekend. To our surprise and delight the rafting guides were meeting that night at the park with a huge bonfire planned. We hooked up our van to one of the 8 sites that looked across a lush green field approximately two football fields large – the only vehicle on the property. Near one end of the field was a shower block and volleyball net. Off to one side of those, safely situated in the middle of the open field, was a 10’ high stack of wood ready to burn. Later that evening as the girls were being read a book just before lights out, we heard a few loud cheers and looked out to see the bonfire alight. We quickly put on warm clothes (it was getting down to freezing outside) and, like moths, fluttered over to check out the brilliant huge yellow flames that were licking some 30 feet into the air. After a few mesmerizing minutes watching the fire and feeling its warmth some 30-40 feet away, we headed back to the van and to bed. Breakfast on Sunday morning was quail eggs and wonderful French bread. We quickly learned that quail eggs have a brittle shell and tough membrane. They do no "crack" as easily or cleanly as chicken eggs. Nonetheless we figured out how to fry up the eggs and enjoyed a meal of these delicate small eggs. Our original goal was to arrive in Acadia National Park (in Maine) but an opportune gathering of some relatives who would soon be heading home nudged us toward the Boothbay Harbor area south of Acadia National Park. We’ll stay here a few days before heading north to Acadia National Park, likely catching the last few days that the national park will be open and the weather hospitable to be there. We did a quick driving/walking tour of Boothbay Harbor village this afternoon and have promised ourselves to come back for dinner tomorrow night – to enjoy some of the famous Maine lobster!

[Photo added later at our Lobster meal]

Quebec City, Quebec – oui?

Leaving Niagara Falls on Sunday (Sept 28) we decided to make a big day driving and push past Toronto without stopping, though we picked up some fresh food at the Organic Garage on our way past. Driving in occasional rain, we stayed a little long on the road. We had a strong desire to stay at one of the beautiful Provincial Parks we’d heard so much about so pulled off the main highway and traveled another 10 miles north/inland to arrive at Charleston Lake Province Park. It was past dark so we really didn’t see much that night. Quickly arranging the camper for sleeping we drifted off to absolute silence that night. The next day we realized that we were only one of three campers in a very large section of the campsite. The silence was attributed to both the remoteness and the lack of other campers. Nearly everything was self-serve – registration, paying for fire wood, picking a camp spot. The remoteness also meant no cellular and very limited internet connections. Getting our bikes out, we decided to explore the few hundred site campground in the morning and do home schooling in the afternoon. Our bike ride took us to a beautiful lake shorefront. There we shared the beach with small flock of Canadian Geese frolicking in the water – preening and cleaning – assumedly in preparation for their long southern migration ahead. Fall colors were taking hold in the park and at one stage, during a quiet walk down the road, a light breeze sent a “rainfall” of leaves twirling and cascading to the ground around us sounding very much like normal rain. Eventually we spotted some other campers, said our greetings but mainly all the campers kept to themselves – enjoying the quiet and solitude. After completing our ride to another beach and a small dock (in search of elusive turtles) the girls spent some time playing on the Adventure Playground. Then home for lunch. That afternoon we were forced into the van due to heavy intermittent rain, where we stayed for the evening for the last day of September. Trying for an “early” start (the notion of “early” being somewhat relative), we were on the road by 10:30am on Wednesday (Oct 1) and heading toward Montreal. With the rain persisting we decided to make another long day of driving – in the hope of getting much closer to Quebec City -- but committed to being off the road by 5pm so that we had daylight to set up camp and prepare dinner. During the day we crossed the Ontario border into Quebec and stopped at a very helpful and efficient Quebec tourist office – picking up local maps and guidebooks. With barely a shred of French language understanding between us we still managed to interpret road sign meanings and read the guidebooks. This was the home of the Canadian French and no longer was there the luxury of having signs written in both English and French – it was all French now. We picked a campsite out of the guidebook based on our location at 4:30pmand pulled into a small 10-site campground, Camp Royal, right on the St Lawrence River around 5pm. The rain had been on and off all day but held off as we set up camp and got a fire going. The girls played croquet (loaned from the office) while dinner was prepared then we sat around the fire chatting before bed. Armed with more information from our campsite manager about what to do and where to stay in Quebec City, we noted that we’d managed to get within 70 miles of Quebec City so decided on a later start the next day and a drive all the way to our destination. Tonight we’re camped (more accurately, “parked”) at the Marina Basson Louise just outside the beautiful and charismatic, old walled city of Quebec which celebrates its 400th anniversary this year. It’s a regular parking lot down by the Marina but you can purchase a 24-hours pass ($45) so we pulled in alongside 2 other much larger RV’s beside the bike path. The city lights are visible from our van. And the walled part of the city is within easy walking distance to explore. Denise and the girls did preliminary reconnaissance (including dinner out) while Doug worked in the van for a few hours. We’ve planned to stay two nights here. After a torrential afternoon downpour we are hopeful that the rain will clear out for a while so we can enjoy a dry visit in this wonderful city.