Now 11 days.
At 4 am we both happened to be awake. Not uncomfortably cold because we were snuggled in our warm sleeping bags, but the condensation dripping off the interior tent poles, as well as the wind and rain, caused me to look at Steve and tell him, "if you agree I don't have any problem with starting for home in the morning." He definitely agreed. We got back to sleep for a few more hours, then woke up to cold and wind but surprisingly no rain.
We didn't really have enough access to weather to determine whether this was a temporary thing or we were out of the worst of it. We decided to stick with our 4 am plan and started breaking down camp. It was easier to break camp down because of the rain stoppage, and the wind was drying the tent off pretty quickly. Got things taken care of, then stopped at the office to get a refund for our gate pass (it had required a $10 deposit, and then we never used it as the gate was up every time we came into the campground.) The deposit refund was no problem, but we asked for and did NOT receive a refund of our unused day of camping. Sorry, no refunds. Well that certainly affected my trip advisor review! We had decided though that refund or not we were still going. Mentally, it helped that we had received that third night free back in Maine. Our only other worry was whether or not our reservation for tomorrow night in Ontario would be honored a day early, or would we be charged for tonight and not refunded for tomorrow night. Tried getting ahold of the campground first by tracfone (that didn't work because it was a Canada call, I guess.) Then, once we were in Conway, went into McDonald's after breakfast to try to use Skype on the wifi. That didn't work either. So just had to take our chances.
As I said, we stopped in one of the Conways for a hot breakfast. Needed that after the cold night. Thankfully it was warm enough, but not too warm, for Max to wait in the car one more time. Our breakfast spot was called the Blueberry Muffin, and served the most delicious muffins - nice and warm. Steve ordered pancakes, and the pancakes were as big if not bigger than a dinner plate, and two came with the order. He couldn't finish them which is saying a lot for the size of those cakes. Could also be the eggs & grits he ate as well. I had eggs, potatoes, and the muffin, of which I saved most of and had later in the day as a snack, it was that big.
Since we'd made a circle the day before, we decided to cut through the middle road between the Kanc and the north road, through Crawford Notch. Saw some nice scenery, even saw Mt. Washington from the other side. We found out that, if we'd been about a half hour north, we would have had SNOW instead of rain as we soon saw evidence of recent snow. This is May 26, for cryin' out loud!
Stopped a few times for pictures but all too soon we reached the interstate and headed northwest out of New Hampshire into Vermont.
Vermont would be a short visit. We would have liked to spend some more time there, but time was not our friend when planning. Weather being what it was, we went on with our original plan. We did make a stop for gas and also a stop for a cache (of course!) at a travel bug hotel near St. Johnsbury.
Soon enough, I think around an hours worth of traveling if that, we arrived at the border of Quebec. I'd never been to Quebec, not sure if Steve had either, so a new adventure for us. After clearing Canadian customs, we headed north on their expressway. We made one stop, at an information centre, for the obligatory cache. Good thing it was fairly easy because the entire description was in French. It was pretty neat seeing not only the French language road signs but billboards and other things as well. We made several stops looking for a place to purchase souvenirs but weren't successful. Once we stopped at a little grocery store, and I walked past a sample booth which was giving beer samples. I paused just to look, and the woman smiled and said "Bonjour." Ahh, almost felt like I was in France. As close as I'm going to get for a while anyway.
Soon enough we hit Montreal, and glad it was Sunday without nearly the amount of traffic. Another memorable "French" moment came when we passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken. But it wasn't named that. It was a "PFK" not a "KFC." I know chicken is poulet in French, and the K probably stood for Kentucky. Not quite sure about the F.
After driving along the St. Lawrence River for a while, we were finally into Ontario. Interesting to drive into Ontario without having to clear Canadian Customs! We didn't have too far left to drive before heading for Ivy Lea, in the Thousand Islands, and the KOA that was there with our reservation for tomorrow night.
We pulled into a very quiet campground that looked almost full. Stopping at the office only to discover that it had closed at 7 pm. I think it was around 7:30 pm by then. There were instructions for how to night register and what sites were open. I picked a site, then instead of putting payment in the envelope, wrote a note explaining our situation. We set up camp and, after having some Face Time with my mom who happened to catch me online with the excellent internet signal, decided to go into town to get something to eat as we didn't want to haul out the cooking gear.
Got to Gananoque and found a pizza place. Steve decided that he would rather have Subway from across the street. I went into the pizza place only to find out they were closing soon and didn't have any slices left to sell, only whole pizza. Since I didn't think I could eat a whole pizza myself, I went across the street and ordered a sandwich from Subway as well. We took the sandwiches back to the campground and sat at the picnic table to eat.
We soon realized we were in a very quiet campground. Nobody was walking around, sitting at their campers (mostly RVs and trailers near us.) Really sort of creepy. We did eventually see a few people at the restroom but they sure weren't staying near our site. We reminisced about a story that my stepfather, Phil, had written many years ago called "Alone" where all of a sudden most everyone in the world disappeared. Made for fun conversation to speculate anyway.
We were tired, but glad to be in better, though still a bit cooler than normal, weather. Steve went to bed while I stayed up for a while, catching up on my geocache logging and other internet. Slept better and drier, too!
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