Had some...

... connection issues when we left Canada and returned to the US via the Champlain Islands (http://tinyurl.com/m43fk3) in Northwestern Vermont. We were at the Apple Island Campground in South Hero for two nights. It was a very nice campground in a beautiful setting, the only problem was that I had no WiFi connection...so, although we are back on Long Island, this post will serve as the last post before the next post which will be posted when I go to Tuscany and London in September.

The weather was beautiful but very hot, so we relaxed at the campsite except for a two-hour walk we took looking for an orchard that someone told us was "just a little way down the rural road." I guess Vermonters idea of "just a little way" is different from my idea of it because we walked to exhaustion and heat stroke and never found an orchard. We did find some pretty things along the way though...

And this "mother and child reunion"...

Street Performers

Today we took the bus to Quebec City. What a great city to explore. It has the feel of a European town, from dining under umbrellas on cobblestone streets to historical buildings to georgeous natural scenery to street performers with their hats or cups on the street for donations. Here are some that we saw today:

The next two come with a story. After lunch Peter wanted ice cream so he went to a little shop and ordered a small cone for me and a large for himself (see first picture.) The large cone had such an enormous amount of ice cream on it that as we walked down the street people stared, laughed, and commented on the size of it. As we passed a few people dining at a restaurant they were laughing so hard that Peter immediately took a position on the side of the street like a street performer and continued to lick his ice cream cone while they all laughed and cheered. I went to one of the tables and dumped the condiments out of its little china container and put it on the street in front of him, (see second picture). No one gave any money so I guess eating a piggish amount of ice cream isn't really a talent, not even for a street performer.

Oh Canada! Oye Canada!

We left the Essex Junction /Champlain Valley Fairgrounds at 2:00 and drove north into Canada and then east on route 20 toward Quebec City. We are staying at a KOA campground in St Nicholas, Levis, Quebec, just a few miles from the City.
We arrived here at about 6:30 PM and have been experiencing a comedy of errors and frustrations since we turned off the ignition key. First the electrical outlets didn't work and after checking all the switches, knobs, dials, transistors, resistors, diodes, circuit boards, buttons, plugs, capacitors, wires, toggles, and fuses to no avail, we discovered a GFI reset button on the receptacle in the hallway. So after an hour of troubleshooting every other possible option Peter hit that button and voila! Power. He said that never happened before and now the next time it happens he will know where to start.
Next he turned on the Direct TV and got no picture. We tried calling DirectTV but you can't call 800 numbers on a cell phone from outside of America, so we went online to find a real phone number that is dial-able from Canada. No such number on the website.
I googled the question "How do I call DirectTV from Canada?" And the answer I got was..."use SKYPE".
That worked...but Peter has now spent the past 45 minutes trying to get thru the extremely annoying and frustrating automated system.
The automaton asked for his phone number, he said "631-728-6462", she said "623-651-6314, is that correct?" he said "no," she said "please say your phone number," he said "631-728-6462," she said "756-834-2365, is that correct?" He began pulling out large chunks of his hair. One more time...he said "631-728-6462," she said "631-728-6462, is that correct?" He said "Yes!"
I said, "Yippeee we are finally getting somewhere"...BUT THEN....the call dropped!
He tried this procedure 2 more times with exactly the same result but with different automatons and even a real person.
Next he tried moving the coach 2 feet forward....but we were still in Canada.
My mother's words came back to me in a flash when Peter finally accepted the reality that there would be no TV tonight. What are those words, you ask? Whenever I would complain of having nothing to do she would say... "Go read."
Thanks for the advice, Ma.
Tomorrow at 9:00 AM we will take a bus into Quebec City and spend the day exploring, and hopefully be tired enough when we get back to not care that the TV doesn't work.

And we will go read!

Lake Champlain, Lobster Rolls, Ice Cream & a Tree Farm

This afternoon we decided to explore the area a bit. So we left the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds and just outside the main gate we found a bus stop. We got on the first bus that came along and it took us to Burlington and Lake Champlain.
The lake begins in NY, is 110 miles long and flows north to Canada. The NY/VT border runs down its center. At it's widest its 12 miles wide and it's greatest depth is 400 ft. Lake Champlain is the 6th largest lake in the US. Burlington is celebrating 400 years since Samuel de Champlain sailed south from Canada in 1609.

We had a great lobster roll for lunch at a lakeside restaurant..."Splash at the Boathouse" http://tinyurl.com/llzscv

We walked along Church Street, which is a pedestrian-only street, until we happened upon Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream store...This area is where it all began about 30 years ago. We enjoyed a tasty treat and continued our "people-watching" journey until we caught the bus back to the campsite.

We sat and visited with our next door camper guy, Bob Williams, who is a tree farmer from New Hampshire. I never met a tree farmer. I asked him how long it takes to grow a tree before you cut it down to sell it to the mill. He said it takes about 70 years, so the trees he is harvesting now were planted before he was born and the trees he has planted in his lifetime will be harvested after he's gone...WOW!

What's it All About?

Today we spent the day looking for FMCA Rally activities. It turns out that many of the scheduled activities don't happen till tomorrow...I guess it's really a weekend thing.

There is a big section of the fairgrounds that has new coaches on display, so I was nervous when Peter started "shopping." I had a case of deja vu and thought we would come back to Long Island in another new and improved coach. Fortunately he found a little something wrong with each of them, like the countertop or the shower...or the price, so we will be coming home in the Diplomat.
We found The Blue Ribbon Pavilion where they were setting up for a huge "yard" sale of donated items for some children's charities. We scoped out the whole warehouse-sized room to see if there was anything we couldn't live without. Peter found a 10" Calphalon saute/crepe pan that he knew sells for about $85.00 and they were asking $3.50. When he tried to buy it the attendant said that they are not open yet, they are still setting up and we sould come back on Saturday and she even gave him a coupon for $1.00 which he could use on Saturday to get the pan for $2.50. Naturally this was unacceptable to Peter because he is accustomed to getting things when he wants them so he went to another attendant and made her an offer she couldn't refuse, he offered her $5.00 if she would sell it to him right now.
I'm thinking crepes for breakfast tomorrow.

Essex Junction, VT

Peter and I left Long Island at 9:00 AM heading for Essex Junction, Vermont. We drove the coach to Port Jefferson and made it just in time to be the last vehicle on the Ferry to Bridgeport. The first mate Bryan, asked all the usual questions about the coach and posed for us. It was a beautiful day for a ferry ride. We drove north thru Connecticut and Massachusetts into Vermont. Essex Junction is just northeast of Burlington near Lake Champlain.

Vermont is called "The Green Mountain State" for good reason!

The weather was perfect for the drive and the rain didn't start until we were all set up at the campground. We're at a Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally. I'm not really sure what that is but the best I can tell so far is that a bunch of people who own motorcoaches meet for a few days at some location and look at each others coaches and decide if theirs is better than the other guys'. We got here a day early so I'll know better tomorrow when the activities actually get underway what this is really all about. But I'm pretty sure that we have the best coach.

Check back here for details.