October 10th

Wednesday (the 8^th) found us on the road traveling to Baxter State park in Maine.  If wasn’t exactly planned that way we just decided to do it.  The ride and the weather were beautiful.  We pulled in to Baxter and while we were registering at the gate it started to rain and then lightning and then thunder.  It rained so hard….15 minutes later the sun was out.  We got a site with a lean-to on it.  Strange thing was that you had to drive a smidgen on the AT.  It just didn’t feel right.  We had a nice site next to the river, a nice campfire and  good weather.  Met a hiker, B-man who told us he was planning on proposing to his girlfriend on Mt Katatin on Friday.  How sweet.  He appeared to be about 55.  I’m sure he was younger than he looked.  We found out later that his girlfriend was about 25.  Ah, trail love!

Baxter was beautiful!!   The colors were so vivid, bright.  We were in the trees not just looking at them.  I couldn’t stop taking pictures.  We did a little hiking then slept well in the van.  It was all good. 

After we left Baxter we headed to Monson.  Jerry hoped to hear loons on the lake there.  We ended up staying at Shaw’s, a well known hostle on the AT.  We slept in the van but had use of their bathroom.  That is always a plus.  No loon sounds but Jerry id run in to BlueBerry Bear, someone he hiked with in GA back in March.  The three of us ate supper together and then stayed a little listening to music and ‘open mic night’.  It was all good.

We met blueberry again for breakfast and then said our goodbyes.  BlueBerry is from Lexington so our paths may cross again.

Friday we headed up to Canada.  No real destination in mind except perhaps Niagara Falls on our way back in to the states.  Crossing the border was interesting.  We were told to pull over and two border patrol guys searched our van.  We had to move away from it while they did it.  They spend about 15 minutes and seemed to look everywhere.  That was an interesting feeling.  The van was a mess  but they left everything as they found it.  We ended up in Quebec .  In the afternoon we took a ferry to Old Quebec.  There’s a lot of history there that we need to check out We walked a bit and Jerry had a beer.  We took the ferry back a short time later.  

We are in a motel once again.  It is Cold out.  The leaves seem to have left their homes in the trees.  We’re feeling that it is about time for us to head south back to KY, family and friends.