Quebec City, Fall Colors and Friends

On Sunday September 27th we had a short drove to our next campground in the small town of Lévis on the south side of the St Lawrence river. After a taxi ride and a 10 minute ferry ride across the river we arrived in Old Québec City. We had a great afternoon exploring the city which has some great architecture and food; definitely the French influence we saw throughout the province. To celebrate our last night in Canada we had a fabulous meal at Bistro Hortus, before wandering back through the lower streets enjoying the early evening. It started to get very windy and chilly so we jumped back on the ferry and headed home to the cats.  

The next day we continued south through Québec, heading for the US border in Vermont. After turning off the Trans Canada highway we starting seeing some spectacular fall colors and exploring down a dirt road we found a great spot for photography and lunch. We had an easy border crossing, including a pleasant chat with the border guard who was either genuinely interested in how we met or checking us for immigration fraud. Thankfully that morning we had remembered to clean out the fridge of prohibited items so could quickly say "No bananas, avocados or apples, remaining eggs have been hard boiled and no raw meat items.". Sara pulled out the cats vaccination records but we only needed to answer "Are they healthy?".  After 6,700 miles and 77 days of traveling we were back in the US!

We spent the night at a campground in Vermont and the next day (Tuesday Sept 29th) enjoyed a bike ride through the beautiful fall colors on the Lamoille Valley Bike Trail. The cats loved the campsite which was close to the trail and had a lovely pond to explore. We spent the next two nights in New Hampshire on the shore of Mascoma Lake, enjoying a ride on the Northern Rail trail. The nights were starting to get chilly and we often woke up to find Rocket had crawled into bed with us to keep warm. 

We were slowly heading south and on Thursday October 1st drove west through Vermont to a great HipCamp location in New York state. HipCamp enables people to rent out camping locations on their private land so they are typically unique and quiet. We found a great spot with no other people, a pretty pond and plenty of space for the cats to explore. Zeke in particular was getting irritable about being in the RV and had started to sit in the small bathroom just to get some peace and quiet. He knows how to open the door, which didn't work so well when he accidently locked the bathroom door from the inside and caused a bit of a panic until we worked out how to unlock it from outside. Rocket indicates his desire to come out of the bathroom by slowly pulling the mat under the door. In the process of taking a video of the cats, Zeke left without a leash and immediately caught a mouse which he absolutely refused to give up. Never a dull moment!

We spent another lovely night in Pennsylvania with Robin and Vinnie on Saturday October 3rd. It was great to see them again. We also took advantage again of Vinnie's assistance and installed a new door handle assembly on the RV which had broken while we were in New Hampshire. Initially we couldn't open the side door at all, until John removed the broken part. Then we had to use either the key to open and close the door, or a handy axe if we were going to be in and out for a few hours. Great customer service from the manufacturer who shipped the new assembly to Robin's house ready for our arrival. 

On Monday October 5th we were in Virginia and had a wonderful afternoon with Sara's great friends Jo and Paul; so wonderful the timing worked to see them! We stayed with Manley Butler in Roanoke, Virginia for the next three days and John enjoyed catching up with his skydiving friend of many years. Manley learned to skydive at John's drop zone and went on to create a highly successful parachute company - Butler Parachute Systems. We left Manley's on Thursday and on the way out of Virginia stopped at Dublin Airport to reminisce at the location of John's skydiving drop zone from the 1970's. We had a great afternoon bike ride on the New River Valley Trail before continuing south to North Carolina for the night. 

Our next stop was Conway, South Carolina, where we had three fun days catching up with Dr Bob, a skydiving friend who shared a house during John's last year at the Citadel. We enjoyed catching up and discussing Dr Bob's impressive 50 years as a psychiatrist and his time helping veterans at the VA. 

Monday October 12th we drove a few hours from Conway to Mt Pleasant, South Carolina which is just outside Charleston. This was the base for the college reunion of N Company - John's company at the Citadel. Official reunions stop after 50 years, but this group is very close and hold their own get together every year. We had a wonderful three days with everyone, enjoying great food and lots of laughter. 

Our great friends Lee and Susan who live in Colorado are originally from South Caroline and they were also in the area visiting family. On Friday October 16th we met them for lunch at the historic Windjammer, a live music beach bar on Isle of Palms. John, Lee and Dr Bob used to hang out at this bar 50 years ago! We had a fun afternoon chatting with Lee and Susan before finally starting our trip home. 

That night we stayed at another HipCamp location north of Charleston. Amusingly there were a lot of chickens which fascinated the cats and Flash who is normally pretty calm went into hunting mode almost caught one. It was a relaxing evening before the big push to get back to Texas. We finally arrived home on Monday October 19th after 9,346 miles, 99 days, 19 US states and five Canadian provinces. Another fabulous trip with many wonderful new places visited and time spent with old friends, nothing could have been better!

Click here for the photos and videos

Click here for the Reunion Photos