Every now and then, life serves up an unexpected adventure. Driving from Maine to Vermont, as a stop on our way to Ft. Drum, provided one such circumstance: US Highway 2. One would think that a major U.S. east-west highway would be relatively easy traveling. And it would be, if it were paved, which it wasn’t. Seriously, 28 miles of dirt, rocky, rutted, narrow cart path, supposedly “under construction,” but feeling more like a water buffalo trail through outer Mongolia. Your tax dollars at work. Anyway … where was I? … oh, yeah … traveling towards Ft. Drum.

We made a quick overnight stop to see Wendy’s “ancestral estate” at Lake Placid, where she and the family would go as kids, and is actually an important enough historical site that it is featured in the guided tour of the lake!

“Gull Rock Camp” was originally built in 1902 with separate cabins erected for the different purposes. Wendy’s great-grandfather, Carle Cotter Conway, bought the “camp” in 1922 and had a seven-room structure added on to the site in 1926. What he was most famous for, though, was his love of very fast, very noisy speedboats. He sold the camp in 1959 and it’s currently owned by the heiress to the Calphalon cookware fortune. I married Wendy based on her assurance that this estate came with the deal. Not exactly. Hmmm…

Eventually, we made it to our campground near Henderson Bay, right on Lake Ontario. Son #2 was still on a training mission, so we spent the first few days hanging around with his family.

When the kids started school, we had a day off so it was off to visit 1000 Islands National Park in Canada.

Here’s something that’s weird… (Or, as they say in Canada, “J’ai un œuf dans le nez…”) (Or something like that … my French is a little rusty.) The rocky terrain of the 1000 Islands region, known as the “Frontenac Arch,” is the remnant of a huge mountain range of the ancient continent Pangea (except it’s now called Rodinia because, um, I forget) and consists of rocks that are 1.2 billion (!) years old, making them plus-or-minus the same age as the rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon! And because of its weird geology in the middle of an otherwise normal landscape, the area houses all sorts of plants and animals that aren’t even supposed to live there. We were only there for a few hours, but this would definitely be the sort of place to attend a ranger talk from someone who actually knows what he’s talking about.

Son #2 eventually showed up, so we got to spend a few days catching up. And, since he’d been gone for a while, we were able to babysit the boys, allowing for a spousal night out on the town…

And then it was time for a 3-day drive back to Atlanta, followed shortly thereafter by delivering ACE to its new owner. And the end of one epoch in our RV lifestyle, to be followed by another. More to follow …