"Parting is such sweet sorrow".....Shakespeare

Goodbyes were said last night and repeated this morning with coffee. We were all together as a group every day of the tour.  We ate together, shopped together, visited museums and historic places, went on boat trips and side trips together, and joked and laughed with one another.  Carol Ann and I started the trip knowing only four people (from our Mexico tour last year) out of the 44 in the group.  By last night and this morning it was tough to say goodbye after spending the last 48 days together.  It seemed like I had known them much longer than 48 days.  Carol Ann and I both hope to see all of them somewhere down the road.  But like I said last night, let’s not start getting sappy and singing Kumbaya!

We pulled out of the KOA this morning by 10:00 to drive almost 300 miles to Houlton, ME, just across the Canadian/USA border.  The drive was long and boring and we didn’t arrive at My Brother’s Place (the RV park) until 4:40PM.  But we stopped for almost an hour to eat lunch and then we had to wait in line for half an hour to get through US Customs at the border.  Once we made it to the front of the line it only took a few minutes.  They didn’t search or even look inside the coach or the car but the agent did ask a lot of questions after I handed him our passports.  These are the ones I can remember:

Do you own the motorhome?  (Yes)

Is it registered in your name?  (Yes)

What is the tag number?  (xxx - xx )

Is it a personalized tag?  (Yes)

Do you have any alcohol on board?  (Yes, here is my receipt from the duty free store)

Are you carrying more than $10,000 in cash or negotiable certificates?  (No, but we did leave $10,000 at a CAT repair shop in Newfoundland)

Do you have any weapons on board?  (No)

Do you have any fruit?   (Yes.  Two apples and two plums.  We just ate our last two bananas)

Any citrus fruit?  (No)

Do you have any pets?  (Yes, cats)

How many?  (3)

Are their health certificates up to date?  (Yes)

Do you allow them to run loose in the coach or do you keep them secured?  (They run loose and are probably hiding right now)

What is your profession?  (Retired pharmacist)

What is your wife’s profession?  (Retired pharmacist)

Both of you are retired pharmacists?  (Yes)

How long were you in Canada?  (48 days)

Did you buy anything while in Canada?  (Yes)

What did you spend money on?  (Most of our money was spent on fuel and food.  But we did buy some souvenirs and T-shirts plus a ring and...here is a list my wife made)

Is that all you bought?  (Yes)

Have a good day.

We pulled into the RV park and found four other RVs from our group – Richard and Mary, Charles and Karma, Dottie and Thursa, and Candi and Alice.  We haven’t had a chance to get together because it has been storming off and on since we got here.

We will leave in the morning and plan on going through northern Vermont (Stowe and Burlington) to Saranac Lake, NY in the Adirondack Mountains and then on to Niagara Falls.  We will then go through Wheeling, WV; Cincinnati, OH; Louisville, KY; Nashville, TN; Memphis, TN; Little Rock, AR; and finally, Nacogdoches, TX.  The route will be a little over 2,200 miles from Houlton, ME, where we are now.  We will probably take at least two weeks to get home.