This is Day 1 of our 57-Day Gaspe and Atlantic Provinces RV caravan trip. Day 1 of 57 days. What have we gotten ourselves into? And, a foreign country, too? My, my, my. But today is okay. It’s eating and orientation. At least doing one favorite thing. Tomorrow is when the action begins: 220 miles to Quebec City.

We are in Bangor, ME, and we actually have been here since this past Tuesday. We were the third RV of our caravan to arrive in the campground. Part of the reason for coming early was to spend some time visiting with friends, Bobbie and Ken, who live in the Bangor area. Bobbie and Ken are fellow volunteers who we first met at Padre Island National Seashore in 2012 and who taught us all we know about shore birds. We also then saw them again at Santee NWR in SC last year, and they will be with us part of the time when we volunteer at another NWR again in SC this fall.

It’s nice to have local guides. We spent a day exploring Acadia National Park.

Getting to Acadia allowed us to explore Bar Harbor and meet their daughter and son-in-law who live and work there. Honest, that’s Bar Harbor down there on the water, and in some aspects, this is a much quieter and sane way to enjoy Bar Harbor than being down on the streets.

We were taken on an at least a 50-cent tour of Bangor with one of the stops being Paul Bunyan. Of course we had to gently break it to our hosts that Paul Bunyan just did a quick vacation in Maine to see the ocean; otherwise, PB was born and raised in MN.

We have covered a lot of territory since the last post when we were still at the Fish Hatchery in KY.

We managed to hike the Appalachian Trail while visiting the A’s (volunteer friends) in TN. Great Smokey Mountains National Park was a tough climb…

There was a good-by luncheon for us. We always leave with mixed feelings. Glad to be going to a new adventure but sorry to leave behind the familiar and more importantly the people we have come to know.

Our first stop as we traveled north was the KY Horse Park in Lexington. A day can easily be spent at the museum and grounds at which time I guarantee you’ll be horsed-out.

We visited Appomattox Courthouse (and Booker T. Washington home place) in VA and visited the private residence where Lee formally surrendered to Grant. We toured the courthouse, too, and learned that nothing happened at the courthouse. Appomattox Courthouse was the name of the community where the surrender happened; the surrender did not happen at the courthouse.

We were able to spend Fourth of July weekend with my brother and sister-in-law in the Bethlehem, PA area. On the 4^th, we enjoyed watching the world cup soccer match (Brazil vs. Columbia with a very partisan Columbian crowd), a concert of American music played by the Allentown Community Band which is the oldest citizen band in the United States (started and continuously run from 1824 or 1829 depending on who tells the story), and then watched awesome fireworks. This was all on the grounds of the former Bethlehem Steel Company which is now an arts venue and casino location. The blast furnace is still standing, and it is seen in the background.

And finally, it was onto Maine to rendezvous with our caravan to get psyched up for our big Canadian adventure. Before we set out on our trip, we learned proper lobster eating protocol from Bobbie and Ken.

I will try to keep the blog up to date to satisfy my 3 faithful readers and Tom B., the blogosphere policeman. More later from a foreign country.