Tuesday, July 18

We packed Shirley up early and headed out. Our destination today was the Íl d' Orleans, an island in the St Lawrence River about three miles from Quebec City. We're excited to go, it was one of the first areas of the province colonized by the French and it maintains its French heritage. It's supposed to be beautiful. We're bunking at a private campground for four days, which we'll use to explore the both the island and the city. 

The drive took us past Montreal, where I picked up a vintage Marantz turntable I had purchased online. The gent I bought it from had given it to his dad as a gift in 1976. It sat in the same cabinet in his parents house for decades, had been used very little, and is in pristine condition. The late 70's were the salad days for stereo geeks like me and this guy. Sadly, we learned that his dad just passed away last week and his funeral was the following day. It felt odd to be taking such a sentimental item from him on such a day.

We listened to a little cable news on satellite radio to catch up with civilization. Just after we listened to a report on the movie Oppenheimer, news broke that Don Trump had received a target letter from the special counsel. I couldn't help thinking that each of these two periods are momentous periods where much was/is at stake for our republic. WWII and January 6th are two of the three biggest threats our country has faced, the third being the Civil War. I wonder if young people today realize, yet, how momentous these times are. They will in time. We survived the first two periods, fingers crossed for the current one. 

On to more mundane topics, I've been jonesing for a hot dog lately, and we kept passing A&W's. Sure they'd have a chili cheese dog waiting, we pulled into one only to discover they didn't sell them. Tragic. But, you know it's a good day when the lowlight is not getting a hot dog...

We got in to our new hood late afternoon. The site we had was tight, and Shirley ain't small, so it was a tough back in. I love my bride dearly, but one thing we don't do well together is back Shirley up. Kari will admit she has no spatial recognition, and she really struggles to give directions. All couples have those things they do together that are sure to bring angst and snark. Wallpapering was that way for us, we lasted about a half hour the first and last time we tried it a few decades back. Backing up Shirley has become similar, unfortunately we don't have the option of having someone else do it. But we got it done, got things set up, and after a walk around the hood we listened to a little Terrace Martin and cashed in early. The worst part of our drive was over.

Another successful day...