Week 27 Final Week

Monday, September 30, 2002

This morning I called the Boucherville Tourist Office to see what I could find out about a distant ancestor of mine, Pierre Boucher. The lady that I talked with was very excited to hear from me. She said that she would meet me in front of a church in Boucherville at 1:30. She made an appointment with Jacques Dunant, a descendant of Pierre Boucher who lives in Boucherville. She said that we would meet with him at 2:30. We went to his house and had a very enjoyable conversation. He gave me a lot of information that I didn’t have. In return I gave him much of the data that I had. The two of them then told me much about the town of Boucherville and where to find many of the points of interest.

Pierre Boucher married Jeanne Crevier on July 9, 1652 in Quebec City. They had a daughter, Marie, born in 1655. She married Rene Gaultier in 1667 and they had a daughter, Madeline, born in 1674. She married Charles Petit in 1694 and they had a son, Pierre in 1699. Pierre migrated to New Orleans where he married Francoise Gallard in 1730. They had a daughter, also named Francoise, born in 1732. She married Vincent Guillaume in 1749 and they had a daughter, Marie Louise, born in 1750. At the tender age of 20, in 1770, Marie Louise married Francisco Bouligny. They had a son Charles in 1773, who married Anna Arthemise LeBlanc in 1803. They had a son, Dominique in 1815, who married Anne Celestine Conway in 1851. They had a son, Edgar, born in 1853, who married Lucie Delery in 1878. They had a son Andre, in 1878, who married Marie deAlminano. They had a son, Edwin, who was my father born in 1903. Therefore, this Pierre Boucher & his wife Jeanne Crevier, who founded the town of Boucherville, Quebec are my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents.

Tuesday, October 1, 2002

Today I went back into Montreal, although this time I did it a little different. I parked the princess in the suburb of LaSalle and took the Metro. The first place I went was to the Olympic Stadium, home of the Montreal Expos and the Olympic village from the 1967 Olympics. I took an elevator to the top of the 570 foot tower that serves as the crane that lifts the roof of the stadium when they have open air games. The tower provided a spectacular view of the city. After leaving the tower, I took the Metro back into the center city and walked the labyrinth of underground corridors that lead from one shopping area to another. You can walk all over downtown Montreal without coming out of the ground. I was so fascinated with the underground and the train station and offices and stores that I lost track of time. I came out of the ground in the middle of rush hour. I went over to old town Montreal and went through Notre Dame Cathedral and the ole market place and walked around the park areas. After walking for, I don’t know how many blocks, I took the subway back to LaSalle and headed back to the campground.

Wednesday, October 2, 2002

I left the campground this morning rather early. I crossed the border for the 12^th time. The border guard was more interested in my motorhome than who I was. She was very nice. It helped that I did not cross on I-87, the major access route, but rather I crossed at route 11 and I was the only one at the crossing at the time. I filled up with gas in Champlain and headed South on I-87. My plan was to go to the town of Leeds, New York, in the Catskill Mountains. I arrived there around 5:00, checked in to the Indian Ridge campground, and then drove into the town of Catskill. I was surprised to find it to be a run down depressed town. I was looking for a grocery store, but could not find one that I wanted to shop at. I finally found a restaurant called the Log House, where I did get a nice dinner.

Thursday, October 3, 2002

Nothing but driving today! I got back on I-87 and headed to the intersection with I-84, West on I-84 to Scranton, Pennsylvania, then South on I-81. Tonight’s stop, according to the original plan is at a KOA campground near the intersection of I-80 & I-81 in Hazelton, PA. Even though it rained most of the day, it was still a pleasant drive.

This is my last night on the road. My six month odyssey is almost over.

Friday, October 4, 2002

The Final Day

I left Hazelton KOA this morning and within minutes; I was southbound on I-81 into dense fog. The fog was with me for a couple of hours until I got to Harrisburg, when it started to clear. I continued on I-83 south of Harrisburg, through York, PA and stopped at the Pennsylvania/Maryland state line. I pulled into the local Wal-Mart and had lunch. Then I called home and told Judy that I should be home around 3:30. I continued on my way until I hit the Baltimore Beltway. There I ran into the worse traffic jam of the entire trip. It took more than an hour to go from I-83 to I-70 a distance of about 15 miles. Once on I-70 I was rolling again for the last legs home. I stopped in Ellicott City and filled up with gas, then drove the familiar last 5 miles and pulled up in front of the house on Snowman Court at 4:30.

Epilogue:

Since I saw my first motorhome back in the 60’s, it has always been my dream to own one and take a trip like this. I was gone for 187 days: drove through 25 states and 4 Canadian Provinces plus one Canadian Territory. I drove a grand total of 19,014 miles, on 2116 gallons of gas. Overall I got 8.98 miles per gallon. Total gasoline cost was $3,284. Cost of gasoline ranged from a low of $1.26 in Mason City, Iowa to a high of $2.11 in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. (This was actually 217.9 liters @ 84.9 cents per liter which came to 185 Canadian dollars which converted to $121.31 on my credit card.) Overall average price of gas was $1.55 per gallon. Propane gas, which is used for heat, cooking and hot water, totaled $210. Campground costs totaled $4,964. Tolls totaled $1,999. And finally Coca-Cola costs were $299.