Boston, Maine, & Canada

Our path through New England & Canada traced on a map.

It’s summer, 1995. I’m working as a research assistant at Villanova University and will join my Sicilian friend, Sergio, for a week in New England & Canada.

Contents

  1. 1. Berwyn, Pennsylvania – Marlborough, Massachusetts
  2. 2. Boston, Massachusetts – Pownal, Maine
  3. 3. Pownal, Maine – Acadia Nat’l Park, Maine
  4. 4. Acadia Nat’l Park, Maine – Campobello Island, New Brunswick
  5. 5. Campobello Island, New Brunswick – St. Jacques, New Brunswick
  6. 6. St. Jacques, New Brunswick – Oka, Québec
  7. 7. Montréal, Québec – Lewey Lake, New York
  8. 8.Lewey Lake, New York – Berwyn, Pennsylvania

Introduction

This trip came very suddenly. On Friday, June 30, I went to school around 3 in the afternoon and Sergio said he was going to go to Boston tomorrow. Dr. Guinan said, “Brian, you should go with him. You two should go together. It would be fun.”

I looked at Sergio and Guinan and said, “I’ve never been to Boston.” Sergio and I talked seriously about what he wanted to do. He was thinking about a week to 10 day trip seeing New England and parts of Canada. That sounded good to me, but I wanted to be sure he did, in fact, want me to tag along.

I said, “If you want to do this alone you would tell me, right?” and he replied, “It’s just the opposite, I don’t want you to feel like you have to come.” So it was final. We began planning for our trip and I called Linda and Tom at about 7 that evening, figuring they would be home from work by then. They seemed enthusiastic, as always, but it’s nice to have that extra reassurance since we were inviting ourselves to their house for a night.

Sergio went home around 8 p.m. and we planned to leave around 10 tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I had already made plans with Dan Griffith to talk with him about my cross-country trip last summer—he was leaving for his trip in a week. So we talked about places to go and things to do as I packed and did laundry. It was hectic because I had to get everything together, do laundry, and sleep before morning. Needless to say, I didn’t get too much sleep, but this never seems to bother me on the first day of a trip. I went to bed around 4:30 a.m. and got up three hours later, ready to see New England.