Heading in to Fall.

We woke to rain the next morning. I guess that Fall is only about 5 days away but - rain!!
What better to do than to drive.  Even better is to go shopping!!  We did both. We set off quite early - 7.30am, before there was much traffic on the road, not even a school bus. The law is that when a school bus has its red lights flashing, all traffic must stop and wait until the lights stop flashing - in both directions.

The countryside looks quite different when it is raining.  Everything is closed up and forlorn looking. Roadside workers are well rugged up against the weather though they still give us a wave as we pass.
We drive into Westcott Beach State Park but it is closed for the season.  We can't see much anyway except that the trees are definitely changing colour.

We stop at Watertown and spend 2 hours stocking up on food and adding to our bedding supplies as Trevor's sister Coralie is coming to spend some time with us at the end of the month. An umbrella also seemed a good idea.

From Watertown (well named) we headed back up to Lake Ontario taking Highway 37 along the shore where Lake Ontario meets the St Lawrence river. The entrance to that part of the seaway is dotted with numerous little islands ... about 1860 to be fairly exact. The area is called the Thousand Islands Region. We are going to see Boldt Castle on Heart Island at Alexandria Bay. It looks wonderful in the brochures!
But the skies opened up just as we were navigating the narrow streets into Alexandria Bay; there was no where to park the RV and it all seemed a bit too difficult. The rain and fog also limited visibility and I don't think we would have seen a lot on the ferry ride. We decided to continue on.

Of course the rain lightened off not long after, but by that time we were further along the St Lawrence river. The countryside looked quite lovely after the rain. A large freighter was on its way up the St Lawrence river. A pretty spot to stop for lunch.
We planned to cover another approximately 100 miles to either Westville Center or Chateaugay close to the border of New York State with Vermont.

Then we drove through Akwesasne and a Casino!
We drove into the large parking area thinking to just have a look around noticing that there were a number of RV's parked - and hooked up!

 Amish transport.

So we stayed at the casino at Akwesasne! And it was free! Apparently parking at a casino is similar to parking at a Walmart store - free parking, although in the case of the casino, we had power, water and a dump and we were given a total of $25.00 in credits to play with at the casino. We had dinner at the buffet which cost $16.95 each and a glass of wine at $3.50 each. We then played the pokies and won a total of $39.00!  So a fairly inexpensive night out and free accommodation!!!

The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne straddles the intersection of the international (US and Canada) and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) borders on both banks of the St Lawrence River.  Founded in the mid 18 century it was one of the Seven Nations of Canada.  Today it has 12,000 residents and, looking at the housing and businesses in the area it appears to be struggling. But the casino is thriving! A hotel is being built next to the Casino due to open next Spring.

We left the Casino at 8.30 the next morning.  It was a cold morning. My phone says 3 degrees C minimum and 9 by the time we were heading out.

We decided to have breakfast 'up the track'. Probably a bit misguided in this part of the state!  We stopped at Malone mid morning; a small town with narrow hilly streets.  Just what Trevor needs when searching for an espresso coffee! I made a discovery that Dunkin' Donuts serves espresso - OK when desperate. Trevor dropped me at the corner and I walked up to the store.  He disappeared down the road to drive around the block.  I think it was a fairly stressful 5-10 minutes for him while  I was having a chat with the girls in Dunkin' Donuts. The breakfast that I brought back to the RV was not what he needed on top of a stress caused agitated tummy!

We are now driving NE to Vermont.  The sun is out and it is a beautiful morning.  The trees here are turning the most vivid colours. There are a lot of road works happening and we have a few stops while we wait for vehicles coming the other way on one way lanes.
We are crossing above the Adirondack Mountains.  Montreal is 43 miles to the north and we are 3 miles from the Quebec border. The communities we drive through are called villages. Mumford & Sons on the radio station we are listening to!