Start of France trip - September 14, 2023

It was hard dropping Virgil off this morning but he got the penthouse suite.  Felt especially bad because there was no Shady to keep him company.  Developed an eye infection, that required antibiotics.  They had sent the prescription to Naples Walgreens.  I got there at 9 sharp only to find out that new hours starting today was opening at 10.  So ended up going back home to take Virgil and leaving straight from there to Portland bus station.  It all worked out, just a bit more stress.  Ate at Legal Seafoods in Logan airport and now sitting in gate area with hour to kill before boarding.

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Saturday, September 16 - Palace of Versailles

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My first draft somehow got deleted due to operator error.  I will attempt another but much briefer.  We walked from the hotel to where we thought the tour group was to meet but spent some time figuring this out.  Our tour guide Momo was quite a character, very engaging and personable. He gave a brief history of the palace and off we went by golf cart to explore the surrounding gardens and fountains.  There were four fountains depicting the four seasons.  Back in the time of the king there were whistle boys whose job was to turn on the fountains right before the king arrived and then run on to do the same for the next one the king would come to.  All the water used in the fountains and such had to come via aqueduct from Paris.  It was all very impressive. We then moved on to the bicycle portion of the tour that explored the outer regions of the palace grounds.  This included Marie Antoinette's getaway compound including her home, extensive gardens ...
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Day 1 of travels to wherever.

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We started out on time.  Stopped by J & D' s on way out.  Shady (and Danielle) had a rough first night.  Can't thank them enough for watching her while we are away.  We made our first travel decision to take the longer but more scenic way to our first overnight location. It was well worth it. Beautiful areas of New York and Pennsylvania.  We arrived at The Promised Land State Park around 5.  Spectacular area, but very crowded camping. It was very interesting to watch the various large groups set up camp around us.  The group across from us was especially interesting to watch as there were too many supervisors and not enough workers.  Add to this it looked like they had never set up the tents before this and they didn't get to their evening meal until almost dark.  More conversation ensued on getting their tab...
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