Monday 27 November 2023--There is a seasonal ferry that runs from the south side of Wolfe Island to Cape Vincent, New York. It took me some time in planning to determine that it shut down in October. Going that way would have saved me an hour going home. Instead, I am taking the ferry back to Kingston, and crossing the border on the Thousand Islands bridges again.

I head for the dock at 8:00, figuring that the 8:30 run will be the busiest of the morning. And so it is: there's a long queue already waiting. I fall in behind a large dairy tanker and watch as several small school buses drop off students. There are commuters being dropped off by their spouses, or parking their own cars to board on foot. The Wolfe Islander III arrives, and as it fills, I think I'm not going to get on. Indeed, the tanker in front of me is stopped, but I'm waved around, and the car behind me, as well, the last two vehicles to board. The tanker and everyone else behind will have to wait another hour to cross, and some indeterminate time for the Wolfe Islander IV to go into service. The new electric ferry has 50% greater capacity, but the need for charging time means it will likely run every 90 minutes instead of hourly. The original plan to run the III and IV in tandem has now been shelved, apparently because of labor shortages. It appears, then, that the anticipated increase in capacity is no increase at all.

And now I retrace my route home, along route 2 to Gananoque (where I stop at the Metro to buy more Stoned Wheat Thins), along the Thousand Islands Parkway, over the bridges, to the same gas station outside Alexandria Bay, where I fill up. Run into a lake effect snow squall somewhere east of Watertown. I remember my dad telling me that nearby Fort Drum was the most dismal place he was ever stationed, perpetually cold and gray. On I go, nonstop, aside from being pulled over for doing 75 in a 55 zone on route 12. I get off with a warning.

At Canajoharie, along the New York Thruway, I see the last of the old Beech-Nut plant being demolished. My Uncle Dave was a chemist there for decades, and my four cousins grew up here. They live in four different states now. I live in the house I grew up in, not what I had planned when I was young, but there you go. I arrive shortly after dark, and prepare to hibernate for the winter.