Internationally challenged

A bronze cast of a French settler on the banks of the St. Croix River welcomes you to the early settlement.

Vital information for travelers: When you use Verizon's Mi-Fi modem (as do we) there's a green light on the device. When that device switches to blue, however, its a signal that you are connected to an international cell signal. Well that will never happen while you are traveling in the U.S., of course, you say. But that would be wrong!

While we were west of Machias, Maine, (many miles from the Canadian border) and after we moved to Calais, Maine, the light was blue. We, of course, had no idea of the meaning of the blue light special. What it means, we learned, is we were hooked up to Canadian cell service because the cell service in Canada is much more powerful than in the U.S. because of fewer regulations. During those three days we uploaded and downloaded 33 megabytes of information for which Verizon wished to charge us $60.

We received an email from Verizon which informed us of our usage of Canadian cell towers. I called them to challenge this and the best they were willing to do was provide me with 50 megabytes of data for an additional charge of $30 for one month. They were totally unwilling to remove the charges.

We are currently in a delightful, hidden campground east of the village of Penobsquit in New Brunswick. The campground is owned by a couple from Newfoundland. They are hard-working and very friendly. But they have no wi-fi here. When we pulled up to the office, there was a note on the door: “We are out and about. Please call us on the walkie-talkie that is hanging from the door knob. The woman arrived after I called. She was bubbly and welcoming. When we told her we are on our way to Newfoundland she exploded with enthusiasm. She and her husband had come from there seven years ago. She was full of information – particularly when we told her we would be on the island for about a month.

On Sunday, we had driven to the very eastern edge of Maine, just south of Calais. Just to the east, in the middle of the St. Croix River which separates the modern U.S. and Canada, is the island of St. Croix, first settled in April 1604 by French folks aboard the Bonne Renomee. The ship was led by Samuel Champlain, one impressive exploring captain. He dropped off the settlers on the island and they began the task of setting up shop, trading with the local Passamaquoddy Indians for furs. There's a U.S. National Historic Site to mark the event.

Their leader chose the island but failed to understand the importance of fresh water, of which there was none on the island. Water had to be brought over from the mainland. The natives were friendly, visiting the island to fish for alewives and shellfish. Everyone seemed to get along well, the French trading hatchets, beads, rosaries, and tobacco for the furs they trapped.

Acadia, as the settlers called their new land, was on the same latitude as their native France so the visitors assumed the climate would be similar. Wrong. They soon discovered they were quite unprepared for the severity of a harsh North American winter. In addition they came down with scurvy and almost half their number died.

In the following spring, they decided to leave the island, deciding that water is actually pretty important to survival.. Champlain moved them as far south as Cape Cod in Massachusetts. But the settlers found nothing they liked. They returned to St. Croix, dismantled their houses and moved them to the mainland of Nova Scotia at Port Royal.

Jo and I drove up to Calais to scout the town. Sunday is a pretty quiet day in this little town and the only place we found open was a museum that was a dreary little place – clearly a piece of federal pork that Sen. Susan Collins managed to bring to the community. There were great, empty rooms with very little history visible. The only thing that worked was a tidal pool with all manner of sea creatures – starfish, urchins, snails and slugs. It's a perfect example of congressional funding that is a total waste of taxpayer money because the funding starts something but there is no funding available to fill the space with useful material.