Anticipating a late evening out we opted for a moderate ride to Carsac with a bikeway extension. We passed on the section to Sarlat to avoid the weekend walkers and riders. The remaining sections were enough to get in 25+ miles and modest amount of climbing.
CAUTION - Fast Descent
Our evening activity was at Ed & Mel's place in Bouzic for a gourmet "very French" wine and charcuterie. When we arrived the table in their newly refurbished outdoor kitchen/dining area was filled from end to end with all the usual suspects including homemade quiche, assorted meats, cheeses, olives, etc. More than enough for a complete dinner but accompanied with Ed's Gazpacho (cold Mexican tomato soup) with tomatoes fresh from their garden. We started with a bottle of Ackerman (bubbly we brought) followed by some excellent reds which everyone else enjoyed.
The original invitation was extended to Darlene and Shaun so they could have a more formal meeting. However, Darlene was traveling and Shaun cancelled after an exhausting day. Ed invited a recent addition to his friend group who recently moved to France from the Denver area. A small coincidence but a fraction of what came next.
Craig, the new arrival to the Dordogne, was a solo due to his wife's travels for work and pleasure. Now for the grand daddy of all "small world" stories. It turns out that Craig was born in 1968 and his family moved out the New York area to a small town in the Catskills called Woodstock. Yes, that Woodstock of 1969 festival fame which was actually held in Bethel, New York when the town fathers decided that tens of thousands of scantily clad hippies was not a good look provoking the last minute change of venue.
Turns out that our married life took us to Kingston, New York, a short drive from Woodstock, when I was working for IBM. At that time Kim was enrolled at SUNY New Paltz trying to finish her degree in elementary education. In addition to her on campus courses she needed to fulfill her student teaching requirements (1975).
Since Woodstock was closer than New Paltz she was assigned to the Woodstock elementary school. At that time Craig Miller was attending the same neighborhood school. It was impossible to determine if Craig was a student in one of Kim's classes (she does not remember the name of the teacher she was teaching for).
We have experienced many coincidences in our married lives but this may be deserving the "grand daddy" award. We exchanged recollections of the area even though we are a generation apart before moving on to other subjects.
Craig and his wife made the move about a year ago after considering the option years before. Of the various people we have met here they are the first "political refugees" we encountered. We hope to meet the missus once she returns as they live only a 30 minute drive away.
It was a lovely evening which hopefully we can repeat before the end of our stay.
Clockwise: Alan, Craig, Kim, Ed, Mel
BTW: As we were driving up the access road and drive to our place we followed the car in front into the parking area. It was our downstairs neighbors who we exchanged "Hi" but not actually met. We had a brief exchange in English in which we were able to determine that they were from "Moldova". It was a first since we have never met anyone from that Balkans - although it is not technically a Balkan country its close cultural connection with Romania puts it within the Balkan region.
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