College

From Madawaska friend, Steve Young: “He ended up at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington and majored in French literature. Dennis was living in Bellingham and I was in Nova Scotia, so I wrote Dennis about moving to the West and Dennis set me up with a place to stay where my job, in return for room and board, was feeding horses on a ranch. Dennis did that before me.

“Dennis was living with Nancy at that time and met her in Washington. When Dennis was in Washington, he had a business mowing lawns and huge list of clients. They were thrilled to have him. While I was in Washington, I did some lawn work for him. When leaving Washington to return to Maine, Dennis sold the business to someone else (Basically a list of customers).

“Dennis liked bicycling and bicycle touring of British Columbia. One time, I spent some part of the summer of 1982 in British Columbia in a tent. Nancy and Dennis and Nancy’s sister, Becky, drove up to B.C. and visited with me. I was picking apples and pears in the Okanagan Valley, between coast and Rockies.” (All paragraphs above from telephone interview with Steve, February 2003)

“Toured throughout the North West in the summer of 1980 – Washington, Oregon, British Columbia. Great time!” (Letter from Dennis Dechaine, 22 February 2003)