home again

We are back safe and sound in Victoria having travelled all those miles without incident and I don't think we lost anything along the way. Ron says we travelled 15,000 km.

We saw some very interesting places and we met some very interesting people as well as all our friends and family along the way.

It is good to be home and reconnecting with friends and family here.

moses lake to chilliwack

We awoke to yet another day of sunshine but cooler temps—70 degrees and no humidity. It was a perfect day to head for the mountains again. We travelled through dessert like land west and then north in Washington towards the Cascade Mountains. En route we were fortunate to find some roadside stands that had the last of the rainier cherries and even some yummy looking local honey. As we approached the Cascades we travelled thru the town of Wenatchee, the largest producer of apples in the country. We were just a little too early for the apple harvest but did find some pears freshly picked. Our first stop was in Leavenworth. Leavenworth is in the narrow Icicle Valley with the Cascade Mountains as background. It was originally was called Icicle, from the American Indian work “nasikelt” or “narrow-bottom canyon”. In the mid 1800’s the gold rush brought an influx of people to the valley followed by the railroad in 1892. The townsite of Leavenworth was established and named for Captain Charles Leavenworth, president of the Okanagan Investment Company. Leavenworth became railway central with connections to the west and to the east. The logging industry took hold and the town thrived until 1925 when the railway relocated its HQ to Wenatchee. The loss of the tracks and the subsequent loss of shipping ease meant a decline in the industry and population. It took until 1965 before the town gathered and decided to “go alpine” and officially commit to a Bavarian theme. Today Leavenworth is like a typical Bavarian village with beautiful geraniums in window boxes, buildings decorated with ornate woodwork and Bavarian motifs, restaurants that feature German and American food and a huge variety of shops with local crafts and European imports. We found a shaded walk around a tiny island in the Icicle River so were able to wear off our schnitzel. We continued along the 100 mile drive thru the Cascade mountains thru Steven’s Pass and on down into North Seattle. We did make a stop at one of the Outlet Malls to satisfy my shopping needs then headed north to the border. We were again fortunate to get thru with minimal wait and then drove east to Chilliwack where we were greeted by Jennie and Chinelo. We started our vacation with them and it is fitting that we finished at their home. It was a wonderful welcome and a good night’s sleep.
We were up early and headed for the ferry to Victoria—and then on to home.

kalispell to moses lake washington

The Grand Hotel in Kalispell sent us on our way this morning with a delicious breakfast—the best of the continental breakfasts we’ve had so far on the trip. It was a driving day today as we travelled through Montana to Idaho and then into Washington State. We were in the Kootenai (the American spelling) and Purcell Mountains as we drove north. The smoke from the fires was with us pretty much to the Idaho border and we were certainly happy to leave it behind. We spoke with the flag person when we were stopped for road construction and she said that it is the norm in Montana in the summer to have fires—it is so dry and if they do get rain it is usually a thunder storm with lightning. We found there were some nice small towns north of Kalispell where there were very nice looking little motels—Libby and Troy.

We travelled to the resort town of Sandpoint which is on Lake Pend Oreille—a busy and thriving little town in Idaho. It is a year round resort town and artists’ community as well as being one of the American west’s great railroad towns. The guide tells us that more than 40 trains a day pass thru Sandpoint. Our neighbours Tom and Heather had told us of this town and the lake so we decided to give it a look when we were so close. We found a delightful cafe for lunch and also a bakery for our coffee and dessert. I did goof in this town as I read after the fact that Coldwater Creek has it’s flagship store there—I don’t know how I missed it.

We drove south from Sandpoint and joined the Interstate through Spokane and stopped at a little town a little further west. We are settled for the night in Moses Lake—the town and the Lake take their name from Chief Moses who was said to be a an influential American Indian leader. We enjoyed a walk along the lake before calling it a day. Ron talked to some men who were fishing on the dock to see what they were after—perch or anything that would bite was the answer. The day ended with another perfect sunset.

great falls to kalispell montana

We decided that we had better get a very early start today as the waitress last night told us it would take 4 hours to drive to Glacier National Park and then 4 hours to travel across the road to the sun if we stopped at the places we ought to stop. She was pretty close to the mark (it took us 3 hours to get to the entrance to the park). We travelled from Great Falls up to St. Mary along hwy. 89 through the last of the Montana Plains. It was interesting to see the change in the landscape as we drove along—on the one side we could see for miles on the wide open prairie and looking out the other side we had the mountains and the evergreens. At St. Mary we entered the park and drove for 50 miles along the going-to-the-sun road. This was a beautiful drive through the heart of the Glacier National Park and up the steep slopes of the Continental Divide and over Logan Pass (6,646 feet). We were happy that we were driving from the east to the west as we hugged the mountain side and not the steep drop-off. We found a pretty spot to sit and enjoy our lunch at a little creek surrounded by wildflowers. The road is narrow and in some places they are doing repairs to areas that have been damaged by rockslides, severe weather and heavy traffic. It took us a good three hours to traverse this road and stop to walk or look at the scenery—by the time we reached the bottom we were in scenery overload from all the glacier carved peaks, deep blue lakes and lush forests. We took numerous photos that do not begin to do justice to this spectacular scenery. Again we were most fortunate with the weather and the smoke from the fires was not evident in the park—we are seeing some tonight in the village of Kalispell. Kalispell is in the Flathead Valley between the Swan and Kootenai ranges of the Rocky mountains. It is noted for the production of sweet cherries and huckleberries—we found some cherries along the way and also some huckleberries. We bought the cherries and had every intention of having some huckleberry sourcream pie for dinner tonight but we were just too full—these American dinners are meant for two. We found a historic hotel in downtown Kalispell that has been recently restored. In 1912 the hotel charged travellers $2.00 per night—not so now but it is a lovely location right downtown with interesting stores and good food nearby—cookies and tea in the lobby so Mr. Ron is a happy camper. The sunsets are interesting in this area right now as they are seen thru the smoke haze. We have missed the worst of the smoke all along this time in Montana—we will leave the state tomorrow and likely get to Washington and closer to home.

billings to great falls montana

We had a later start today as Ron was able to find a HONDA dealer to service the van—no problems just an oil change and check up. We followed the Interstate west through more of Montana’s great plains heading towards the mountains. This is fertile land with many of the farms in the valley right at the edge of the mountains. The forest fires near here have created a lot of haze and smoke so there were times when we could not see the mountains or just saw an outline of them. We were looking at the Rockies but certainly it looks very different from the Rockies as we know them in Canada. It is very dry here and a lot of scrub land—it is not hard to figure out where they are doing irrigation. We noticed a sign for a woollen mill at the exit we were taking for our lunch break so found it and had a look. There was a huge inventory of Woolrich garments but somehow the quality was not as good as the mills we had visited in Bemidji MN and Johnson VT—we did not find anything to buy—could be the heat was a factor. We found an interesting place for lunch—a place called the Garage and that is just what it was, an old garage. They made just the best soup—clam chowder and tomato basil—yum. Once back on the road we turned north and headed for the capital of Montana, Helena, but did not stop as we had decided to make our destination Great Falls for the night. We were able to find another in the chain of hospital motels so are happily settled and ready to explore. Great Falls is located on the Missouri River among the five falls that were one of the most challenging but beautiful parts of Lewis and Clarke’s historic journey. We did take time for a very quick look at the Lewis and Clarke National Historic Trail Interpretive Center (they were closing) which did outline their time spent in Montana which had to be an onerous task given the terrain and all the falls in the river. We did find two of the five falls along the River’s edge trail where we had our daily walk. The Missouri is a mighty river too. We finally found our baby back ribs and had a feast for our dinner tonight.

hill city to billings montana

Our campsite owners provided a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, homefries, onions and biscuits with gravy along with coffee and juice all served at picnic tables in a cabin. It was a huge undertaking as the biker community ate early and lots. It was a great start to our day. We headed out to travel thru the black hills and were again accompanied by numerous motorcycles. The Black Hills are described as an island of mountains in a sea of prairies—the hills are the highest point east of the Rockies and are pine covered mountains. We followed highway 385 up to Deadwood, then thru Lead to Spearfish via the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. Deadwood was the site of the last big frontier gold rush in North America—both Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane lived and died there. Deadwood is still a gaming town so we thought we would park the car, roam the main street and maybe even try our luck at some of the slots but even at 9am the place was alive and full—no room to move or park so we just turned the car around and headed for the highway and the beautiful drive thru the mountains along the Spearfish Creek which runs north for some strange reason. As we proceeded further to the west we lost site of the motorcycles and once into Wyoming there were very few to be seen on the road.

We travelled in the northeast part of Wyoming—it is between the Black Hills on the east and the Big Horn Mountains on the west. It was hot but not humid and very windy—someone said it was always windy in Wyoming. We could see for miles on the wide open plains under clear skies—no smog or humidity here. We had hoped to have a feed of ribs for lunch but they did not serve them until evening so had to settle for prime rib instead.

We left Wyoming and entered Montana close to where Custer made his last stand at the battle of Little Big Horn. Actually we stopped at the information centre in Hardin and found another of those wonderful community museums that documented the past of the county—it is located 15 miles from the famous battle. We spent time exploring all the buildings that they had moved to this original farm site—the original farm house and barn are there but there is also a school, a doctor’s office, a church,--22 buildings in all. It is a lot of work and very well presented so worth a stop and had it not been so hot we might have spent even longer there.

We decided to stop for the night in Billings Montana and are in a nice little motel right downtown next door to the hospital and their medical complex. This particular motel chain, Riverstone Inns make it a policy to build near hospitals and give a special rate to patients needing daily tests and treatments or families visiting inpatients. Their regular rates for the likes of us are also more reasonable than any of the other motels in town. Since we only wanted soup for supper we decided to try the hospital cafeteria—a good choice it was too, as the soup was good, the sandwich freshly made to our specs and the salad nice and fresh. It was nice to walk after dinner but not too far as it was just a little to hot for our liking.

luverne to hill city sd

We thought we had seen a lot of bikes yesterday but today as we travelled west in South Dakota we found there were more motorcyclists on the road than there were cars and there we were in the middle of it all. They were all headed for Sturgis and the towns and cities in a 50 mile radius around Sturgis—some of the towns close their main streets to traffic so that it can become a parking lot for the bikers. We also found out that it was difficult to find a place to put your head. We were fortunate to find a very helpful woman at the welcome centre and together we found us a room. It is a delightful place in Hill city in the Black Hills. The black hills remind us of the green mountains in Vermont but they are indeed darker green and black looking. We are staying in a resort for campers—tents, RV’s, cabins and a small motel. They had a room and it was very reasonable so here we are in the Black Hills of South Dakota just below Mount Rushmore.

We left Minnesota early this morning (Monday Augurst 6)and had our first stop in Mitchell South Dakota. Our friend Heather suggested that we would enjoy the stop at the corn palace and she was right. The corn palace was first created in 1892 by the local farmers to show that more than buffalo were important to the area. Portions of the exterior and the interior are covered with murals made from corn husks, local grasses and grains. The exterior motif is changed every year and we were fortunate to arrive when we did as they were beginning to remove the old grasses in preparation for the new mural—once the corn is harvested they remove the old cobs and about 20 locals work with an artist to make a new mural. The outdoor mural becomes a huge bird feeder as well as a work of art. As well as being a tourist attraction this “palace”is the local community hall and is used for graduation, local basketball games, trade shows—even the Shrine Circus. We opted for an early lunch and found a great stop at Chamberlain-Oacoma on the Missouri called Al’s Oasis. It advertised homemade pies and coffee for 5 cents so Ron was sold. The meal was great—a buffalo burger for Ron and liver for me. Ron said the lemon pie was almost as good as Tedde’s so we left full and ready for our trek to the Badlands. The badlands are amazing—right plunk in the middle of the Prairie. The National park allows one to drive or hike in the badlands—we opted to drive and spent a lot of time stopping to take yet another photo. You cannot capture the beauty of this area on paper or in a photo—it has to be seen. There are irregular ravines, fantastic ridges, low hills and cliffs in variegated colour alternating with grayish-white sediment. We were in awe of it all and enjoyed our time in the park. We came out of the park at Wall which is famous for it’s drug store that is now a block long. We did not spend long here as we were now concerned about a room. We phoned some 800 numbers from Wall and most places were full and any who had rooms wanted $300.00 so we decided to get in the car and head for the Black Hills hoping that they were far enough away from all the activities in Sturgis. NOT. We found a welcome centre and got excellent help and a room so we then carried on to Mount Rushmore Memorial Park to view the magnificent sculptures of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The park itself is beautiful and the information available on the creation of the sculpture is very interesting. It was a lovely evening to be out walking and we did enjoy after suffering in 96 degree heat all afternoon. We had fog and cooler weather for our morning drive but not so lucky in the afternoon. Most of the campers here are bikers so we certainly do look out of place in our zip off shorts and tee shirts. I have never seen so many motorcycles. I think someone told us there were about 500,000 here for the rally.

Who knows where tomorrow will take us. Stay tuned.

lu

We thought we had seen a lot of bikes yesterday but today as we travelled west in South Dakota we found there were more motorcyclists on the road than there were cars and there we were in the middle of it all. They were all headed for Sturgis and the towns and cities in a 50 mile radius around Sturgis—some of the towns close their main streets to traffic so that it can become a parking lot for the bikers. We also found out that it was difficult to find a place to put your head. We were fortunate to find a very helpful woman at the welcome centre and together we found us a room. It is a delightful place in Hill city in the Black Hills. The black hills remind us of the green mountains in Vermont but they are indeed darker green and black looking. We are staying in a resort for campers—tents, RV’s, cabins and a small motel. They had a room and it was very reasonable so here we are in the Black Hills of South Dakota just below Mount Rushmore.

We left Minnesota early this morning (Monday Augurst 6)and had our first stop in Mitchell South Dakota. Our friend Heather suggested that we would enjoy the stop at the corn palace and she was right. The corn palace was first created in 1892 by the local farmers to show that more than buffalo were important to the area. Portions of the exterior and the interior are covered with murals made from corn husks, local grasses and grains. The exterior motif is changed every year and we were fortunate to arrive when we did as they were beginning to remove the old grasses in preparation for the new mural—once the corn is harvested they remove the old cobs and about 20 locals work with an artist to make a new mural. The outdoor mural becomes a huge bird feeder as well as a work of art. As well as being a tourist attraction this “palace”is the local community hall and is used for graduation, local basketball games, trade shows—even the Shrine Circus. We opted for an early lunch and found a great stop at Chamberlain-Oacoma on the Missouri called Al’s Oasis. It advertised homemade pies and coffee for 5 cents so Ron was sold. The meal was great—a buffalo burger for Ron and liver for me. Ron said the lemon pie was almost as good as Tedde’s so we left full and ready for our trek to the Badlands. The badlands are amazing—right plunk in the middle of the Prairie. The National park allows one to drive or hike in the badlands—we opted to drive and spent a lot of time stopping to take yet another photo. You cannot capture the beauty of this area on paper or in a photo—it has to be seen. There are irregular ravines, fantastic ridges, low hills and cliffs in variegated colour alternating with grayish-white sediment. We were in awe of it all and enjoyed our time in the park. We came out of the park at Wall which is famous for it’s drug store that is now a block long. We did not spend long here as we were now concerned about a room. We phoned some 800 numbers from Wall and most places were full and any who had rooms wanted $300.00 so we decided to get in the car and head for the Black Hills hoping that they were far enough away from all the activities in Sturgis. NOT. We found a welcome centre and got excellent help and a room so we then carried on to Mount Rushmore Memorial Park to view the magnificent sculptures of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The park itself is beautiful and the information available on the creation of the sculpture is very interesting. It was a lovely evening to be out walking and we did enjoy after suffering in 96 degree heat all afternoon. We had fog and cooler weather for our morning drive but not so lucky in the afternoon. Most of the campers here are bikers so we certainly do look out of place in our zip off shorts and tee shirts. I have never seen so many motorcycles. I think someone told us there were about 500,000 here for the rally.Who knows where tomorrow will take us. Stay tuned.

luverne to hill city sd

quad cities to luverne minnesota

We discovered that travelling on a Sunday in Iowa meant a lot of driving. We found a Welcome Centre when we crossed the border from Illinois into Iowa so had our maps and lots of info on the sights available but the woman who helped us said that we would not find many of the tourist points of interest open. She was right and certainly there was nothing available until after 12 noon. It was disappointing but we decided that we would carry on with our plan to go west in Iowa and then North to Minnesota before going west again.

We did find another State Park in Waterloo in the Cedar Valley along the Cedar River—again lots of well groomed trails this time in a wooded area along the river. The interesting thing about this park was the shrill noise in the woods. It was the cicadas making all the racket. In some areas it was almost deafening. We did find one of the tourist areas open—the Little Brown church in the vale. It happens that the first Sunday in August is wedding reunion weekend and certainly from what we saw there have been a lot of people married at the little brown church—one of the couples said that they had celebrated their 72nd anniversary. William Pitts, a music teacher wrote the words and music to “The Church in the Wildwood” and it was sung for the first time at the dedication of the church in 1864. We found a wonderful place for lunch (another full parking lot). It was Sunday buffet at the Backdoor in Charles City. There was plenty of food and all of it made on site or at home and brought in—the waitress told us she was up at 6:30 in the morning icing her chocolate cake with butterscotch and coconut icing—it was yummy. We needed another walk after all that food and Ron discovered a beautiful little garden with sculptures of children playing—baseball, skipping, climbing and playing on a see saw. It was so sweet. We did find a museum open in a small town in Mitchell county, in the town of Osage. They had a large collection of vintage clothing, American Indian artifacts, covered wagon, newspaper collection, civil war artifacts, medical equipment and instruments. It reminded us of the museum we had visited in Morse Saskatchewan where the community was very involved and had donated their time and treasures.

We were in Minnesota early in the afternoon so decided to continue further west—it was a good driving day weather-wise so we added a few more miles and hopefully will have a slower drive tomorrow. We are in the southwest corner of Minnesota at a small town called Luverne—it too is very quiet on a Sunday.At this point we are now the Canadian equivalent of being out of Ontario and into Manitoba.

We found there were a lot of motorcycles on the highway today and noted that the state laws must all be different as many were not wearing helmets here in Minnesota. Ron spoke to some of them this evening as they are staying at the same motel and it turns out that they are all heading for Sturgis South Dakota for a huge rally that attracts motorcyclists from all over North America. It begins tomorrow and lasts for a week, so we will get a chance to visit Sturgis before we leave South Dakota.

hobart to quad cities Iowa

Today we left Indiana and travelled across Illinois to the Mississippi River at the Quad Cities. We bypassed Chicago and travelled west along I-80. Our first stop was in Ottawa—we chose Ottawa because of the name and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Ottawa was established in the 1800’s and has a beautiful town square called Washington Square. It is not only beautiful with all the green space and flowers but it is also a historical area. On August 21 in 1858 the first of the great debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas was held in Washington Square. These great debates revolved around a single sentence in the Declaration of Independence—“all men are created equal”. The park is well used today and we were fortunate enough to be there for their farmer’s market . We enjoyed our short visit and even found a canal running thru the centre of town—the Illinois Michigan canal once served as a vital link in the transportation system—it is not used as such today but they do skate on the canal in winter when it freezes over! We drove a short distance from Ottawa along the Illinois River to Utica where the state park Starved Rock is situated. Exploring the bluffs and canyons is the park’s primary attraction, and there are 13 miles of well marked trails . We did take time to have our walk in the park and we were rewarded with beautiful views of the Illinois River, the dam and the lock system as well as the beauty of the canyon . We did not begin to explore all the trails but were very happy that we had the time to stop and enjoy. The park was once occupied by the French and it was Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette who established Fort Louis here in 1682. The fort was abandoned by the French but the fort continued to be used by fu traders and trappers. The fort is no longer there. In 1769 a band of Illinois Indians took refuge on the summit of the rock, where surrounded by their foes, they died from lack of food and water and hence the name Starved Rock. After our time in the park we went back into the village of Utica and had lunch at the local tavern where we had been told the burgers and chips were delicious—we were not disappointed.

We carried on to the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River. The Quad Cities is made up of the riverfront cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island in Illinois. We do like being near water it seems. We visited the John Deere Pavilion in Moline (from the French word Moulin meaning Mill)—the building contains vintage and modern-day Deere equipment, along with interactive agricultural exhibits. John Deere was a blacksmith in Vermont and moved to the Midwest where he heard there were great opportunities. He fashioned a self cleaning steel plow in 1837 using steel from a broken saw blade to replace the cast iron plows. Soil clung to the bottom of the cast iron plow and had to be removed by hand. This was the beginning of the largest agricultural manufacturer in the world. We saw some of the old vintage machines in the collector’s club too. We also tried to visit the Mississippi visitor centre but were refused entry as it was located on an active US Army facility on Rock Island Arsenal. Americans are allowed entry but not Foreign visitors.

We are now getting ready to go north and west so it ought to be Iowa and Minnesota tomorrow.

huron to hobart Indiana

This was a triple H day—hot, humid and we’re staying in Hobart. With all this heat Ron is happy that he took the time to get a hair cut in Williamsville (check out today’s picture). We did not have a nice place to walk near our motel so we got on the road early and headed back to Lake Erie and stopped at Port Clinton where we had a wonderful walk along the breakwater and the channel to the harbour. Port Clinton is a busy little fishing village and calls itself the Walleye Capital of the world. It is said that their New Year’s Eve celebration finds them dropping a 20 foot, 600 pound fibreglass walleye from a crane at midnight. We stopped in Napoleon and Bryan before leaving Ohio. Both have old and well preserved court houses and are the focal piece of the town. We have discovered that the washrooms in the court houses are well equipped and clean. We did find a diner in Bryan that had a full parking lot so we stopped for a late breakfast-early lunch. It was good but not as good as our New England stops.

We left Ohio and entered Indiana travelling along highway 6 through Kendallville and Nappanee before going south to highway 30 to continue West. This area is beautiful farmland with miles of corn fields. We did stop and get some fresh fruit and veggies from a farm stand. Many of the areas farmers are Amish. We did stop at the Borkholder Dutch Village so Ron could have an ice cream and I could look at all the wonderful crafts. Many were homemade but there were also vendors selling made in China crafts. I did more looking than buying. Nappanee looked like an interesting town but was very busy with a huge gathering at Amish Acres so we decided to drive a little further west and ended up in Hobart—we thought it would be interesting as it was a town with a man-made lake in the centre of town—we never did find it on our first drive about but did take time to go for a drive after our dinner and there it was—we were just in time to see the sun set again. It is so much nicer over water. We have noticed a lot more train traffic in this part of the country—even truck trailers that have the capacity to convert to train hook-ups. So far we haven’t seen any passenger trains but plenty of freights.

buffalo to huron ohio

After spending 5 days with Ruth in Buffalo we repacked the car and said our goodbyes and turned the car to the west on August 2.

We decided to follow Lake Erie thru New York, Pennsylvania and into Ohio. WE did the better part of our travelling on the Interstate until we got to Ashtabula Ohio. We wanted to visit this town as it was the site of the American Finn Fest this year. We did not find the Finnish connection save for one small Finnish wind sock and the Finnish American Cultural Center that was only open on weekends. Ron was hoping there would be a Finnish store or some indication that there had been a festival. Ashtabula is a major coal and iron port and is spread over a large area along Lake Erie. It did not seem like a typical Finnish town so we are wondering if perhaps we missed some part of the town. We did find Lake Erie and had a walk on Walnut beach before eating the yummy sandwiches that Ruth suggested we take with us. We found a group of men playing bocce in the park so we were entertained by their antics while we enjoyed our dinner.

We decided to carry on and travel thru Cleveland since rush hour was over and it was a little cooler by the Lake. We did not see much of Cleveland save for the baseball stadium (no game being played tonight). Once we were out of the city we drove along the shore and enjoyed seeing all the beautiful homes and cottages while the sun was setting. It was a lovely site and most restful—we were too late to get a great picture to share but we did stop at the Marina in Lorain and watched the sun disappear. We continued on to Huron where we will spend the night. This area is a wonderful summer escape with many boats on the Lake (Erie).

ottawa to connecticut

It is August 2 and the car is now headed for the west. We did make a return visit to Ruth in Buffalo (Williamsville actually) when we left Ottawa as she had suffered accidental second degree burns to her right hand and was happy to have us stay with her from July 28 until today. Both Ron and I enjoyed our return visit with Ruth even though it was very hot and humid. Ruth has air conditioning and part of her treatment was rest so we all rested in front of the TV watching movies.

Before I begin our travels west I will send along the notes from our side trip from Ottawa to Connecticut.

Jean, Ron and I got off and running right after breakfast on Sunday July 15 and decided that we would cross to the States at Cornwall. It was an easy crossing with only 4 cars ahead of us. We travelled thru Northern New York to Lake Champlain and the Islands in Vermont. Lake Champlain is a huge lake being 120 miles long and 12 miles wide in some places. It is connected to Montreal and the Great Lakes by the Hudson River and the Champlain Canal. It was interesting to read in our tour book that in 1998 Lake Champlain briefly became the 6th Great Lake when Bill Clinton signed a Senate Bill reauthorizing the Sea Grant Programme but 2 months later the designation was rescinded. WE had our lunch on the Islands at North Hero—a delightful stop with a bakery, cafe, and craft shops right on the lake. It was interesting that the only washroom was a portapotty outside so Jean and I opted to wait for the next gas stop.
Once we left the Islands we travelled south on highway 7 with the Green Mountains to the East and the Adirondack Mountains to the west. Our next stop was Middlebury which is a typical New England college town with wonderful old homes and a beautiful campus that was established as early as 1800. We did take time to stretch our legs and wander on the campus—so many trees and beautiful buildings—even the new buildings are built to fit in with the old stone ones.

We carried on to Rutland which is the closest city to the ski area of Killington in the Green Mountains. We did find an excellent restaurant—Jean noticed the full parking lot and sure enough it was a fantastic seafood place—the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant. WE all enjoyed our seafood and left room for a Ben and Jerry’s for dessert. On our way back to the motel we discovered a concert in the Park—the oldest Municipal Band in America—the Rutland City Band was setting up for their Sunday concert. They have been in existence for 131 years. It was a beautiful evening to sit in the park and enjoy all the people as well as the music.

We opted to stay on Hwy. 7 as we proceeded south towards Connecticut. Our first morning stop was in Bennington which is a delightful village in southern Vermont. It is the site of the Battle of Bennington on August 16 1777—the Americans defeated the British. There was a monument built and completed in 1891 to commemorate this battle—it stands 306 feet high and is the tallest structure in Vermont. We did not go to the top but it is said that you can view 3 states from the observation level. The grounds were beautiful and we met a very informative woman who told us some of the history about the monument and also information on the area. The national Christmas Tree will come from Bennington this year. We did have to carry on, so missed the Michigan Fife and Drum Corp concert at noon. WE did however, take time to visit Bennington Potters which has created handmade pottery for more than 50 years. The store and potter’s yard are located on 41/2 acres of gardens and historic buildings. The gardens and the floral tubs were magnificent—we spent as much time admiring the gardens as we did inside the store.

Two hours later we were on the road again but stopped at a busy diner for our lunch. Again it was a good stop with homemade soups and delicious BLT’s. We had our tea and coffee break in Stockbridge which is in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. This was a beautiful town with many luxury summer homes that are still very well maintained. There were also many interesting shops that Jean and I explored briefly while Ron enjoyed his coffee and cookies (found at a little bakery on Main street). We drove pretty much non- stop from this break along hwy 7 until we got to Danbury Connecticut. We then followed the directions our friend Nancy had given us and we found her home in New Canaan without much difficulty.

We spent our time in New Canaan and Bridgeport visiting with our travelling friends and just had a wonderful time. We also got to meet the husbands of Troy, Nancy and Dorie. Lois drove all the way from New Jersey to join us for lunch on Dorie’s porch—it was like we were on the road just off the back of the bus. We did miss our 8th partner, Ken, and to be sure he was very much in all our minds as we remembered the special memories we had from those trips. Dorie’s husband Jack, summed it up nicely—he said it was a miracle that we met when we did and formed such a wonderful friendship. Jean and I spent an extra afternoon with Dorie playing in her sewing room—what a delightful haven it is—we do wish that we could live closer to Bridgeport and could join Dorie for an afternoon to just sit and sew or knit. Jean came home with some exciting new fabrics and I have some new sock wool to experiment with. We hated to say goodbye.

On our trip North we travelled in Connecticut along hwy 169 as far as Sturbridge Mass. We travelled thru beautiful agricultural areas and many very old towns established in the 1700’s. Our morning drive was delightful and we lunched again at a diner that had a pretty full parking lot. We were not so lucky with the weather in the afternoon as we found the rain. We decided to take the Interstate (91) and hopefully find a dry place to stop for the evening. We did a little detour and travelled over hwy. 302 to Littleton where we spent the night at Thayers Hotel. It is a 19th Century Hotel right on Main Street. It was a perfect place for us to spend the evening—no elevator so we did lug out bags up two flights of stairs but it had everything we needed and more—even breakfast in the morning. Almost next door there was a wonderful book shop that occupied our time for over an hour. We had dinner at the Littleton Diner and much to my disappointment the menu has changed and they no longer have grape nut pudding on the menu. I did ask and the chef who made it died 4 or 5 years ago and no one was able to duplicate the taste of the pudding so.......
The next morning found us on the road to St Johnsbury Vermont and then we took hwy 2 and 15 over to St. Albans. Ron needed coffee in Johnson and lo and behold, they had a woollen mill in town. What a wonderful place to shop—again an hour of our time looking and even some buying, especially by Jean. They had a wonderful selection of sweaters and shirts so we treated ourselves. As an extra special treat this woollen mill was celebrating it’s 165th anniversary so everything in the store was 20% off. In St. Albans we fed Ron and then found the JoAnn’s fabric store where both Jean and I did buy some fabric—we did restrain ourselves but could not leave behind the special pieces that we found. From there it was on to the border thru the rain again. Our morning part of the trip was in good weather but again in the afternoon we drove thru rain until we got to the outskirts of Ottawa. The border crossing was not busy (at Cornwall) going into Canada but they were lined up over the bridge going into the States. We found some fresh corn en route home so had a veggie feast for our dinner and then early to bed.

Ottawa survived without us and Jean’s black current berries were ripe for the picking.