Jiggety Jog--Retirement Trip Days 13 & 14

The LeClerc factory closes each Friday at noon so our appointment was early--8:30am. We had broken camp and were towing LibraryAnn with us downtown. The route we'd planned last night worked despite lots of school buses on the road (I had totally forgotten about school starting). Mr. Brassard patiently answered our questions and demonstrated the answers on a Weaverbird set up in their show room. While he was finding some repair parts for us, I explored the yarn displays. Sigh.
It really did make sense to spend those Canadian dollars I brought in Canada. Did I mention mohair boucle and an alpaca/silk blend? Oooh, and a handy loom attachment to help keep selvages straight. Broke but happy, we headed out for Burlington, VT.

And the itch to head home hit. We got to Burlington early enough in the day we decided not to stop. And our Saturday night reservation graciously moved us up to Friday night despite being slammed with holiday travelers. We still enjoyed the beautiful mountains, lakes and river valleys booking down the Appalachian ridge but mostly we enjoyed thoughts of home. We pulled in late to Dalton PA, slept hard and were up and out early Saturday morning, and home by 7:00pm Saturday night.

As a bookend to the trip, we were back in rain, just as we'd started it. As we pulled into Randolph County, Asheboro was under a severe thunderstorm warning. We missed the storm and Ben snapped this dramatic picture of the clouds as they raced out ahead of us.

I have learned a few things from this trip. One is that I can trust my equipment. As rough as most of the roads were up north, I should have slung trailer parts all across the northeast, but we made it home in tact. I learned to respect the Planning Fallacy--things always take longer (and cost more) than you imagine when planning. I learned that about two weeks is as much as I enjoy being away from home--Coos Bay may not be in my future. And I learned that, despite all the news media would have us believe, it is still a beautiful world out there full of mostly really nice people. And on that note, Goodnight.

And another scenic river valley--Retirement Trip Day 12

Three bridge abutments at Grand Falls

Ben and I are getting a little tired of traveling and all that the added burden of camping entails with set objectives and breaking camp almost daily. We both woke up sluggish and grouchy and not really wanting to hit the road again. Until we did. Then it was all ooohs and aaahs and look at that!

We tried to view the gorge at Grand Falls last night but the rain was awful. So we decided to try one more time. The entrance to the public overlook is in the parking lot for a zipline that crosses the gorge. Some folks is crazy. That said, the parking lot was empty in the early morning and we headed for the overlook. The welder was excited to see bridge abutments for all three of the bridges that have spanned the gorge. The public overlook is built on the

Hydroelectric Dam at Grand Falls Gorge

pilings of the first bridge. He got even more excited to see the history of the bridges posted as we walked in. I got excited to see that there was a tall cage around the cantilevered observation deck. The gorge is 280 feet deep in spots. Did I mention I do not like heights? Still, it was lovely, but we both were glad to trot off the cantilevered deck once we snapped some pictures.

Yesterday, we were driving back roads up the St John River Valley on a provincial scenic byway. Today we completed the byway and crossed the border into Quebec, and back to our standard time zone about 10:30am. Vita had directed us to a scenic back road along the mighty St Lawrence river as we headed southwest towards Quebec City. We were gobsmacked. To the left of us were towering folds of granite, to the right, the broad St Lawrence. Between them was wonderfully fertile farmland dotted with huge barns, comfortable farm houses and sweet villages.

When we were in New Brunswick, we were charmed by the clapboard churches, largely Protestant and surprisingly, largely Baptist. But we were in French Canada now, and each village hosted a towering cathedral. The river valley is very flat and we could see church spires long before we could see the villages. Again, the road was narrow and getting off to take pictures was a challenge, but we captured a few.

St Lawrence River

We are in Plessisville now, scheduled to visit the folks who made my Weaverbird loom early tomorrow. We did make a trip in to town to be sure we could find the place, especially since we will be towing tomorrow. What we found was lots of road construction in tight downtown places and lots of one way streets. We have now identified a route that avoids most of the mess and are ready to tuck ourselves in for a chilly 50 degree night. We are also ready to come home. Lots of folks here speak no English and the bilingual signs are a thing of the past. We really are foreigners here and I'm surprised that I find no excitement in it. Probably because it's the end of the trip and we're sort of played out of excitement. I'm just ready for some familiar.

You can click on each photo to enlarge it and enjoy these beautiful village churches.

Godde willing, we will be back on US soil tomorrow night.