Well we have reached the eastern most terminus of our trip and are now heading back westbound. Our target today was Montreal, QC. We got on the road and was greeted with a cool partly cloudy day with spits of rain that lasted maybe 1 mile for the first hour or so. We sticked to the smaller roads but it was the most direct route to Canada from Augusta and ended up being one of the more prettier drives yet.
First off we went and found the State Capitol (I mean State House), with Flat Stanley flapping in the wind we did our best to capture the moment.
Just before entering New Hampshire from Maine we entered Grafton Notch State Park, which our route took us through. From the roadway we saw waterfall and then immediately a parking lot so we pulled off and we explored Screw Auger Falls, where I captured this shot.
Leaving the park we happened upon our first large wildlife!
Not too far from the border of Maine we top a hill and see this magnificent white resort type thing on the right side of the road with a marker out front so we stop, turns out we are at The Balsams Grand Resort in Dixville, NH. Which has the distinction of not only being 150 years old and beautiful but is also the place on the news every election year as the first in the nation to vote.
Before long we are back into Vermont for just a few miles until we reach the Canada border. Anyone else thinks this reminds you of the border crossing from the movie STRIPES?
We are used to seeing Chicken Houses being native East Texans' but none us had seen Cow Houses before. The country side was dramatic in that we were not expecting to see so much agriculture up here.
We are now just a few miles from Montreal and we start to see signs (in french mind you) that clearly indicate that there is a vinyard up just a little ways. We don't know what the written word was saying but we all recognized the hanging bunch of grapes and an arrow to the right. We exit the freeway and run up the small road and wouldn't you know it we found a winery! We met a most pleasant proprietor of the VIGNOBLE - CHEMIN DE LA RIVIERE and tasted some very nice wines. But we all agree that Ice Wine is not our favorite.
From there we left and got back on the big road and as we got closer to Montreal the traffic got worse we lost likely more than 1 hour of sitting in traffic with NO EMBELLISHMENT HERE, the most RUDE, AGGRESSIVE, BELLIGERENT drivers I have ever seen. I say that as a person who has driven or ridden in a car on 6 continents! Dianne it was worse than Lima, Peru! If I see Montreal again it will be too soon!
Our view for what seemed and eternity.
We finally get west of Montreal and come into Ottawa where we stop and have dinner at a small strip mall diner. Which was not bad. I had Poutine and Smoked Meat following a recommendation from a friend and actually liked it.
We pushed on towards the west with this as our view for what seemed 2 hours, it would just not get fully dark.
We called it quits here in Petawawa, ON. Tomorrow we are going to try for Lambeau field (or not).
Until next time.
Worse drivers uh??? Hmmmmm.... ;-)
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