Well after leaving Prince Edward Island, it was to Moncton, New Brunswick for juice, hummus and bloody well nothing else. Route 126 north to Barnaby River then Route 108 to Plaster Rock (are we getting all of this?)…. Into Plaster Rock for the night and the young thing at the campsite actually thought that I was too young to qualify for the Senior Discount. Well its small black flies for the night and I seem to acquire a black Labrador dog for a best buddy. It must be the smell of my 5-day-old socks that brings on the loving feeling with the females. Plaster Rock has one pulp mill that has been shut down for the last 8 months. Due to open within weeks and is scheduled to run only 14 weeks. If the mill closes permanently as most of the pulp mills have across the US and Canada, Plaster Rock will become another ghost town.
Prince Edward Island only employee related work is either fishing or potatoes. And of course the income from fishing is barely making it so it’s either potatoes, go on unemployment or travel to the mainland looking for work.
From Plaster Rock it’s following the US/Canadian border all the way to Fort Kent (US). Of course the US Immigration officer couldn’t make any sense out of my Hawaiian License plate so it was over to the side for a vehicle search. Biggest problem was my eggs, but it was a go once they understood that they were hard-boiled. Is this getting too exciting here or what? Next I pull into the information center and lock the keys in the vehicle for the first time in 4 months. Luckily I had an extra key taped to the vehicle body.
Down the road it is to Baxter State Park and a drive through its 40+ miles of roads. Single lane, gravel and pretty much a miss as the only open areas to view were at the campsites. The time to be at Baxter is within the next 2 weeks when the leaves start changing colors. Out of Baxter to Greenville and one misable gravel road at that. Thinking that I was finally rid of the gravel dust for the next 2 months; wrong, everything is coated and I am back to square one.
The next morning has us out of Maine crossing New Hampshire, which is only a blip on the radar screen as the state is very narrow at the top. Vermont, the state that boasts more Subaru cars then sheep, up scale yuppies that drink the coffee that is chewed by the Cocoa Monkey’s out of Panama under a triple canopy of Butternut Squash………
Its covered bridges following Route 100 down the full length of Vermont. As it happens in Vermont there just had to be a major bicycle race down Route 100 on the holiday weekend. So with GPS in hand it was dirt side roads trying to get ahead of the race. Failed on two attempts but the third go around I managed to get around the race and back to covered bridges.
Being that I had a low life relative within 100 miles, it was to the south of Connecticut I went. Spent 2 nights there which entailed drinking their one bottle of 12 year old scotch and explaining the virtues of Rush Limbaugh………….(talk show idiot of many).
To the dismay of many, I had to wash my clothes and sleeping bag. The sleeping bag turned the inside of the washing machine black, me thinks that my feet might have had something to do with it.
Next leg of this journey is south to Pennsylvania.
Norm
The Greynomad
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