Vermont, Canada, Maine

Whereas we had a poor Internet connection in Vermont, and I didn't post while we were in Canada, I rolled the last week into this one posting.

While touring around Vermont on the 27th, I took this picture just outside of Rutland

There was also a memorial for Gen. Ripley's horse Old John who served the General well during the Civil War.
This is a close-up of the previous picture.

A mother and her babies.

A shot of Mt. Killington

We also took some dirt roads in the Jeep to check out the scenery.

On the 28th we packed up and continued down Rt. 100 heading for Canada. Yup, that's dirt up there in front of us. We ran into three areas where construction was going on, seems that Vermont is repairing a lot of their old bridges.

I always loved traveling route 100 in Vermont, the scenery is beautiful!
Along the way we stopped in the Waterbury, Vt. area for three days. The old railroad station is now a store for Green Mountain Coffee. Had to stock up on our favorite blend.

Inside the station building, there is a little history on the town of Waterbury.

This town has had it's run of bad luck over the years.

The Flood!

While in the area we ventured to Ben & Jerry's, I thought that they had free tours but I guess times changed. There is now a charge for the tour and ice cream sample. We opted just to buy a cone of ice cream.

This young man came along while we were having our ice cream. His dog had his own double backpack.

The stairway coming down to the parking area is line with mostly day lilies and had a nice aroma

On the 31st we moved on to Canada and sat in line at the border for about twenty minutes. We were heading to Magog, Quebec to visit some friends that we hadn't seen in over three years. Paul and Mary Anne Audette were are neighbors for years. Joyce and Mary Anne use to hang out together a lot while the children were growing up. Pushing strollers and making breads was a portion of their pass times together.

Once across the border, we were at the Campground in about 45 minutes. This place was huge!!!

The Audettes met us at the campground and we followed them to their home, it was so nice to see them again an get caught up on things.

The next morning we met them for breakfast. This is what everyone ordered. It was a crepe with french toast covered with fresh fruit. On the side was a very lightly sweetened cream dip and maple syrup. Wow, and it was as good as it looks. "I love health food"

The town of Magog was have numerous activities going on during the weekend. One of the activities was the Traversee International Swimming competition which included swimmers from around the world. Some of these swimmers were in the water for over eight hours during the competition.

Another activity taking place during the weekend was a shot for the Guinness world record for the largest parade of the same model motorcycle. This was attempted by a group of Can-Am Spiders with the hopes of getting 500 bikes. I never got the final count but heard that it was over 400. They didn't break the record but the showing was very impressive.

These motorcycles remind me of their close cousin, the snowmobile. It may have something to due with the fact that they were developed by the same company.

They had a competition for a handful of the bikes that had some special modifications.

Spiderman!!!!

Awesome paint job!

Check it out, 990 cc's and a sharp paint scheme.

They were parked in a large field and grouped by color.

Then the parade!

We also spent the night in town with Paul & Mary Anne at a concert tribute to the group U2. A stroll along main street viewing the shops was followed by hugs and sad goodbye's as Joyce and I headed back to our campground for a morning departure. We will be back to visit in the future.

We left the next morning at approximately 10:00 AM. I wanted to do some back roads through Canada and that was a big mistake!!!

I missed a turn that I should have taken and didn't listen to the GPS to get back on coarse. It put us on some roads I really didn't want to be on with the coach pulling a Jeep. Well after chewing on most of my fingernails, and with the help of my trusty navigator Joyce, we finally got to the correct road to the border.

Once at the Border Crossing, we had to get out of the coach so the border patrol and their DOG, could stroll into the coach and check things out. They were reall nice but they didn't remove their shoes :)

After crossing the border, we came up to this rest area which made a nice stop for lunch. I ran across the street and pick some wild flowers for Joyce, ah!

Had a great view.

Here's our route 27 camp for the night. There was one campground in the area but it would have meant a tight right turn up a hill and the women said we might make it. No,no, I don't like taking those chances so we came upon this gravel pullout on the side of 27 and went for it. I have the Satellites locked in and we have a good Internet signal. The property owner stopped by and gave us the OK to enjoy our stay.

It's been a long day and we have to plot out our trip for tomorrow so good night to all!