ON THE ROAD

Yesterday was a long day. Here is what I can remember of it:

Arose at the Delta hotel in downtown St. John NB. Downtown
isn't much, a few busy streets and a deep harbor plus outlying
neighborhoods and vast ship repair and heavy works. A recent
blog mentions the refinery on the hill.

Getting on the road to Fredericton was easy and the way
quickly turned into a long stretch bordered by pine woods
and moose warnings. The road was high and surprisingly
hilly above the woods and swampy patches. Vistas opened,
some for miles. It was a gray day and that made driving a
little easier. 90K with me gawking.

Just before Fredericton, I took an interstate West. This is
the trans-Canada and I could stay on it all the way to
Vancouver. Again, a high road with evergreen woods.
West, OK, but too far North and I wanted to cross into
Maine. I stopped for directions at a gas station off the
highway. This would be the way it would go for the next
14 hours.

A couple of things here: my cell phone GPS doesn't work
in Canada. There is no cell phone service in remote areas,
anyway. I thought I had a map of NB but it is only a map of St. John area. Try reading a map when you're doing 65. I have
a good map of Maine but I could barely read it and it didn't spill over much into Canada. Advice for next time: map out the route carefully. Do not think dead reckoning will get me there.
Do not try to be such a smarty pants.

The gas station ladies between them decided how I should
go. I got off the Trans Canada and headed roughly southwest
toward Harvey, a town on a blue highway. This rough road,
not nearly as bad as the ladies said, goes through miles of
evergreen and through tiny settlements of mobile homes
and ruined houses with little sign of human activity. At Harvey,
I thought I was near the border, but no. I went on to MacAdam
and then to the crossing at St. Croix.

No problem with US customs. The officer asked questions
about how long, any live plants, liquor, purpose of trip,
where I live, etc. and looked in the trunk. Then I was on
my way, surprisingly happy to be back in the US and on
Route 6, all the way to Bangor, 193 miles from Fredericton.
I like the back roads. I enjoy being the only car in sight although
this can change at night as I was to discover.

I cancelled hotel reservations in Bangor because it was only
11 AM. NB time is an hour ahead, so this was a travel bonus.
It had started to rain and I wondered if I could possibly make it
all the way home to Burlington. Give it a try? I pulled out of
the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot. I tried to stop every two hours
and never let the gas tank get below half.

I wanted Route 2 West which I would take forever, all the
way to Montpelier. I plugged in the GPS lady and she sent
me onto I95 where I absolutely did not want to be. I finally
overrode her, got off at Route 69W, again going by my
own GPS which had failed completely more than once.

Route 2 winds up and down through sleepy towns speed
limit 35. Rain hard at times. I stopped at a little gas
station -- two pumps: one diesel, one regular ($3.09) where
hunters were gathered after coming out of the woods. It is moose season but I didn't notice they had any luck. Got a coke for the caffeine and a delicious sandwich for the road. I went along
enjoying the scenery and the varying road conditions. Still
raining although not too hard.

Went through Skowhegan, Rumford and Bethel and finally
entered New Hampshire. Maine is a fat state and Route 2
went on and on. Rain. Now I was in the White Mountain National Park and the afternoon was getting on. Thank goodness I could
see the most spectacular scenery of the entire trip, except for Acadia National Park. I was deep in the mountains and the road wound through river valleys and on up and over. There is still a little fall color to add to the bliss.

As I entered Vermont, the light was failing but there was
still enough to see where I was going and to read the signs.
I stopped in St. Johnsbury as it got dark. For years, I have not driven strange roads in the dark and worried I was making a big
mistake. I wasn't tired but I was stiff and going along at about
45 with a string of cars behind me, lighting the way a bit with
and traffic coming toward me, bright lights and all, the road
shining in the wet. I got used to it slowly and was sorry I couldn't see anything out there except the white line along the right side of the road. Rain. Windshield wipers on slow, plus the one on the back window.

Entering Montpelier and finding signs to I89 was a terrific
relief. Even if I had wanted to stop for the night, there was no
way. Now I knew I'd make it home. Piece of cake after
all that. 290+ miles Bangor to Burlington.