From Home to Gorham ME and St. Martins, New Brunswick
10 July 2019 – Wednesday morning is finally here. The mountain of items to be packed that has been piled on the dining room floor has diminished to what seems to be a manageable mound. O, Dad, and I enjoy our traditional departure day breakfast of peach pie. Before we know it, it is after 9 am and the mound still awaits packing. The day is already intolerably hot and humid. We finish loading everything into Vincent, our trusty Sprinter van. Last in are three dozen local peaches for the enjoyment of G, N, and N’s parents in Gorham, Maine. The peaches need careful handling as they are quite juicy. We bid farewell to Dad and Lucy and are on the road at 10:06, grateful to be sitting in the slowly cooling air-conditioned van.
Though we hope to arrive in Portland between 6 and 6:30, the best laid plans. . .
We are stopped on the George Washington Bridge for almost an hour due to a disabled car. We finally make it to Connecticut. As we are congratulating ourselves for discovering that Vincent can, indeed, make it through those low height bridges on the parkways we are confronted by a construction sign reading: “Warning. All Vehicles over 8 feet must exit now!” We take the next exit and end up with another 30-45 minutes of detour delay. Inevitably we also manage to hit rush hour traffic around Boston. We finally arrive in Gorham at 7:40 pm.
G and N are busily preparing supper; homemade pasta, with fresh from the garden veggies and pesto, a freshly picked salad, and homemade bread. We top it off with those peaches that didn’t quite complete the journey unscathed. Before sitting down to enjoy our meal, we have a sunset tour of the garden.
11 July 2019 – Thursday morning, after an enjoyable breakfast with N’s parents we are on the road once more. Our journey is smooth today. We arrive at the border crossing at Calais. There is only one car ahead of us. The border control officer asks if he can have a peek inside Vincent, not to inspect us he assures us, he just wants to see what the inside looks like. When he is finished admiring Vincent we are on or way once more.
We stop in Saint John, New Brunswick for an early dinner at Big Tide Brewing Co. and finally arrive at the Salmon River B&B in St. Martins around 7:30, having lost an hour by crossing into Atlantic Daylight time at the border.
Our cozy room is on the third floor, We feel almost as if we are climbing up into a lighthouse. The B&B is right on the beach of the Bay of Fundy. We walk down to the shore and watch four loons enjoying an evening swim. Through binoculars we observe a lone kayaker paddling by the sea caves. We return to our room to relax as the sky slowly darkens.
