Road Trip!

Map of Canada, drawn my nephew, probably
when he was about 10 years old

Eight days ago I got on a plane and flew to Boston, Mass.  There I joined my younger brother and his daughter (my niece), my older brother and his wife (my sister-in-law) and we got in a smallish car and headed northeast.  To New Brunswick or bust!

Before I left home, I had this conversation with my son:

Son: So, you’re going to Canada today!

Me: Yes, I am going to Canada.  You know what this means….

Son:  Free health care!

Me:  No, it means whatever dishes you put in that sink in the morning will still be there when you get back in the evening.

Son:  As a parting gift to us, can you do the dishes one more time?

(The only parting gift I gave for that comment was a motherly glare.  But I am pleased to say that when I got home, there was not a single dish in the sink.  Well done!)

I was nervous before the trip.  This was my first trip outside the country in ten years, an embarrassment for the world traveler I once was.  As my husband drove me to the airport, I bemoaned the fact that I had not looked up the driving directions.  It just bothers me to not know what roads we are going to take.

I did not need to worry.  Once I got to Boston, my brother went to his Chart Room.  

This box full of maps is what my brother refers to as his Chart Room.

Paper maps - how quaint!

If you were looking for Waldo, try looking in Maine.

He consulted map after map (all on paper, none interwebby), throwing aside the “bike routes of Northern Maine” map and the “hikes in New Hampshire” map until he found road maps for Maine and New Brunswick. 

 

Bright and early the next morning, we set out for Maine. Our first stop – a town near Portland, for a wonderful but all-too-brief breakfast visit to my cousin and his family.  Then on to Saint John, New Brunswick, to visit my uncle, aunt, and another cousin.  

 

A more modern map.  Click to embiggen.

Here are a few of the signs we saw during our trip.

That top sign denotes that you will likely see
bicyclists riding on top of a tunnel harboring
 pregnant university graduates. That's the
best I could make of it.

We thought this might be a sign showing the way East
for those without a compass app.  But someone
told us it was the town’s evacuation route.

All road signs in New Brunswick are in French and English.

Political sign in someone's front yard.

Be sure to notice dogs doing their business.
By the way, that's the US on the other side of
the water.

Vroom Lane, in St Stephen, NB

Back in New Hampshire, the Interstate highway
 rest stop consists of a giant liquor store.
No mixed messages there, eh?

Restaurant wisdom.  My brother said this just about
summed up the history of thought in Western Civilization.