Day 13 - May 21

Safe At Home

Up bright and early at Jessy's and Abby's place in Burlington, VT, we made the coffee, updated the web site with Day 12, and awaited the awakening of our nieces, which occurred neither very early nor bright, as is their wont. Jess had to go to a class (at the University of Vermont), so we bid her farewell and took Abby to breakfast across the river in Winooskie (which means "onion" in the language of the local Native Americans). Then, dropping Abby off, we set off on the last leg of our journey.

Tech Corner: It being another warm and sunny day, after breakfast John rolled down the passenger door window, heard a clunk, and the window worked no more. He was able to push it the rest of the way down, but not pull it up. Oh, well—we kept the windows down all the way home (he out of necessity, me out of empathy). Did get a little chilly by the time we got home, though, as a cold front seems to be coming through.

We motored south out of Burlington on Route 7, a scenic rural byway that winds its way through Vermont farmland and is a favorite among New England sports car enthusiasts. Since we were now in familiar territory, we cut across to Interstate 91 for a while before taking Route 2 east toward Boston and then Route 27 south all the way to John's place in Medfield. And then one last leg (a couple hundred pounds lighter—woo-hoo!) to my place in Dedham.

Mission accomplished! There will be one more update to these pages tomorrow—a summary of sorts and some final reflections. But here's the bottom line: If you ever get a chance to drive across the country taking back roads in a car that you enjoy driving (we recommend Alfas!), do it! It's just gobs of fun!

This is where we went today

A Vermont Farm
This is a very typical scene of one of the hundreds of farms scattered along Route 7 in Vermont.

Massachusetts Welcomes Us!
Here we are on I-91 crossing the line into Massachusetts. This seemed nothing more than a remote possibility, back in Long Creek, OR when we were crawling underneath the car trying to see where all the smoke was coming from.

Her New Home
Here she is, having just pulled up in front of her new-found habitat, waiting to be unloaded. She is so utterly filthy that, back in Canada where we stopped for lunch at a roadside diner, the waitress came over and asked if that was our cute little brown car whose lights we'd left on.

Beer(s) of the Day

Culture Feature

We searched and searched, but never came across a twenty-foot gorilla holding aloft an Alfa, so this Beetle will have to do. About an hour south of Burlington on Route 7.

Alfa Spotting!

Back to the Road Trip 2001 title page