Road Trips

We were fortunate enough to stumble across a fine establishment in North Bay last night called Churchill's Restaurant / Winnie's Pub. An authentic English pub atmosphere (well, except that they encouraged cigar smoking, as did Winston himself) and they served several English ales on draught not commonly found. Much-better-than-pub food, too—highly recommended.

On the road fairly early, as usual, and headed toward Ottawa but turned south before we got there. It was beautiful farm country (including many more dandelion farms, whose crops were more mature the further south we got). When we reached the Saint Lawrence River, we traveled northeastward along it—a very scenic drive with a lot of expensive estates on the river.

We then crossed back into the States at Ogdensburg, NY and crossed Upstate toward Vermont. This was a very enjoyable drive through the Adirondacks on a lot of twisty, nearly-vacant roads on a sunny, warm day in our Alfa—it don't get much better! Yes, we're still enjoying driving the GTV even after all those miles!

Crossing Lake Champlain by ferry (a short break from driving), we arrived in Burlington, VT, where we spent the night with our nieces Jessamy and Abigail, Jess's boyfriend Bobby, and a bunch of their friends. They took us to the Vermont Pub and Brewery, recognized as one of the finest anywhere, and we, um, verified its reputation. Then to a cafe for a little more of the local brew and to listen to a jazz guitar duo, a couple of guys that Jess and Ab know. And finally back to their place, where we begged for pillows at around 1:30AM. Thanks, dear nieces, for letting us crash!

This is where we went today
Today's Map

(Sorry, our mapping software only covers the USA.)

Oh, Canada
Our obligatory pic of the Canadian flag. Dave slalomed around the circle until John found a shot with the flag relatively unfurled.

A query for y'all
Driving all across Canada, and into upstate NY, we observed that the white pines next to the road were all brown or dead. Larger trees were brown only on their sides facing the road. Further back, the trees were all fine. Do you know what causes this? We have our own theories (such as that they drive nuclear waste trucks through too often), but if you know the answer, send us an email (see below)!

Tank Driver
We continue to get attention and admiration from all sorts of vehicles that we pass, this one belonging to the Canadian Forces.

The Saint Lawrence River
Some parts are industrial and shipping-oriented, of course, but others are quite lovely.

Lake Champlain
We took a little break and left the driving to the ferry boat captain for a short ride across Lake Champlain as were were heading for Burlington.

Fambly Portrait
Abby (eyes closed), Jessie, Bobby and us. Dave's the one without the beer (rather a first).

Driving along Canada's trans-continental highway, we were startled to encounter what appeared to be an ark being loaded with animals. We discounted it, though, since it was such a sunny day with no rain in the forecast, but weren't so sure after observing a pair of zebras being marched aboard.

Day 1	0	(Except for a bunch while still in San Francisco)
Day 2	0	(No Alfas, but one Fiat X-1/9 parked, but standing on its own wheels)
Day 3	0	(No Alfas, no Fiats, but one Corvair that looked like it might have run)
Day 4	1	The Milano parked in Doug Zaitz's driveway when we pulled in.
Day 5	23	That's 20 or so on the Wine Tour, plus the three in Doug's loft.
Day 6	12	(All of them in the Veloce Motors garage.)
Day 7	0	Hey, we were in Idaho and Montana.
Day 8	0	Hey, we were in Montana and North Dakota.
Day 9	0	But we've got something up our sleeves for tomorrow—stay tuned!
Day 10	100	We didn't actually count them, but there must be at least this many at Alfa Heaven.
Day 11	0	Ah, back to normal.
Day 12	0	Our expectations were high, it being a sunny Sunday afternoon but, alas, it was not meant to be.
__________	_____
Total	136

Day 12 - May 20