Tuesday, June 30, 2009

From NH to Montreal

We have now been in Canada for about 2 days and its been awesome. And it being awesome is why we haven't posted in a while. Lil and Soph have been super-awesome and are letting us crash in their study on an Ikea pull-out bed.
Anyways, this post will focus mostly the drive through NH, VT, and Canada and the pictures (and some thoughts). We had videos of the flash rain, but I forgot that Lightroom (the tool we are using to keep out pictures organized) doesn't take in videos and already formatted the card. But here we have a picture of what it looked like between wipes (on super fast). And yeah, it was pretty bad.
Then again, they were only pockets of rain (I don't think it rained for longer than 10 minutes at a time), but it still sucked. Going all the way through NH and VT was a first for the both of us, and thus, we were very amused at the signs along the way.
There was one "MOOSE" sign that was sub-signed (Does that make sense?) with "In 5000 ft". Ben was excited to pull over and have a look, but no such luck.

At some point we decided we were getting kind of hungry. The first place we saw was:

Which seems pretty sketch. But then we saw a sign for a Pizzeria. And it was amazing! Easily one of my favorite pizzas ever. We got a small pizza with onion, mushroom, and bacon. If you look closely, that bacon is awesome.
Hopefully I can convince Ben to swing by there on our way back south. Anyways, VT and NH are full of trees. And hills. And more trees. I know at one point we saw a sign for Montpelier (the capitol of VT) but I never saw a city.
So, after the pizza, it was pretty much all the same. Hills with lots of trees. So I stopped taking lots of pictures and instead decided to write down some key random thoughts and to organize them by their respective mile of the trip. The following are some of the more awesome ones:

159 - There are cows in Vermont?
164 - Ben's response to 159: How do you think they make Ben and Jerry's?
175 - Exit 7...really? Seriously? I feel like Exit 2 was an hour ago.
184 - Where do people buy cars in VT?
184 - Ben's response to 184 - Prolly Monpelier.


And then, at some point, we got through customs (with only a slight hitch when Ben hesitated in saying that we have no weapons). And we got into Canada!
And then it was farmland. Lots and lots of farmland. And us paying lots of attention to the signs in French trying to make sure we stay on the correct routes and such. And just to let you know, there were serious amounts of firewood at these houses. Like the size of Ben's car amount of wood at least. Oh! And farmland is flat. And it suddenly got flat in the last couple miles of VT.

But anyways, we are starting to work on breakfast so I need to hurry up if I am going to help.

Along the way through the farmland, we found Montreal (which is apparently an island). I was so excited to see a real city. With tall buildings and such. And we managed to find Soph and Lil's place without getting lost. (It's amazing how some Spanish reading ability can really help out when reading French). And they are pretty awesome people.

And that's really the end of the driving post. Yay! Off to eat pancakes and eggs (over easy).

Monday, June 29, 2009

Start: Mile 33


It's our first day out and about on the trip, and we are on our way to Montreal. Currently we are on our way through NH. Staying at Ness' parent's place was awesome while it lasted, but we are excited to get going on the road. We've packed clothing, painting supplies, some trail mix, some wine for Sophia (who we are visiting while up at Montreal), and of course, the necessary tech: laptop, wireless card, external hard drive, 2 cameras, cellphone, ipod, and respective cables.

Ness's mom took this picture as the official start of the trip (even though Ness took 15 minutes setting herself up in the car, and that the mile count is off by the distance from the gas station around the corner to RT-95S).


Ness got to drive from Lynn all the way to the NH border. Which is a big deal, don't cha know? (The driving permit limits some-what her driving to certain states).


A view of the drive after Ben took over for me. (Actually, it just got a ton worse. Check out the next post.)


This is our trail mix: Almonds, Cashews, Dried Mango, Dried Cranberries, Pecans, and Chocolate Covered Almonds. It's almost 3 gallons worth, but we have a measuring bag to measure out 4 servings per day.

Not the most exciting looking post, but note this: this was posted as we got on RT-89. w00t.

Saturday, June 20, 2009