Home again

The guy at the sub shop was good-natured when I tried to pay for my order with a Canadian $20. I mumbled tiredly that we were just getting back from Canada and that my money was mixed up in my wallet. The guy was good-natured and said nice things about his trips to Canada, but still stood there waiting for American money.

The vist to the Island was brief, but delightful. Sandra's parents are wonderfully warm and generous. We talked about family and friends and the tragedies abroad.

Sandra's parents rose to prepare us breakfast and see us off. Our trip back started before dawn, with fog stretching across the farm fields. We saw shots of lightning across the Island, drove through heavy rain and some strong wind on the bridge, and reached sunshine just outside of Moncton mid-morning. It was sunny and fresh the rest of the way. There's a wildlife preserve near Calais, Maine, where we saw baby eagles sitting in their nests, getting ready for their first flights.

Gasoline prices huddle around the C$1.00/litre, about US$3.00/gallon. Prices are bit lower on PEI because the prices are changed just once a month and so lag behind the general market.

As if we needed more reminders that the flatlanders rule U.S. 1 in Maine, we saw an old farm house converted into a bakery and espresso bar.

On the way home we paid a long-overdue visit to our dear friends, Pete and Mildred, in Maine. In our honor, Pete had arranged the delivery of a new lime and fertilizer composite which he had dumped on the hay field on the approach to their old farm house.

We listened to the rest of 1776 and discussed the improbability that the Americans would have won Revolutionary War. The year 1776 hadn't gone very well at all, with the loss of New York and large numbers of people signing oaths to the King. As with other recent histories of those times, the founders of this nation were keenly aware that what they were doing and saying was shaping the future. They were establishing something bigger than even they could imagine. Sandra and I listened to this history as we drove through the places where many loyalists had landed in southwestern New Brunswick.

One afternoon, while Sandra and Marian went visiting, I walked around downtown Montague. This town of a few thousand people improbably supports two large supermarkets, a car dealership, several other large, and many other small businesses. At the center of it all, of course, is the Tim Horton's shop on Main Street. I learned there that another building on Main Street was sold for $300,000 and that the local MLA had arranged for a new federal building to be built on that site. "The old boy network pays off again," remarked one of the patron.

To bring it to a decent size, the local phone book for the east end of PEI includes a reverse listing (by phone number) as well as the traditional listing by name.

Marley, who's looking fit and trim and is having a great summer, gave us quite a scare. After supper one night, he and I went for a walk to the shore. I'll skip the full details, but he became suddenly and severely sick accented with convulsions. After a few minutes, he crawled underneath a thick spruce hedge where he stayed, with labored breathing. We thought we were going to lose him. I was able to drag him from the hedge. As we prepared to get him to vet's, he rallied, stirring a bit and eventually gettting to his feet. He was quiet for the rest of the evening and into the next day, but was otherwise alright, eating his breakfast when the time came. Our best guess, based only on the fact that it makes a better story, is that he ate one of the small jellyfish that drift along near the shore.