Leaving Quibec, Entering USA (Vermomt)

Monday: Today we went to the woodcarving capital of the world in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli and visited the museum.  There were woodcarvings by craftsman from the early 1800’s up through today with Harry Potter included. They carved several of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.

Next we wound our way to waterfalls in Parc des Chutes d’Armagh. They were lovely, but they use them to make electricity, so they have buildings and ironworks around them. The hike was also beautiful, and the rapids further up the river were delightful. We had to shorten our hike due to rain.

Tuesday: More rain today. It was foggy and rainy all morning until we got near some other, larger and more majestic falls near Sainte Anne de Beaupre. It was still cloudy and quite chilly, but the falls were worth it. We walked across the suspension bridge over the falls. The last picture is the staircase we had to climb to get to it. It started raining again when we got near our campground, and hasn’t stopped as we get ready for bed.

Wednesday: It rained hard until 2:00 today. I’m thankful I have counted cross stitch, and that we’re in our campground in Roxton Falls, Quebec so we have electricity and I can write. At least I had something to do.  We did get to walk along the river next to the campground in the late afternoon.

Thursday: Another slow day without much to do. The best part was attending the Montreal temple. There is a lot to do in downtown Montreal, but NOT with a 22 foot RV, so we spent another day resting up. There are pluses and minuses of having a smaller RV and no backup transportation, but for us, the pluses outweigh the minuses. We do miss some things like downtown Quebec and Montreal, but we don’t have to worry about towing anything, can park in most parking lots and only take up one space. I don’t know how Dan does it, but he parks between the lines with about half an inch to spare on each side. We do hang out a little beyond the end of the lines, but where the aisles are normal sized we do just fine IF we're there before the lots are packed with cars. There are more pluses and minuses, but I won’t bore you by listing them here.  Bottom line, we like our little 22 foot RV.

Friday: USA!!! It’s fun to visit another country, but I love coming back to my own country. We walked along the river and downtown Burlington, VT. It was a picturesque town, and walking along water of any kind is always soothing and beautiful.

Saturday: We visited Shelburne Farms near Burlington. It was a comparatively easy hike with some uphill climbing, but on a smooth path. The farm has the biggest, most decorative barn in the country.  How many barns have you seen with a decorative metal roof? Yes, there were animals in the left hand side of the barn. The rest contained a wood workshop, cheese-making factory, and bakery. The farm has 1,400 acres and is a non-profit environmental educational organization as well as a working farm. It was planned with an artist so there would be picturesque areas of forest, fields, and naturally the river. The building pictured below is the barn.