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A full bottle of chlorox water that I use to clean up cat messes spontaneously unscrewed from its spray top, dropping suddenly to the ground, inundating the floor and showering a wall as well as my black pants, now gaily decorated with garish copper-coloured splashes.
Black clothing is in any case impractical if you live with furry creatures. Perhaps I’ll just soak them entirely in chorox.
Chlorox – bleach – is such a useful product but unforgiving.
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After that inauspicious start, Monday improved progressively.
Leaving the post office we headed south, waiting patiently for northbound traffic to proceed past the interminable road works on route 22 that, far from advancing, appear to have become more involved.
The project concerns replacement of a diminutive bridge that crosses a piddling little stream which must have dried up weeks ago, but apparently requires all manner of cranes and heavy-duty girders and much standing around supervising.
You would think they were installing a major overpass where surely a reinforced culvert would have sufficed. They’ve been at it for months.
Not that I care, except that no doubt some of the cost comes out of my pocket.
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After that short hold up, we got behind the truck with its unsecured load of animal feed that blew about like a snowstorm. Inevitably, it turned off onto the road we were taking but we were soon rid of it and heading into Vermont, vaguely in the direction of Shaftsbury.
We were looking for colourful leaves. At first we didn’t find many but when I looked at the above photo…
Note to self: Remember to look behind as well as up!
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Much of the harvesting has been done, re-opening the landscape.
The soil was colourful, if not the hills.
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Fall isn’t all reds and yellows. Asters add pale mauve to the scene.
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Patches of blue sky soon appeared to cheer things up.
We had been to Shaftsbury in the Spring to collect a load of old pallets for Grant to re-purpose as a fence for his vegetable plot.
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This time we varied the route slightly, discovering a small lake.
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Soon the sky became partly cloudy with the roaming sun spots I so love.
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They lit things up a treat as we found our way into East Arlington…
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It is sights such as this that encourage us to spend time on the road.
They have curative properties.
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As I took this picture, I didn’t notice the For Sale sign at the Arlington Inn.
While I have no personal experience, it seems to have been a lovely place to stay. Perhaps there is another reason it is on the market, but I know many such facilities have suffered from the serious cutback in tourism.
Why would foreigners want to come here these days?
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We can only hope that our country will one day recover its reputation and welcome international visitors to this stunningly beautiful continent, assuming it will not be totally despoiled in the meantime.
My heart aches for it.
A delightful road trip for sure. So sorry about your pants!
Yes, the absence of tourism is harming many communities. It is heart breaking. I wonder how many people are choosing to retire rather than trying to keep afloat in these dreadful conditions.
After months of drought we are having flash flooding…. I hope you received enough, but not too much, rain.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the update about the eventful day in your life! When I see the chaos awaiting anyone wanting to travel by air, I prefer to stay in my own beautiful country. But as nothing stays the same, perhaps in the future things will change.
Joanna
…bleach is a wonderful product, but unforgiving… Forgive me for laughing. So beautifully put.
I echo your sentiments regarding your country, but also for the whole world, which feels the impact of a dangerous megalomaniac.
I read that tourism is collapsing in the US, especially from Canada. Small wonder, with tourists expected to had over their mobile phones and social media accounts for inspection. It’s probably simpler to visit North Korea instead. The changing trees and the discovery of the small lake are delightful.
Best wishes, Pete.
What a beautiful sunrise – the colours are so intense. Wonderful – I’m starting to see more autumn colours in your posts (those trees in the car’s rearview mirror are beautiful). This time of year, is a very beautiful time in your area and I can only imagine that tourists would enjoy visiting there (I would).
I’ve always tell my husband we need to travel more to see the world, but I never realized how beautiful the US is. Maybe when the kids are older, we can rent an RV and just see the national parks. That’s on my bucket list now.