Almost Home

Watertown, NY; mile 3,239


everyone misspells my name...

So much to pray for tonight; thanksgiving for being so close to home, and for being safe so far (which, as in Pilgrim's Progress, is a safety sometimes inspite of my actions -- trying to take a picture while driving on a high bridge, for instance), but also for the folks staying in this Travelodge hotel in Watertown. This was the last free room in the hotel, adn the other hotels are equally booked. Turns out Watertown is home to Fort Drum, which in turn is home to the Army's 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry). Originally founded as a skiing unit, they're now serving in northern Iraq and in Afghanistan. The hotels are full of parents, children, spouses, friends and sibilings of soldiers...Praying also in response to the news from 'za that her parents will probably be coming to the US during the last week of July. And praying for Tom Shepherd, long time parishoner at Messiah, whose memorial service will be on Saturday.

Another beautiful drive today, across most of Ontario past Lake Nipissing and then along the Ottowa River that separates Ontario from Quebec. I turned south just before Ottowa (every Canadian with whom I spoke would follow mention of Ottowa by the phrase "our capitol city," as if to remind Americans that Canada is a sovereign nation). The countryside abruptly shifted from craggy rocks (did you know that Ontario, Upper Peninsual Michigan and Wisconsin are all mining country? There are gold and copper mines in Wisconsin, iron along Lake Superior and huge nickle reserves in Ottowa...) to bucolic pastures, cows lazing along the Mississippi River. Yes, the Mississippi River, but not the one Huck Finn and Jim rafted down. This Mississippi is barely 30 miles long, though beautiful. As the Be Good Tanyas declare, the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.



Besides the Canadian Mississippi, there were a several other memorable sights today. North of Watertown, NY, someone has erected three 20' high black metal crows, standing life-like, if outsized, in a field along the highway. And then there was the Logos Cafe, shaped like Noah's Ark:



While I didn't eat there (after all, there was only one of me, and I thought perhaps the ark might demand a pair), I did get another great road food experience. If Minnesota has the Hot Meatloaf, then eastern Canada has poutine, an incredible, heart-stopping (literally) concotion of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Sometimes sausage or hamburger or mushrooms are mixed in as well. It is delicous, dark, heavy. There is even, for those of you who have Real Audio, an Ode to Poutine, with such memorable lines as "I saw the best stomachs of my generation destroyed by poutine...dragging themselves through the fast-food streets at dawn, looking for a fix." This region is also home to another North American invention, Thousand Island dressing, named after the beautiful islands along the St. Laurence River:



Tomorrow, an early morning drive through the Adirondacks, lunch in Petersham MA with Jason (my brother) and home by the late afternoon -- provided I remember to call the guy who my landlord gave the housekeys to!