Other Brother Daryl

There are several good reasons to be back in the US. The roads signs are in English, not French ,and speed limits are mph not kilometers. Fuel is only $4 a gallon vs $6 in Canada.(so quit you grumbling) and my cell phone is back to free long distance instead of rather onerous international rates in Canada. And reason #1...US has card readers so you can pay for your fuel by credit card at the pump without having to go inside and stand in line to pay. (Can you believe there, was a time in our history when we did not have pay at the pump, or automatic tellers, or even TV remotes. How did we endure?) Anyway, there was one exception at a fuel stop just south of Quebec City. Not only did they have pay at the pump. They had rest rooms located right on the gas islands...Wow! Now that is an idea whose time has come...So we left Newport, Vermont bright an early this AM with the vague intent of making it as close as possible to Niagara Falls. Hard to believe Beav and Smoke in all their travels have never been to Niagara Falls, but I am trying to be accommodating . Besides I may decide to be the first in history to go over the falls on a V-Strom. We stayed north, snuggling up against the south shore of the St Lawrence waterway and traveling thru rolling green hill country. The grass really is greener here, seeming to prefer the cooler temperatures rather than the transitional zone temperatures of E. Tenn. Northern Vermont is farmland; nice little family dairy farms scattered among the hills. Traveling on a bike is said to offer the advantages of heightened senses, but heightened olfaction when riding past these farms was definitely a negative. These barns reaked with the foulest of odors, to the point where I held my breath til my nail beds were cyanotic. I grew up on a cattle farm and our cows never smelled like that.Whatever they feed these cows they could do with more fiber. Stopped at a little cafe in some small town for coffee.Stereotypical Vermonters in there. Expected Bob Newhart to walk thru the door any minute In fact there were 2 guys in there ,both named Daryl...looked like brothers to me...boog