A day trip with the whole family
As my uncle used to say, “There and back again, all in the same day”. Today was an Official Family Roadtrip Afternoon, the like of which hasn’t been seen hereabouts in a couple of years.
After all, we’ve changed vehicles; downsized, as they say. No more van with room for the neighbourhood. We’re a subcompact family now, because the calculation in hand made one thing clear. We don’t need seven passenger seating for a regular twosome or threesome. The good thing about our Versa-tile life is that there’s an inordinate amount of leg room.
This was the first time that the three sons and two parents have been down to see the local ancestors in “far too long”, and after two hours of up and down through the hills of the northern Appalachian landscape we were ready to arrive. How hilly you ask? Here’s the profile from the GPS…
As an oldtime newspaper clipping might put it, “It was noted that the three children had grown into men”. I am now, officially and with witnesses, shorter than all of my children. The only saving grace is that I am still wider.
The house is on a lovely piece of land overlooking a large lake. A lake filled with boats. Motorboats. Pontoon boats. Hardly a sail in view, and oars are an afterthought. I learned that this property used to be a resort site: the Plage Roberge, back between the wars. Dance hall and all, apparently, reminding me of my own contact with Anchor Beach in another time and place. Time to learn some history.
