The road lead to home
The end of the trip blues have hit, even though the road to home is still hours long. The motel in Rivere-Madeleine was a quick packup. Coffee in Ste-Anne-des-Monts was even quicker, and then we started the last leg of the Gaspé.
The whole windmill thing is starting to work in this part of the world. I knew that Cap-Chat had been in research mode for close to three decades (after the Magdalen Island eggbeater autorotated into self-destruction), but they now have a production farm in place, with 76 in place. We spotted three other sites, one near Pointe-de-la-Renommée last afternoon, another as we left Baie-des-Sables and a large development near Matane. This map at the Hydro-Quebec site shows that there were many more…
Matching new technologies with older ones, we stopped to tour the lighthouse at La Martre, where a charming young guide gave a demonstration that was from the heart. This installation still has the original clockwork mechanism and a mercury bearing that is kept under close scrutiny by the environmental people. Twelve litres of “silly metal” will have that effect. It’s sad to realize we will be building no new lighthouses, now that the GPS is synonymous with navigation. In passing, my GPS has faithfully recorded a month of travel.
With some convincing, our intrepid pilot agreed to another stop at a museum, this time in Trois-Pistoles. Old cars and artifacts of the gas station world might not be for everyone, but the 86 year old proprietor (and his son) go out of the way to personalize the visit. Well worth the detour.
But, the road leads to home. With no incidents in a month, other than the destruction of two seatbelts by a homesick dog, the trip has gone well. I’ll do my final calculation of how far, how much, etc. later. We were back home and the car was unloaded before dark. The dog was estatic. I wasn’t. Vacation should be longer.
