On our way home — driving from Montréal to Newport (which takes just over seven hours, in case you're curious, if you don't stop too much or too long along the way) — we missed the exit. How did we miss the sign that said, essentially, "USA, this way??" I don't know. Busy talking, I guess. So we took the next exit (and it was a rather long way between exits), filled up with gas (which we needed to do anyway) and inquired of the pleasant young man behind the counter at the gas station if it'd be easier to retrace our steps/tracks/treads back along the highway, or if we could just head South from here/there and find our way along the back roads. He shrugged and said he wasn't sure — he'd never been to the U.S. — but that he thought we could take a left, then another left for Billington (Burlington??) down the road a ways, and we'd get there. We weren't all that confident in his answer, mostly because he wasn't confident in his answer, but we didn't want to get back on the highway and waste time going backwards, so figured we'd try it. Then we remembered the GPS — ah, yes, the GPS; how did we forget that?? And it told us (in that weird GPS accent) a different way. So off we went, feeling much better (about everything). Long story short — because, really, we're getting in the car again this morning to head to NYC, and I have to stop blabbering so I can pack a bag — in following the advice of the sage GPS, we were on a completely deserted and desolate back road with no confidence whatsoever in where we were headed, generally or specifically, in no time. Canada was suddenly huge, flat, empty, enormous and the only landmark was the strange, dark, mound of mountains we'd seen crouching in the distance all weekend, except now they were closer, i.e., this did not feel like the right direction at all. In fact, it felt kinda freaky. So we pulled over (at a beat-up, forlorn-looking mailbox), turned around, found our way back to the gas station, where we turned left — exactly as that pleasant young man (to whom I wish all manner of happy travels) had said — and wound our way to the USA (and home!) without further incident ...
