From the sublime to the ridiculous!

If things were always wonderful, would life become boring? Well, we don't know, because there's enough variation in our trip to keep us well and truly on our toes. We left Maine, having followed our wonderful times at the Manor Inn at Castine and the Bar Harbor Inn with a delightful night with ATC hosts Fred and Cheryl and their huge labradoodle, Beamer, and headed back into New Hampshire, anticipating another delightful night at the Crotched Mountain Resort at Francestown NH (wonder why we chose to go there?) Almost every school in SE Maine was closed, due to huge winds and rain, but we paddled along country roads inland with no problems at all, and spent some delightful hours at the Shaker village outside of Concord NH, arriving at the resort just on dark ... which is now 4.30 pm because daylight saving ended at the weekend!

As we waited for the inefficient girl on the desk to finish several phone calls before booking us in, we saw a notice on the counter about an e-coli problem at the resort, only to be told that it was nothing to worry about. You can imagine our horror when we got to our condo to find a 5-page document from the EPA, telling us, among other things, to boil all water for 2 minutes before drinking, NOT to shower, NOT to clean our teeth, NOT to wash our hands after going to the toilet, NOT to use plates, cups, cutlery etc until it had been soaked in a bleach solution for 30 minutes!!! These fussy Aussies immediately rang the desk to be told "Oh, just don't worry about it"!! However, we persisted, insisted on speaking with the manager, and there were great back-downs all round ... with the result that we left the resort (thankfully!) and proceeded some 20 miles (30 km) through the darkness, wind and rain, to the Jack Daniels Inn at Peterborough NH, where our accommodation was pre-paid by the resort (we'd booked, and paid previously, from Australia). What a welcome they gave us!

We now have had our faith restored, feel that we have at least a fair-to-middling chance of continuing to travel healthily, and are heading for Boston. Wish us luck!

PS On the television news this morning (worth watching now that the mid-term election is over, and the ghastly political ads gone) there was news that the Carnival Splendor, the wonderful new ship we spent 7 weeks on in 2009, around South America, has had a fire in the engine-room, and is floating helplessly off Mexico with 4,500 passengers and crew on board. They are VERY much in our thoughts!