Sweet Campbellton

After spending time over the past few weeks in Beauce, Moncton, and Campbellton, I can honestly say I am a fan of that tiny town by the raging St. Lawrence river. The people are friendly, the fast food tastes almost as good as the nightly 5pm dinners cooked by Grandma and Grandpa Smollett, and based on 6 hours straight of playing Rock Band, their pseudo-instrumental skills are unbeatable. Hats off to Phil singing "Roxanne" by The Police in the 4th hour. If you think it's easy for a baritone voice squelching out the same falsetto word 50 times in one song you're wrong, my friends. Don't try that at home.

Tonight we're in the Bangor airport. It's in Maine, and it's the nearest large airport to Campbellton at a bitty 5 hours away. We rode with his Aunt June in his mom's lovely grape mini-van, packed with two overweight suitcases and a bike bag. We stopped about 5 times in 5 hours because I have a small bladder. No, not a small bladder problem, just a very small bladder. Yes, there's a difference (I think?). Oh yeah, and we got stopped at the border and questioned by the immigration control because I got too friendly with the lad outside. For some reason I decided for myself that we were having a real conversation about Phil and my life, so I told him more, rather than less. This meant 20 minutes of questioning in the office that was concluded with a massive search of the grapemobile. Poor little suitcases. They were tidy before the land monster lady went through them, as Phil called her. He's normally an overly P-C person, but in this case, because she wasn't extremely cordial, I set aside my MN-nice attitude and will call her that too. In any case, I got a thorough lecturing from Phil about information and privacy and borders with an entire line-up of anecdotes and "what ifs"... the whole shebang. Needless to say, I am a newbie to the system that many Canadians are more than used to. Stupid borders.

Anyway, onward ho to the land of 10,000 lakes, the common loons and ladyslippers, the mammoth-sized mosquitoes, and my wonderful family!

Oh, and the hair - I tried dying it myself. It turned fluourescent yellow. Tomorrow I am banking on a fun visit to a hair stylist for minor color correction and a massive chop. Pictures coming soon!