We were invited to speak at a Theology of the Body conference in Maine on Thanksgiving weekend. Like all our trips, it turned out to be quite an adventure!
We rented a car on Thursday, October 5th and started driving. The plan was to drive as far as we wanted, then find a motel for the night. Well, the road between Montreal and Stanstead on the border is quite lovely, but the hotels in Stanstead were all too scary to contemplate, so even though it was 7:30 and we were starving, we crossed the border and found a motel in Newport. The town is on the end of a large lake that crosses the border and by the looks of it is quite a summer holiday kind of place.
The next day, we completed the drive to Maine, arriving at about 4:30, just in time to change clothes and head out for a Vespers service before dinner; hosted by the conference organizers, it brought together all the volunteers and all the speakers. On the way through Vermont and New Hampshire (their license plates really do say "Live Free or Die" I wonder if they mean it) we drove through the southern extent of the Green Mountains. They were very spectacularly beautiful. At one point, there was this incredible cliff to our right, hundreds of feet high, but since the road was really narrow and twisting, I didn't even TELL your dad about it, I was afraid he'd look and drive off the road! I told him about it later though, when the road widened again, and he laughed and agreed that I had been right.
It was really nice to meet all the people before the conference, because in the busyness of a conference, there really isn't much time to chat, unless you want to earn disapproving looks by skipping a talk. We hardly got to speak to Christopher West at all, just a quick hug really, and we really wanted to, to find out how he was doing and maybe to tell him a bit about our experience with the ToB material. But, since we kept missing him, I must assume God has other plans.
I had an "Ilaria moment" in reverse! When Matthew, Ilaria and I went canoe tripping first week of July, Ilaria had a hard time accepting/understanding that there were no people around, that she was surrounded by literally hundreds of acres and kilometers of empty bush. "No people?" "No industry?" No.
When we were driving the last mile to the Sebago Lake Lodge where we were to stay, I was looking around and thinking to myself, "We must be lost, there can't be a lodge here, there's too many houses!" Not just cottages either, year round houses. But, no, there was a lodge. Very nice place, I can see that it would be popular in the summer time, they had cottages and lots of docks and a big guest house. It was nice. I wouldn't mind going back some time when it was warm enough to swim, the water was incredibly clear.
Here are some pictures of the Lodge, the guest house on the right where we stayed and two shots of the lake that we could see from our bedroom. Pretty nice, huh?
The conference was good, but a bit disappointing. Our talk "Conscience and Formation" was given in a big auditorium but there were only about 20 people there, including interestingly enough 3 teenaged boys. That talk was taped and video taped. (I thought I'd be nervous about the video taping, but I forgot about it entirely.) With the sound system for the room itself, it meant a total of three microphones, and since there were two of us speaking, a shortage of microphones. We ended up with all three attached together at the podium and Dad couldn't move around, which he finds very difficult. Even with that though, because we've given this talk before, it sounds better on the CD than our other talk, "Marriage Preparation and the Theology of the Body."
It was given in the chapel, again a large room, very distracting to have the Presence of the tabernacle behind your right shoulder, and a slightly bigger crowd. Maybe about 40 people. It's a good talk, but with lack of practice and a stuffed up nose that made Dad sniff, it sounds terrible! Lots of laughter from the audience though, so a fairly good reception. Only one of the other speakers - Steve Podosky - came to listen to that one.
We went out that night for dinner with some of the other speakers and Betty Ann Casaretti, a woman from Connecticut that we'd met at the training course for the "God's Plan for a Joyfilled Marriage" course. Your Dad also took the ToB summer institute with her. It was a nice dinner, Dad had lobster, I had crab cakes. Hey, we're in Maine, why not?
The next day we headed home, again planning to drive until we were tired then find a hotel. Mistake. It was about 6 pm when we got to Burlington, Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. Imagine our surprise when all the hotels were full! Apparently, there's a university in Burlington. It was "homecoming weekend," "parent's weekend" and, as the hotel clerk told us (we eventually found one of the last 8 rooms left in the entire town) all the "leaf peepers" were out. Tell me about it. The fall leaves were at their peak and we'd spent the day driving through the Green and White mountains, through not only traffic but people with cameras running across the highway to take a picture! Again, a spectacular and tiring day.
Memorably, there was a massive traffic jam in Freyburg, New Hampshire. When we got close enough, reading license plates from all over the States, and seeing masses of people walking along the side of the road, we discovered that it was the weekend of the Freyburg Fair. Of course! How could we forget that?! I was sorry we didn't have time to stop, I told your Dad it was an unparalleled sociological and anthropological study opportunity. Oh well. On the way out of Freyburg, the line of oncoming cars was at least 2 miles long - we measured.
Here are some more pictures, this time of the mountains. We would have taken more, but the battery on the camera ran down.
The next day, we started driving again. Upper New York state is quite ugly. We missed the turn off for the International Bridge at Cornwall AGAIN, looked around the duty free shop but couldn't quite figure out the point of it all, and headed for Ottawa. It's amazing how few questions our customs people ask.
We picked up Robert at Tina's, had dinner with them, then came home. Then we slept for a long time. Note to remember: none of this family wants to ever buy a Cobalt. It's supposedly the replacement for the Cavalier, but it's just smaller enough to kill our backs. Dad's head was brushing the roof. Had a sun roof though, that was nice.
Anyway. That was our Maine adventure.
