Once again, we are back on the water. Burlington to Rouses Point

We were overly optimistic thinking the fuel pump would be in on Tuesday and remained optimistic that it would be in on Wednesday. It finally arrived late morning on Thursday and was installed mid-afternoon. Importantly, the port engine started fine and is running smoothly again. A great sound. We intended to stay in Burlington 2 nights but, due to circumstances, stayed 4 nights. In spite of the engine problem and the cool, wet weather, we decided to make the most of our time.

Our timing was good - the annual Vermont Jazz Festival was in downtown Burlington while we were at the marina and we were within walking distance so we enjoyed the festivities during the day and in the evenings we were in town. We rented a car for one day and did some needed shopping and re provisioning (with the obligatory trip to West Marine). We also drove to Stowe, Vermont on Wednesday morning and visited this charming little ski village. While in Stowe, we were able to visit one of the few remaining covered bridges in Vermont. This first picture, of Pia posing with a bear (not real), is taken at a lodge in Stowe where Jack had attended a meeting over 10 years ago. This next picture is Jack at Emily's Covered Bridge north of Stowe. Although the day was cool and wet, we really enjoyed getting off the boat and seeing some of Vermont from the road.

The next picture is "Still Busy" at the Burlington Community Docks as we departed on Friday morning - the weather was wet, wet, wet but cleared as we made our way up Lake Champlain. We departed Burlington on Friday morning for out 40 mile trip to Rouses Point, NY at the top of the lake. This is the last stop before entering Canada and we can actually now see Canada from our marina. Tomorrow morning, we will leave the marina and make the 2 mile trip to the Canadian Customs pier. We should be in Canada for at least the next 6 weeks and look forward to seeing this country from the water. Upon arriving at the marina, we walked into "town". This is a picture of Pia on main street in Rouses Point and "Still Busy" tied to the dock at Lighthouse Marina (if you look closely you can see Jack on the aft deck waving).

It is hard to believe that it was only 2 months ago when we left Charleston to begin our great adventure. We have passed through numerous states, waterways, canals, bays, rivers, locks, and cultural regions in the US and are about to enter another country. The trip so far has been beyond our expectations and we fully expect Canada to reach this same level. We look forward to continuing the journey and keeping everyone up to date on our travels. We are not getting a lot of comments on the blog but do get emails from friends about the postings, particularly the pictures. We continue to encourage everyone to send comments either on the blog or on email. Keep in mind that we cannot respond to comments left on the blog but we do read them all.