Dinner at Prince and Pauper, on to Maine

With Mac at Conlys at the Prince and Pauper

A rainy morning, here at Mac's though I can see some sun peaking through the clouds off his back porch.  We were up till midnight talking, after a great dinner at the Prince and Pauper, with Dale and Jeanne, who came in from New Hampshire.  They are doing well, overseeing an addition to their house, a new garage with living quarters above, which their son in law, who is paying for it, a Brit, calls a carriage house (a great idea kids).  Dale said it's costing 400,000 bucks.

Our drive was through rain and a bit of sun yesterday, not terrible, but not as nice as we had hoped.  It rained buckets for about ten minutes in Albany, and all the way from the NY border through Vermont to Mac's house.  The road from Rutland to Woodstock was devastating, as the floods in late August took out roads, houses, cliffs, bridges, and we could still see lots of damage though as Mac said, lots of the houses which were taken out are gone.  I guess the river was filled with floating debris, wood, trees, parts of homes, propane tanks, animals.  Lots of people lost everything, there homes, cars, and many had no flood insurance.  The farmers market here in town, just up from Mac's, was completely wiped out.

Mac has been helping out as much as he can, especially his neighbors, a nice family whose house is still unlivable.  In fact, the Dad and his two sons came over to meet us yesterday for cocktails  He's a good guy, works for UPS, and his boys have gotten to know Mac well at the library.  Mac makes them a meal once a week, and helps out with the boys when ever they need it. The generosity of the people here in Woodstock has been overwhelming according to Mac, one wealthy resident writing a check for 10,000 for this family to help them stay on their feet.  Shackleton's, the furniture store where Mac works, had their basement flooded, where they kept all their wood and machinery.  All had to be sent out to be re milled and dried, with the machinery, each pieces reworked and oiled, quite an expense.

We are going off to breakfast with Mac, to Stellas, his favorite new place and he's going to take us around and show us some of the damage in town.  According to the locals, his a hundred year storm.  We'll see.

We are now in the Cascade Coffee shop, in the town of Woodstock, in the middle of the White Mountains.  We are going to cross them into Maine, probably an hour or more to get down to the flatlands, then on to Armontrouts.  We have been winding our way up and down mountain roads to get to this point, somewhat scruffy pines, rapid creeks, an occasional house, not much that looks well off, a bit like West Virginia actually.  Obviously, this is hiking area, not for tourists much.

We had lunch with Mac at his favorite place Stellas, a great omelet, then off to LL Beans where I got some waterproof walking shoes, Evie another pair of sunglasses.  She be cool.  Time to head to Trouts.

Dale and I

Mac and Evie

Mac, Evie and friends