Blogs/St.Paul's Willimantic

Friday morning (the Friday after Irene that is) Marianne and I loaded the usual weekend stuff in the truck for a Friday/Saturday at our place in southern Vermont. This time of course checking for damage from Irene (none expected) was high on the agenda.

Left CT about 8:30; took the truck so we could take a load of firewood back. Hadn’t bothered to investigate the state of the situation up there – assumed there might be washouts on Captain Copeland but that main roads (including I91 south) would be passable by now. Around Greenfield MA there were signs that said 2W was closed; entering VT there was a route 9 closed warning. Otherwise the drive was uneventful – until we were about to take a break at the VT welcome center just outside Brattleboro.

While slowing down on the long grade before the entrance the brake peddle went to the floor – and didn’t come back. Got the truck slowed down and made my way to an empty corner of the parking lot. Looked underneath and didn’t see much. Several people stopped by to see if we needed a jump start. A sweet young women mechanic stopped by to check things out. She crawled under while I pumped the brake and she found it: the flex line to the left front wheel was broken off.

That’s good fortune Item #1 for the day! When I think back over my life I can see how lucky I’ve been. From gift grades in grad school to serious falls without serious damage this was one more gift of good fortune. When you drive a ’93 pickup you’ve got to expect stuff to break and under what better circumstances could you blow a brake line? To illustrate: Last week we came home heavy with a load of firewood. We get on Dover Hill Road near the top and it’s a long, steep drop to East Dover village – with a hard 90 degree corner near the bottom. If we had lost brakes then could I have got us around that corner?

Good fortune item #2: Called AAA for a tow. Since it was late morning on Friday of Labor Day weekend we expected to leave the truck at some garage and rent a car to get home. The local AAA garage was a rather ramshackle rural operation (kind of reminded me of Gary’s in Ashford).  My kind of place.   They were very nice, the line was in stock in Brattleboro, they put it in ($81) and we were on our way!

Meanwhile we had gotten a much better picture of the local road situation. (For example, the water level in Wilmington reached 2′ above the 1938 high water mark – a mark impressively high above the stream) and a lot of the center of town was wiped out.) Our turnoff from 30 would be just before a closed bridge so we would be able to reach Williamsville and we might make it from there to South Newfane and East Dover village and Dover Hill road.

Stopped in Burglar King for a late lunch. Broke a front tooth crown on a veggieburger. Don’t consider that particularly good luck… Back on the road: The West river was HIGH – and the color of milk chocolate. From the mud lines you could see where it had been. In the delta where it joins the Connecticut – at the place where we have launched our canoes and where the fish houses go out in the winter – the level must have been very close to or over route 30….

Got to the turnoff on 30 and then to Williamsville with no problem. Coming off the old concrete bridge our planned left towards South Newfane and East Dover was blocked by “local traffic only” signs and a sheriff. It was a “you can’t get there from here” moment! He didn’t think we could get there but said the best chance was to go to Newfane (on the the other side of the closed route 30 bridge) and try Wardsboro Road. While looking for Wardsboro Road we parked to study some maps and a man stopped to see if we needed help. Told him where we wanted to go and his opinion was that we probably wouldn’t be able to get through.

Marianne really wanted to keep trying but I figured that being unfamiliar with the roads, having no detailed maps, and no knowledge of local conditions our chances of making it were were not good. I was driving (and tired of driving) so I got to make the decision…. Back to Williamsville and the detour to 30, then to Brattleboro and I91.

The trip back was uneventful till we got to X26 in Greenfield. I had assumed I91 south had been reopened. Bad assumption. Off 91, creep down the hill to good old US 5; roll a few tenths of a mile at up to 20 mph and then stop, wait, creep, stop, wait, creep…. About an hour and a half later we reached X24 and got back on 91 (the last 1-1/2 miles took 24 minutes – painful). A few minor traffic issues later we made it back to Ashford. It was about 6:30.