We decided, the night before departure - having checked on the Internet to discover that work on the Champlain bridge through Montreal was interfering with the free flow of traffic as a result of repairs, which left drivers with two-hour transit waits - to bypass Montreal in favour of going the Cornwall-to-New York route instead. Knowing that it was not our preferred route, and would end up costing us at least an hour and a half more time in travel, we felt we had little choice.

So we drove into Cornwall, took the bridge over the St.Lawrence river over to Akwasasne, then on toward the border where we were subjected to the usual queries by a U.S. border agent, and allowed through on the New York side. We noted the passage of a bulk carrier under the bridge as we passed.

It was a hot, humid day with more heat and humidity promised for the coming days when we would be away on our week's holiday in New Hampshire.

In New York state, the sight of wind farms, with those giant arms rotating to produce energy, despite the merest whisper of a wind, struck us as bizarre, really quite fascinating. The windmills standing like great sentries marching against the landscape make for a challenging view of the area. They haven't, after all, turned out to be a great energy source, though they still remain a viable (inadequate) alternative. But their destruction of bird life is dreadful.

The drive was otherwise uneventful, and longer than it should have been since we were not on expressways throughout the drive, given the route taken. When we turned in to take advantage of a state tourism rest stop to eat a brunch we had brought along with us, we happened to strike up a conversation with two women who had driven there from Montreal. Who informed us that they had taken the Champlain bridge, and it had been wide open.

Sometimes, using resources available to find out the latest information turns out not to be such a good idea; had we spurned using the Internet for a traffic update for Montreal, we would have chanced upon a clear passage through the bridge, thus shortening our travel time considerably.