SWITZERLAND Roaming through
Hobbit heaven JOHN SWITZER
Some road trips are “Missions”, as in: let’s
try out the two new bakeries in Merrickville; or “Tours”, as in: let’s head east or west. This tour began with “We Have No Idea
At All” – no idea which direction to take, no idea how far we wanted to go, no idea how long we could escape. We started out in our usual fashion, by
meeting at the Stittsville Timmie’s. We began driving, discussing which direction to take, and allowing the road and traffic to guide us as we tackled this momentous decision. We hit Carleton Place (another Timmie’s)
where a highway medium directed us west over the Mississippi River. We might have been headed for Lanark or Westport (we still weren’t sure) when we arrived at another Timmie’s in Perth. Perth is a celebrated destination, with
lots of imposing masonry construction, grand Victorian houses and the mighty Tay
20 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
River running through it. This is not just my opinion. Perth is the recent winner of the “Prince of Wales Prize for Architectural Preservation”. We wandered around for a bit, found an
old jail, the salvaged and reinvented Rideau Street bus shelters, and more stately homes, and then drifted west again. Roaming down the highway, we were
forced to stop at a traffic light that did not seem to have a good reason for being there. Taking this as a sign from the road gods, we turned south looking for some likely looking back roads. Finally we hit the jackpot. We discovered a small piece of hillbilly
heaven: rolling hills, endless knolls, small valleys, hardwood covered ridges and a tree- lined motorcross track snaking through it all. Each farm seemed to have its own private valley. There were lots of indications that
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