"The USA, only colder and more civilized" Canada by melosh

We took the opportunity of a job change to make a family road trip through Jackman, Maine to Quebec and then west through Algonquin National Park to Niagara falls. Early in the morning sixteen miles from the border our car failed. I hitchhiked back to Jackman, Maine to get a tow truck. The people who picked me up said that we were lucky because when their car had broken down and in the part of Canada we were entering no one spoke English. In Maine we learned that the repair would take 3or4 days and cost as much as the car was worth, so I hired the mechanic to take us south to a town with a car dealership and used the last of our extra cash to buy a replacement car.
On the way back to Jackman I was impressed by the good mileage indicated by the gas gage that did not seem to have dropped during the trip. As the sun set, we transferred all our belongings into our "new" car.
Since my morning hitchhike I had been little worried about entering this part of Canada at night because I had not had time to refresh my French before the trip. This worry increased when,as we crossed the border, I watched the gas gage go suddenly from full to empty. Theoreticly we had no gas, no cash and no language.
This is not completely true because a banker friend had given each of my 3 kids 5 Canadian dollars. After they found 2 of the three bills I pulled into a gas station and holding up the 10 dollars I tried to say 10 dollars worth in French. The station man understood but he got so caught up in trying to give me directions to a motel that he gave us too much gas. He just smiled and said welcome in French.
My French started coming back in little bursts of fluent sentences that resulted in responses in completely incomprehensible rapid French. It took a couple stops before I could make our needs understandable and we found a suitable place we could pay with our credit card.
My wife and I remember this trip fondly for the culture, food, natural beauty and time with family in Canada, but I am not sure that my children remember anything beyond the car, the adventure and their contribution of $10 in an emergency.