It’s no mystery why the trip went so well: It was Dave

It didn't take the full week's vacation before I was smitten with Dave.

He made me feel safe and secure. Sometimes, when ignored, he spoke a tad sternly, but most of the time, he was the perfect gentleman.

Dave guided me through more than 1,200 miles of dirt roads, back roads and highways, through the hills and valleys of Vermont, then into Quebec Province. We traveled to tiny villages in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Then we headed into Quebec City, where, without Dave, who knew the one-way streets and dead ends, I doubt whether we would have found our hotel.

Dave was perfection. Understanding. Forgiving. Always willing to help. He even spoke decent French, or so it seemed to me, whose own ninth-grade French is more indecent than decent.

I miss him now that I'm back in Las Vegas, but it didn't work out.

Dave returned to the woman he began with, my traveling pal. Dave belonged to her, not me. They had been together for years, but didn't grow close until this trip.

He was her GPS, not mine.

As Global Positioning Systems go, Dave was a godsend.

My friend drove while I allegedly navigated. My fatal flaw? Too much time reading in the car and I get queasy.

Without the GPS Man instructing us where to turn, even naming the streets, our road trip could have been miserable. We never would have found the Hovey Manor in North Hatley, Quebec, a hotel recommended in "1000 Places to See Before You Die."

This trip had two purposes, aside from escaping the brown, dusty desert and luxuriating in countless shades of green in trees, fields and grasses.

My friend wanted to see the lands where her ancestors, English Loyalists, fled to during the American Revolution. They settled in the area just across the border from Vermont. Small 19th-century villages such as Sutton, Dunham and Knowlton held a special meaning for her.

I wanted to see Sutton as well because it's where Louise Penny, my favorite living mystery writer, lives. She agreed to give me an interview for a travel story I'll write later, focusing on places that inspired her imagination in the Inspector Armand Gamache series. I wanted to see the area where she set her mythical village of Three Pines.

Penny spent 18 years as a radio journalist, before marrying her own hero, Dr. Michael Whitehead, and publishing her first book in 2005. Today, she's a best-selling, award-winning writer whose first two books, "Still Life" and "Fatal Grace" have been optioned for television movies.

Penny takes on big themes in her writing. Tyranny. Greed. Forgiveness. Irreparable mistakes. Alcoholism. Jealousy. Hope.

We stayed two nights at Hovey Manor, the prototype for Manoir Bellechasse from "A Rule Against Murder," Penny's fourth book, the first set outside of Three Pines. We sipped drinks on the lawn gazing at Lake Massawippi, just as Inspector Gamache did. We strolled the garden envisioning murder suspects. We ate gourmet Quebecois food in the dining room, eyeballing prospective killers. And we interviewed Penny in the perfect setting - Hovey's library.

We even journeyed to the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-du-Lac, the prototype setting for her eighth book out in August - "The Beautiful Mystery." Our arrival was just in time to hear Benedictine monks, who have chosen not to speak, sing Gregorian chants at Vespers. None of them looked like a murderer.

We checked out bistros, general stores, B&B's , even bookstores, contemplating places and spaces prompting Penny's imagination and murderous thoughts.

It was a perfect road trip, an adventure into an unfamiliar territory, one that pushed our own imaginations back into the hard life of the 1700s and 1800s while allowing us to learn more about a talented modern writer.

But without Dave, it wouldn't have been nearly so perfect.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison