It’s a zoo.  Gina was REALLY excited to go there because she had learnt about it (or seen a picture of it) in one of her textbooks.

Inside was a bit of a letdown.  The first part was about like the area in the Wpg zoo, where the have all the snakes and monkeys.  It’s hot, humid, and kinda dark.  It’s also way more crowded than it should be.

My experience with Zoos is interesting.  I’m really familiar with Seaworld Orlando.  It’s easily the zoo I’ve seen the most, and it’s also one of my favorites.  I’m also familiar and impressed with Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Busch Gardens.  Even Discovery Cove or Gatorland.  There’s a locational theme here, isn’t there.

Now, I know, the readers here are thinking “these are amusement parks, not zoos”.  And they’re kind of right.  They sell tickets to get in, and there are rides and stuff.  But at the same time, they keep live animals, and have all the same concerns as a traditional zoo.  Except one - Space.

I’ll pick just Seaworld as my example here.

So Seaworld is a zoo.  It has Dolphins, Stingrays, Whales, Manitee, etc.  They are often trained for performing in shows and exhibits.  There’s certainly a component here that says it’s using the animal to make a profit, and that IS the case.  No argument.  On the other hand, it’s also really clear that the the animals enjoy being there.  Perhaps that because they don’t know better, or perhaps it’s just a great place.  Either way, they’re happy there, and enjoy their lives.  They interact with each other, and with people on a daily basis, and generally (though not always) they also have “leave me alone” areas where they can just be alone and grumpy if they want.   Tellingly, most don’t want to be alone.

But Zoos themselves are different.

In the biodome, most of the fish had rubbed their jaws away from rubbing on the aquarium glass.  This can happen for two reasons.  At the biodome, I believe it’s space.  They’re simply too crowded to be able to “live” and they’re trying to find an escape.  Which is a horrible way to live.

The other alternative is that they’re just looking for something else that’s new.  An interaction, anything.  But something that’s new and mentally stimulating.  I know, they’re just fish, and fish are dumb, but I struggle with that idea.  Partly because it’s clear fish “know” different people.  The Stingrays in Texas loved playing with me, and were climbing the tank to follow me when I had to leave.   But they had no escape from the little kids teasing them, even at the back of the aquarium.  I can’t help but think zoos would be far more effective if the animals were more able to wander on their own.  To pick and choose who they wanted to play with.  Be that a human, or a bird that’s just there for a day during a southern migration.  The more the zoo seems to limit that interaction, the worse the zoo.  And the worse the animals.

I don’t think I really saw that prior to our trip here.  I knew that people complained about zoos, I’ve heard all the controversy about the zoo in Calgary.  I’d like to challenge zoos with this idea.  There are lots of animals that can’t live n the wild.  There are lots of reasons for that.  Perhaps the Manitee in Seaworld most clearly showing it up.  They all have missing limbs, or whatever, following a collision with a boat prop.  THAT is who should be in a zoo.  Same with the turtles.  They have an operation (usually they’ve eaten fishing line, which they can’t digest, and they’ll die without having it removed surgically).  These animals are brought to Seaworld.  My admission pays for their care, usually, I’ll buy the fish that feed them, and then once they’ve healed, they are released.  This is an awesome arrangement, and it’s REALLY hard to argue that it isn’t a great deal for the animals too.

But there are lots of places where the zoos just need to be closed outright.  The biodome is one.

In addition to the fish, the Penguin had worn the paint off the wall trying to rub their way out with their beaks/faces.  This isn’t a good thing.   The fish they eat is thrown in as a clump of dead frozen scraps.

Contrasting this with say Parc Whatever where we were a few weeks back, where the coyotes occasionally did decide that they wanted live prey, and took down a deer or a pig.  This is how it should be.

It’s just interesting to see that some zoos treat animals so well, and others are so much the opposite.

The biodome doesn’t have enough space for as many animals as they have.  As such, it should choose to focus on one particular area or it should be shut down.  Either way, there needs to be more space for the animals.

Over and out.

We walked down the road a bit, and the kids fished.  They didn’t really catch anything for a few hours, but then a little boy walked over.  He didn’t speak english, and was likely about 10.  He told them they should be using works, which we all knew, but the girls don’t like handling, so we didn’t.

Anyway, he hung out for a few mins and then he left.  ABout 5 mins later, he came back with a tray full of worms for the girls.  Gina was bored anyway, having caught nothing for hours, so she gave him the rod.  5 mins later he pulled one in.  It was REALLY little, but the excitement was immediate.

The boy took the fish home to scare his sister (Boys rule!)  And the girls forgot to be afraid of the worms.

5 mins later, Melanie had caught one, and the boy was coming back with a pail thing, his little bro, and his sister.

I broke some treebranches for the three of them, and took some of the girls line, and pretty soon everyone was catching fish.  Fish might be a stretch, but it’s just fun to pull them out and that they did.  Again and again.

Nobody in the family there spoke English, so it was a good way for the girls now to want to use their French.  Which was great to see.

After a few hours, and 17 “fish” we came back as the campground was having a BBQ fundraiser thing to raise money to send kids to camp.  So we went.  Ate too many burgers.

Had a relaxing evening listening to a couple from Alberta who couldn’t stop talking.

I should mention, we took Jazzy to the vet this AM.  She’s been sick lately, but is clearly on the mend now, but with poo, puke and blood on the floor this AM, we took her in.  We all finally like her, it’d be a shame if she croaked.

The couple at the campground just gave us keys to their car to take her.  They’ve been WAY beyond what could be expected.  This was amazing.  I’d highly recommend staying here.  West Montreal KOA.

Tomorrow, I’ll be busy building a new network for a new client of ours.  So I’ll be working like a dog for a few days.  Hopefully it’ll be all good for Monday, we’ll see.

This is short, but it’s late.  I ust wanted to post something at least.

Over and out.

It was smaller and more focused that I had expected.  The main floor was only bees, ants, and termites.  This was a bit interesting because we were worried back in Alabama that we had termites in the RV.  They weren’t termites…  And they’re gone…  And even if they were termites, the unexpected trip back to Canada will have frozen them to death easily.

In the lower level, there were scorpions, butterflies, moths, and beetles.  Including some REALLY weird beetles.

Not particularly my thing, but I like learning, so what the heck.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to learn, even.  Mostly, it was just displays.  One display that was quite an interesting site was an arch of plants.  Plants is a stretch, mostly it was like tree branches or vines.  Anyway, they connected a food side with a home side.  So there was a river of ants carrying food from the one sode to the other.  It was quite interesting to see.

The gift shop didn’t have much.  So Melanie bought some flavored honey, and we went to come home.

Here’s where the excitement today really began.

Our truck was gone.

Not kidding, no joke.  We’re an hour from “home”, and we have no vehicle.

So we called onstar.  We had been inside for less than an hour and a half.  Onstar had already been disabled.  Being a US company, they were unable to contact the police in Canada.  911 doesn’t work for them.  *** Note to Onstar.  You suck!  This is what you brag about.  You should at least be able to do it. *** So after watching this circus for a while, we ended that call, and I called 911.  A car was being sent.  So then we called our insurance people, family, had a few conversations around work.  Nicole and the girls grabbed some food, we made more phone calls.  It’s been 2 hours, still no cop.  The girls found and teased and then hand fed a squirrel.  More phone calls for work.  Phone battery is almost dead.  Finally, the cop shows up.  We give him the story.  He doesn’t really care, but is polite enough.  Tells us that this type of vehicle will be torn apart into parts by now, and will not be found.  We ask about getting home.  He says we might be able to rent a car, but he can’t drive because he can’t seat us all and there aren’t enough officers on duty anyway.  Then he leaves.  After another hour or so of calling around, we finally get a cab to take us to a car rental place, we rent a car, and we make it home.

So here we are.  We don’t know when or how we’ll get home.  We ESPECIALLY don’t know when or how the Titanium will get home.  I am REALLY glad to be here in an RV.  We’ve had problems on the road before, blown clutches, blown wheel bearings, there’s always something.  This was an unexpected event.  But we’re fairly well equipped to deal with it here.  We were hoping to be in the peg for Sunday, but that won’t happen now.  Not sure what the plan will be.  Nicole will be busy calling all over the place tomorrow while we work/study.

Nicole sent out an email, to lots of people, updating them on what was happening.  One responded fairly quickly.  Her email summed it up well.  Just one word.

“Wow.”

What else can you say.  These things just kinda always work out for me.  Not sure why, but they do.  So much so that I like when they happen.  It’s more than I can handle personally, and I think they happen just so I’m reminded that God is paying attention and wants to show us again that we can rely on him.  So we will.  Not sure of his plan right now, but life’s an adventure, and he’s a good guide.  I trust that through this he has a plan and is bringing it to fruition.

I’m excited to wake up tomorrow and see.  For me, these times are the best.  It’s clearly outside my control, so it’s much easier to just step back, and let God drive.  Don’t know where he’s going, but he knows the best detours.  I wonder if this one will be slow and scenic, or fast and exhilarating.  Either way, I’m glad we’re taking it.  Can’t wait for morning.  For the first time in almost 6 months, I can honestly say I’m really glad to be on this trip again.  It’s a good feeling.

We’ll keep you posted.

Over and out.

About the first thing I noticed is that multiculteralism is a complete failure.  Every restaurant, everyclerk, every person everywhere here basically speaks twice, “Bonjour, comment ca va? Hello, how are you?”  Which is a stupid way of asking “French or English”.   It effectively guarantees the loss of French over a fairly short period of time.  Basically, because now, in order to be hired for a job, you need to speak both French and English.  And since English is the lowest common denominator, French is a useless language here, and it will quickly be dropped.  This is particularly obvious with the younger generation, where they can fluently speak French, but prefer to speak English amongst themselves.  Combined with the innundation of English culture (the background music in the stores is English, the movies are mostly English, generally even the names of the stores) the need for French is simply dead.  At the moment, there are enough people still speaking it that it might have some value in communicating with the older generation, but I suspect French will literally die with them, much as it has in the remainder of Canada.  (Nicole’s parents spoke French, Nicole speaks both, Gina can kinda speak French, but certainly not enough that her children will be able to, and Melanie sees it as useless and frustrating, even though she can easily communicate in it.)   I’m not completely sure how to feel about this.

On one hand, Canadian Culture hasn’t really existed very long, maybe a couple of hundred years, so it’s quite different from most European or Asian cultures.  But on the other hand, and perhaps my main concern, is that ALL other cultures are being completely eradicated by globalization.  As one “culture” is simply forced on others.  One of the struggles of this trip is that everything seems to be a carbon copy of the previous and the next place.  That’s the case here.  Nothing makes this “French”, except maybe the nifty looking churches, but even there, that’s not so much French as old period.  The Parlament buildings in Ottawa are about the same.  Same neo-gothic look, Same copper roof, Same same.

This is a big world, and I’d like to think that going to Montreal can be different than going to Winnipeg.  But I’m not sure that’s true, and in this  case, I feel like I’m seeing it mid-change.

Today has been a really long work day.  I started at 9am, and it’s 1140 here now.  I have lots more to blog about, but I’m tired and frustrated, and going to bed.

Over and out.

In Quebec City, the snow was (literally) 8 feet tall in much of the campground. There were a few open spots for us, but the more important thing was that they had no Internet. At that moment, we were about 45 mins away from Gina’s eLive session. This is a daily “tutoring” program aimed at assisting struggling kids. It’s good for Gina. She’ll argue and goof off with us all day, but ask her to work in front of a computer and she’s all over it. So she’s loving it, and it’s CLEARLY benefiting her in terms of her marks. So it’s good all around. But it’s every day, and it happens over the Internet, and Gina needs it, and Gina, Mom, and Dad are in a “contract” that says that Gina will NOT miss it, ever. Period.

So we dropped the camper at Walmart, and took the truck to a hotel, and ripped off their Internet so Gina could go to her class. During that time, Nicole and I called every campground, basically all the way out to the coast. We did find a few that were open, but none had Internet, and that’s really a deciding factor for us now. So we made a really hard trip back to the Flying J about an hour east of Montreal, thinking we’d use their Internet. They had none. After a few hours of being frustrated, and taking it out on each other (not really fighting, just basically having a long non-productive conversation) We spent the night at the Flying J, and now we’re back in the overpriced Montreal campground now. That will prove to be the most eastern stop on the Canadian portion of our adventure. From here, it’s all homeward bound. So although we all know it, I don’t think anyone has really verbalized that our trip is winding down now. We’re heading home. Kind of sad to see it end. At least I am. I know that’s more than a month away, and it sounds like our tenants might need longer in our house (which we’re OK with), but still kind of sad to know that yesterday we decided that we’re done, and we’re heading home.

We’re going to hang out in Montreal for a while now. I’m sort of starting to feel more comfortable with French. I certainly couldn’t have a “good” conversation, but I bought gas today, and even Gina said that the lady at the till didn’t know that I didn’t speak french until she asked me about windshield wiper fluid, and I had no idea what she was talking about. That was a bit of a give away, I guess. Actually, Nicole was even questioned too. She had asked a guy where is the Flying J. When she asked, she said pronounced it Flying Jay. In French, J is pronounced more like Gee, and the guy kinda called her on it. She laughed when she got back into the truck.

I will say, Nicole keeps shaking her head at me, and laughing, and giving me the “what?!!!” type looks when I speak in French. I actually see it as a good thing. I can understand more words now natively, meaning I don’t need to translate them in my head to understand them. This is good, because I can use French way better. The problem is, I’ll try to make sentences now that I wouldn’t have tried before, and I just don’t really have the grammer for it, so I really, REALLY , ***REALLY*** sound like a 2 year old. But clearly, I could learn this pretty easily now. I just need to be surrounded by it more. Another thing I’ve learned is that I can’t read it as well as I can understand it spoken, and I especially can’t write it.

As long as we’re in Quebec, we’re all French all the time in here.  The kids hate it.  Actually, I think everyone hates it except me.  But whatever.  Gina needs the practice, and it’s beneficial for Melanie too.  So too bad for them.  I think it just makes Nicole cringe when Gina or I speak.  Oh, well, she’ll get over it or I’ll get better.  Either way works for me… 

Tomorrow we’re moving again, still in Montreal, but somewhere about $20 a day cheaper. Which is a lot.

So that’s the status update for us. No Tours for the past while, other than a drive to Quebec City, and a sad, disheartening drive back again…

Over and out.

Parc Omega started out as a private hunting area for a small group, but has been turned into a 2000 acre wilderness area/zoo.  As you drive through the park, LOTS of animals will come up to your car in search of food.  The recommended food is carrots, and naturally, the park sells them to you.  It’s actually not a complete rip off either, at $2 for a bag of large carrots.  You go through them pretty fast if you hand them out one at a time, but if you break them into small pieces, it’ll last for the whole drive, even if you share them with your kid, who blew through all of hers within what seemed like 10 feet of the gated opening…  (ahem, hi Gina…)

In any case, it was VERY neat.

Gina was teasing the elk, and at one time had 2 of them in the truck chasing her half way across the seat for carrots, Giggling and smiling the whole time.  The elk were clearly the main attraction here, partly because they’re the most forward and friendly, but partly because they’re just big, and unique to see.  There are also wild boar, there were several little babies running around, and these were clearly the cutest animals in there.  Additionally, there were several species of deer, and some ibex, and buffalo too.

Buffalo are far uglier than they look on TV.  Up close they look cross eyed and stupid, or maybe this herd was just “special”.  In any case, they were just shedding, which certainly increased the overall ugliness of them.  (This is distracting, Melanie’s checking her face for pimples, and kinda poking and prodding at them when she finds them.  IF she reads this, and asks me to remove it, I will, but in the mean time, I likely shouldn’t laugh out loud, so I won’t, I’ll just write it here for all to share.  I’m such a great dad, eh?)  The buffalo shed their fur in giant hunks.  So when it peals off, it’s almost like a foot wide chunk of skin falling from their body.  They’re also fairly bald underneath.  So the difference is huge.  Generally with a dog, the hair falls out and there’s just short hair left.  But with these, it’s just all or nothing, and it’s thicker than a wool sweater.  So I’d eat one, but I suspect they’re dumb.  We weren’t supposed to feed them, because they CAN attack the truck in search of additional food.  I promptly ignored the rule and fed them anyway because…  1) I hate my truck, and I’d likely feed them more of they could actually write it off.  2) that warning is probably aimed more at small cars, since in a car, the buffalo could see inside, and would be even with the windows.  They couldn’t even see into the truck.

We saw several racoons.  This isn’t new, we’ve seen lots, just generally, they appear more like pancakes, and appear on the side of the road, whereas here, they were sitting in a mini tree house, eating.  One was climbing down.  That was interesting.  There was kind of a ladder thing for them to use to get up and down, but instead, he just climbed down the tree, head first…  Which must be pretty freaky when you’re little…  Or if you slip..  “careful, careful.  CRAP!!!, this is gonna hurt…BANG…”

The ibex were ugly, period.  Their horns are WAY too big for their bodies, and their eyes are ugly too, like a goat.  There was one that was injured, I felt bad for him, but really, he was little, and I suspect the coyotes will put him out of his misery in fairly short order if he doesn’t heal quickly.  Part of the goal of the park is to keep the environment natural.  That includes the preditor - prey relationship.  Which is likely a good thing…

The radio tells stroies while you drive, and we were told to expect that it would take about an hour to complete the drive.  Well, 5 hours later, we were out of carrots, and the park was closing…  So that’s likely enough…  :)  Anyways, it was really fun and I’d give it a reasonable access fee too.  It was like what the pictures in some of the Disney/Busch parks promise in their brochures, but this was it actually happening…

There are supposed to be Moose in there too, but we didn’t see any.  Gina kept calling the Elk Moose, but seems to have given up on that now.  She’s a bit weird, I think she’s the embodiment of my mom’s curse on me “Someday, I hope you have kids just like you…” And when she knows she’s wrong, she doesn’t want to learn anything better, she’ll do it more, just cause she can.

In any case.  It’s the weekend, and this is a good day to explore Montreal, so I won’t write too much more.  There’s some stuff in Montreal that we’d like to investigate.  My dad recommended Le Bifteque (or whatever) and our kids both love Poutine.  Montreal smoked meat might make the menu too.

Wow, all I care about is food, and I just finished lunch.  I am a sow.  (and Lyle, not just with dip!)

Man, it’s amazing how often I write things aimed at people I KNOW don’t read this.  Kinda funny.

BTW, You’ll also notice that there’s a Texan reading this, and he’s cheering for the Rangers.  So if you’d like to let him know that Hockey is Canadian, please feel free to comment back to him.  (Though after watching the Flames, we certainly don’t deserve it - Though in fairness, I have ALWAYS maintained that Kipper sucks.  And he does.  Just slowly more people are realizing it now…)

So here’s the real question, if I cheer for Montreal, is that a Canadian team?  Hahaha.  Also, for the record, Montreal is also called the “Habs”.  What is a hab?  Is it short for habitants?  I dunno, but if you do, I’d like to know…

Over and out.

Oui, je parle comme un bebe, mais je experimenter.  J’etudier.  J’aime erudition.

Mais maintenant, Anglais…  :)  Parce que beaucoup des person lit pas Francais.

Sur et dehors.

It was quite disorganized, but for the most part, the student’s were protected from seeing it.

It was also very rushed, whereas the class I took wasn’t.  We covered the same material, but we did it in only 60% of the time. Overall though, it went fine, and I’m happy with the outcome.  I believe I made the students aware of what they needed to know, and I believe that it went pretty well.

In any case, I’m glad it’s done, though it does appear that I’ll be running another class in Chicago for the first week of June.  (Nick, if you’re reading this, I’ll be there for your wedding, I wouldn’t miss it.  No worries.)

The class ran from Wed-Thurs-Fri.  We started building 8 desktops on Monday evening.  With all the updates for Windows, Office and CentOS, it just took a long time to complete.  But we finished it.  Access to the classroom was given at slightly after midnight on Tuesday Night/Wed Morning.  I finished setting up about 3 hours before the class started, so I was pretty tired for the first day.  I think it went OK anyway.

In any case, we did manage to go for a quick tour in Ottawa on Thursday evening, after the class.

We toured the Youth Hostel in Ottawa, which used to be the Ottawa Gaol (Jail).  In light of recent movies like Hostel, this must be a bit freaky to stay at.  Nobody in our family has seen them, but Nicole and Melanie both said there was no way they’d stay in there.  Gina took a pass on the tour.  Not sure if that’s because she wanted to watch TV in the hotel room, or because she was scared, but in any case, she didn’t come.

Interestingly, Ottawa at one point was considered the most dangerous city in North America, so this jail was sorely needed at the time it was built in the 1800s.  This Jail was also the site of 3 executions, including the last public execution in Canada.   Two of the 3 executions were based on, shall we say, sketchy, evidence.  Having said that, the person leading the tour was CLEARLY of a Liberal, anti-execution bend, so that may have been played up to support his bias; intentionally or not.  Personally, I’m not sure where I stand on executions.  I’m certainly OK with it in some cases, there’s talk about releasing Paul Bernardo early here, as an example.  But clearly it can be overused as well.The Jail itself was interesting.  The jail cells were 3×9 feet, on the top (8th) floor, we were told that initially there were no windows or heat, so it was REALLY cold in the winter.  People did die from exposure.  It was clearly built on the idea of punishment for wrongs, rather than reforming the person’s character.  Again, this is a bit of a struggle for me, and somehow, I like both ideals, I’m just not sure yet how to reconcile them to work together.  Color TV and spacious rooms are going too far in one direction, I’m OK with 12 hours of lockup and a 3×9 cell.  On the other hand, freezing to death from exposure or even a lack of running water, seems over the edge.  Since prisoners were not able to clean themselves regularly, many died from simple cuts once gangrene set in.  The Prison hospital’s only solution was amputation, and as was simply the case in the 1800s, this was often a fatal operation, sometimes immediately, sometimes not.  Having said that, this hospital was worse than most, and was closed after only 5 years of operation.  From then, it was turned into the women’s section.  Interestingly, if women were convicted, their children were sent to jail with them.  What an ugly way to start a life.

After the class ended on Friday, we came to Montreal, which is where I’m writing from.  I’ll follow up with that in another post… 

Over and out.

Anyways, yesterday, we drove to Ottawa.

Cause you know how cool Parliamentary anything is.  That’s TV worth watching, and news worth reading.  Governments are cool, right?

Well, this is, actually.  First of all, the buildings are totally wicked.  They’re these huge old neo-gothic buildings, with copper roofs, and they just look really neat from the outside.

Then you go inside, and they’re just as cool!

BOTH of our kids decided they wanted to be politicians.  (My advice?  Don’t vote for them.  Neither can administrate a clean bedroom, nevermind a country.)  Anyways, The people were awesome, really friendly, and very interested in what they did.  One of the people on our tour was a political journalist from the US.  He was just awestruck with it all.  I guess there just isn’t the same richness and history in the buildings there.  But overall, it was quite impressive.

The buildings are built with Tyndal Limestone from Manitoba, for you trivia Buffs.  The sculptures and stuff are works in progress, something is always changing or being updated.  I think Gina struggled to stay as disinterested as possible, because this is EXACTLY what she’s learning about RIGHT NOW in history.  So as much as she liked it, and though it was cool, she had to fight to hate it because it was also school.   But that fell apart in the library.

The original parliament buildings burned down because they were build of white pine, with a very flammable varnish on it.  So a small fire spread VERY fast, and eventually a few people even died because they couldn’t get out fast enough.  The only thing that remains is the library.  This is a stunningly beautiful room.  A hardwood floor with several intricate designs inlaid, leads to walls of books and resources.  The woodwork in this roon is amazing.  Comparable to the woodwork done by that guy who had build a wooden Ferrari, and other crazy neat stuff like that.  Maybe better.  It’s a shocking room, worth seeing for anyone. If you have the chance, stop in for the tour.  It’s free, and I can honestly say, worth more than it cost. 

After the tour, we drove over into Hull, Quebec, just over the river.  It’s a different world.  There’s just French EVERYWHERE.  So we stopped at the grocery store (I didn’t bother asking directions, CLEARLY, it doesn’t speed anything up anyway) grabed some batteries, and some water.  The darn French have some strange obsession with sugar (which is awesome for Gina), so the store had sponge taffee out.  Nicole grabbed some, and quick, Gina drooling and begging… Gina’s MEAN dad told her that she wasn’t allowed to get it unless she spoke to the store clerk in French, ONLY.  So she did.  Strangely, I think I understood the conversation better than Gina did.  Partly because it’s routing in any language.

“Did you find everything you were looking for”

“How will you be paying for that today”

“Do you have any coupons”

“Do you have a loyalty card”

“Stripe down and facing out”

“Please enter your PIN number”

“Have a nice day”

Lets face it, it’s an autopilot conversation.

I remember a friend being offended when he asked how someone was, and the person didn’t say fine, but rather said awful, and proceeded to tell them about it.  “like I cared…” was the comment, I believe.  But really, it’s true.  We never ask because we care, it’s autopilot.

Anyway, off we went, and out to the truck.  Melanie almost fainted when she saw the taffee, she loves it.  Gina tried it, and didn’t like it at all.  Nicole said she likes it, but doesn’t like when it sticks to your teeth.  I like to think I showed them how to eat it.  You eat it like you drink a sno-cone.  You suck out the flavor (or in this case, let it melt out).  Then when you have a ball of nothing left, you spit it out - before it sticks to your teeth.

Anyways, after that, we went to the Museum of Civilization.  It was just the normal museum.  Nothing spectacular.  I learned something, I can’t remember what.  It wasn’t important, just more trivia.  I was offended that there wasn’t more about Terry Fox, and less about Trudeau.  I don’t care about Trudeau.

Wait, I remember…  I learned about Tommy Douglas, the guy who came up with the idea of Medicare.  He had a leg injury that would have left him without a leg, except for the Dr thought this would be a good subject for his students to see.  So they did the operation for free, and it saved his leg.  He decided from there that medical attention should be free for everyone, and worked hard to get there.  First in Sask, and then the rest of Canada.  Interestingly, it was clearly an uphill battle, which is especially interesting because it happened so recently, 1961 for Canada, and yet people love the idea so much.  Anyway, Keifer Sutherland, the actor, is his grandson.   Not sure why that matters?  Actually, it likely doesn’t.  But The Lost Boys and Flatliners were both good movies, so I thought I’d mention him anyway… 

Wait, is that Darryl reading?  I meant to say Young Guns…  That was the cool movie.  No vampires or Sci Fi here, no-sir-ee!  None of that foolishness when there’s a good ol’ western available… 

I know, he’s also in 24, but I’ve never seen it, so I can’t comment on it.  It sounds like a MacGyver ripoff though.

Speaking of (crazy offtopic rabbit trails?) TV shows, ahem, Stingray was pushed ack, so it STILL isn’t available on a DVD set yet.  So those of you who had planned to get it for me for Christmas last year, you can stop looking now.  It’s supposed to be out now sometime.  But I don’t know exactly when, and I’m too tired/lazy to google when the new release date is…

Anyways, there you go.

I understand French better than Gina, likely because I like to practice “french” with my wife…  Before the kids toss their cookies, I’ll stop there.  Gotta keep this G rated…

Speaking of French…  It’s time for bed.. 

Over and out.

Down the road is a Fort, it’s too early in the season, so we aren’t allowed in yet, but it looks interesting enough.  (Yes, that’s meant to be a letdown, as much as it was a letdown for us to see it, but to be able to see it.  We should still be in the US.)

There was a teeny lighthouse out on a man made rock peninsula.   Gina and I walked all the way out.  Melanie was too lazy (or was scared of the spiders, not sure which, she’d deny both) and Nicole still wears those useless flipflops that haven’t allowed her to walk anywhere interesting since we started this trip.  (And she’s still saying she’ll get a “real” pair of sandals, but she won’t).  In their defense, it was pretty boring.  I think Gina and I both just like exploring for the sake of exploring, so that was neat.  Some of the rocks are big, and occasionally, they move as you walk on them.  Gina didn’t like that, so she always wanted me to lead the way.  I think it’s scarier for me, realizing that these rocks easily way several hundred pounds, and I’d never be able to move one if it trapped my leg, or Gina’s.  So then I thought about the recovery for us, 500 feel out on these stupid rocks, with no real access other than walking out behind, where we had walked.  Quickly, I decided that I should think about something else.

Earlier in the day (It’s my story, I’ll screw up the chronology if I so please) I had been looking for a grocery store.  Being a guy, I asked directions.  Yes, I ask directions.  But not always, sometimes I’m stubborn.  Not this time.  I was hungry, and I needed eggs for breakfast.  So I asked.  “Take Main street, and turn right just before the bridge.  You can’t miss it.”

She was some older lady.  I didn’t think she’d lie to me.  Apparently she did.  So I stopped at a Mac’s store and asked an attendant there.  “Yep.  Just go up main street, and turn before the bridge.”

“I can’t find main street”.  I said.

“Oh, sorry, it isn’t actually called Main.  It’s whatever street.  (I can’t even remember, mostly because I was trying to decide if I should laugh or cry that this was 2 for 2 people telling me to take a street that doesn’t exist.  You know you’re in a small town when…) So anyway, I went up 2 sets of lights.  Same street as before.  I’ve looked both ways on every street leading up to the bridge.  No sign of the “You can’t miss it” store.

I can, and I am…

And, for the record, you friggin’ people are all liars.

At this point, since nobody knows the names of the streets, and the certainly don’t know where the heck this store I can’t miss is, I decide to explore.  It’s been an hour, I’m on a 5 minute run to the gas station for eggs (which they DID have, but I opted to pass on, since they were dated for March.) Anyway, I drove up and down every street in town.  It’s like Unity, there aren’t many streets, that sounds like there are a lot.  There aren’t.  It was just as fast as asking another liar^h^h^h^hperson for directions.  (Some day, I’ll explain that.  For now, just know that it amuses me, and if it amuses you too, you’re one of the cool people.)   10 minuted of driving later, I’ve covered every road.  No store.

You people are all liars, I’m crossing the bridge.

Now, I should say, when we were in Fenelon Falls, we were warned, that if you take a wrong turn, you’re going to the US, Like it or not, cause there’s no way to turn around.  So I was a bit hesitant to cross the bridge.  But I figured, at least the Freakin’ USians would know where they sold eggs.

So I drove to the top of the bridge.  Guess what I saw..

Another bridge.

And the turn off to the grocery store.

So here’s the moral.  If you tell people not to cross the bridge, they won’t.  EVEN IF YOU DON”T TELL THEM THAT IT”S THE SECOND BRIDGE THAT THEY AREN”T SUPPOSED TO CROSS.

Arg…!

I’ll write about Ottawa later.  I’m getting all tense writing about this…

Over and out.