RAIN
The scan to check out Ben's heart murmur certainly put a spanner in the works as far as itinerary is concerned. We had been very ably assisted by our friend Barry Goode, a wonderful source of knowledge and suggestions. Barry had worked hard on producing an outline itinerary that seemed just perfect, rarely more than four hours a day on the road, a dreamy, leafy and gentle drift to the northeast. I had only one stop that could not be changed - Mont Tremblant for a surprise rendezvous with some good friends from the Porsche Club who would be there for this weekend. But plans are made to be broken and the heart murmur delay certainly did that.
This 'summer' has been unrelentingly wet and it was no surprise that Friday dawned with the familiar pall of grey sky. Ben and I had a visit from Ben and Richard and enjoyed coffee with them and Nickey my [long suffering] cleaning lady. After fond goodbyes it was into the van and off for Mont Tremblant. The old Irish saying "if I was going there I wouldn't start from here" was top of my mind as we set out. There is no good way from Tiny to the ski village north of Ottawa. We took the cross country route and spent no less than nine and a half hours to complete the trip. Partly due to the winding undulating nature of the roads, but more especially the weather. It drizzled. There was mist, then fog. It rained. It rained harder. It rained so hard roads were being washed out and closed. We literally could not see the scenery for the deluge. We drove for hours in unrelenting wetness. And the annoying thing was that wherever I stopped I would enquire how long the rain had been coming down - the answer varied from ten to forty minutes. So the weather was was following us around!
At my first stop it was so bad that Ben refused to exit the van to stretch his legs. There I stood in the pouring rain, umbrella doing its best to fend off the cataracts of rain and he just looked at me pityingly.
But eventually we made it to our BnB and even found the energy to drive over to see our friends in their rented house for dinner. Quite the day. Ben was received as a hero by the whole group and, as usual, ingratiated himself sufficiently to be hand fed pieces of chicken by the crowd. He had been a star all day so I just let him enjoy.