Oct 1 - on the road

It was a long but uneventful trip, drizzling most of the way. Abby did not even get out of the car -- leaving at 7:30 a.m. and arriving at 4:30 p.m. We stopped for a restroom / snack break around 10 a.m. and that held us until we got to Hemmingford, i.e. no lunch. Jimmy was working in the yard unearthing some leaking pool piping. Abby raced around, joining Sandy (their dog) and generally making herself at home.

Sheryl arrived home just after we did and broke out the crackers and cheese and of course we had brought wine ... once we sat down at the kitchen table we spent the rest of the day there. For me, that ended around 9:30 p.m. ... I have no idea how long Sandy stayed up.

Our route yesterday was 522 to 11 to 17 to 417 around Ottawa. From there we took 138 to Cornwall and crossed over to the U.S. The border guard (lady) welcomed us home and waved us onward when we said that we a) were not bringing anything back that would stay in the U.S. since b) we would be crossing back into Canada in 1/2 hour to get to our Quebec destination. Crossing at Herdman back into Canada was another story -- that lady, while cheerful, wanted to instruct us on how much wine we were allowed to bring back into Canada as non-residents (I believe that it's unlimited if it originated in Canada which it did) and painstakingly checked Abby's papers (first time in a long time).

We called Carol and Allister enroute to see if they were home -- had they been we would have crossed back into Quebec at a different place and stopped for 15 minutes to say "hello". We did not give them any forewarning because we did not want them to plan around our travels. Our usual route to Hemmingford from Toronto is via the 401/Valleyfield/Ormstown to avoid going into Montreal ... we may take that tomorrow coming back. Since Abby is staying here with Sheryl we'll have to cross into Quebec and rather than deal with more border crossings we'll probably head north from here.

Today we go to Lake George to see Frank and Nancy Tetz. It's been a few years since we've seen them. Frank was the one that hired me into Towers Perrin and became a good friend. Our trip today should not be much more than 2 hours. That 2 hours, of course, will be added to our trip tomorrow ... I suppose that we could have planned this as a day trip to Lake George then back to Hemmingford tonight but the plans are in place now and we'd disappoint them if we did not stay overnight.

That's about it.