Sep 9/10 - unscheduled trip to the dentist ?

Well, we did survive the dogfish / bowfin ... not only that we survived the trip to Cazaville, even though Sandy was confused by the roads and we had to call Carol for directions ... but the boat ride was something else ... no, lunch was something else.

Anyway -- it was an easy trip down. We did the extra distance, traveling on highway 60 through Algonquin Park. It was a beautiful drive with zero traffic -- a far cry from what we would have experienced a couple of weeks earlier during "RV Season". We didn't leave early -- 8:30 a.m. -- getting in around 5pm. After all, we couldn't miss afternoon drinks, could we ?

We only stopped once, in the vicinity of the park, and Abby didn't get out of the car at all. The coffee shop where we stopped served hot water -- coffee so weak that it didn't even taste bad cold (is that a positive thing ?) but their muffins were good. Later in the trip we ate the sandwiches that we'd packed. The only stop for gas was in Cazaville when I was getting worried that we'd be going around in circles and would need gas before getting to Carol's :).

We had ribs, rolls, baked beans, coleslaw and good company for dinner. Only the latter was required for a good time. Abby wandered the property on and off, as usual making herself at home and depositing her presents somewhere on the property. Sandy did some picking up but we don't know if we got it all. Allister may find some more when he mows the lawn !

I turned in early, as usual, slept like a log until just before 6am, got up and read the Montreal Gazette cover to cover. That's not completely true, I didn't read the classifieds. Quite a bit different from my usual diet of cnn.com, it was interesting reading the Quebec news. ps -- the Gazette is in English otherwise it would have been a really quick read, or slow, depending on your perspective.

After the four of us sat on the front porch and enjoyed the warming sun, Sandy and I, with Abby, did a walk around the road, looking at the houses big and small. It's an interesting area, jutting out into Lake St. Francis, part of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Then we went for a boat ride -- a bonus -- sunny weather, coolish, but a treat. Allister showed us the area, heading down to Dundee at the U.S. border and then up by the bridge at Cornwall. Next we headed back towards their place and a restaurant for lunch. The other three ordered soda water / water while I indulged myself with a Coors Light. That was my first mistake. The second mistake was taking a drink out of the bottle without looking at the contents.

When was the last time you inspected your beer bottle for contents ? At the first sip, there was something in the bottle that went into my mouth. My first reaction was "cork" ... no, this is beer ... all this as I'm spitting it out ... and then "ouch" ... as the bee stung my tongue.

Normally I keep my tongue where bees cannot get at it, so this was a new experience. It stung, and then I could feel the bump where it had bitten me. Luckily, I'm not allergic to bee stings. That doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt though -- your tongue is a small area for the poison to be concentrated, and from there into your jaw. It wasn't long before my entire jaw was aching and perhaps from a sympathetic point of view, my head. Perhaps an antihistamine would have helped, but who knows. It was manageable, but not fun.

For lunch we all ordered the fish roll. Haddock was the fish -- perch being inconsistently available. It, and the fries, were good albeit for me kind of spoiled by the bee sting.

The unplanned trip to the dentist ? Well, not really, my mouth just felt like I'd had surgery and was partly frozen. I didn't drool though !

We stopped at a marina for gas and were back at C&A's around 2pm. A little after 3pm and we got to Sheryl's. Jimmy had already left for work, unfortunately, so it doesn't look like we'll see him this time. He's a fire fighter, works in Montreal, and went on shift this evening. Sandy found the Tylenol in Sheryl's cupboard and I took a couple. Carol had offered me some earlier but at the time the ache hadn't settled in for the longer term. They seem to be helping. I'll leave it at that for now.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Reading PA to stay with Jeffrey for the weekend, with my side trip to NYC for a bike ride on Sunday. There's really nothing else to report ...