And the war is on …

With mosquitoes, that is.  They weren’t bad at all at our lakefront spot near Montreal river – at least before the sun went down.  There is usually one or two that sneak in the open door prior to lockdown for the night, and it is usually a simple matter to catch the one or two stowaways.  But this time, for every one that I would kill, about 4 more would magically show up to replace them.  It seemed that the more I got rid of, the more I had.  I thought perhaps they were sneaking in around the door where the weather stripping is not that tight.  But finally, I discovered the real culprit – the stove vent!  I removed the screen to discover a whole crowd there, who were quickly sucked out when I turned the fan on.  But covering the screen with a plastic bag was not doing the job, so I finally had to go outside and use the handyman’s tool – duct tape to block the vent on the outside.  Finally, a peaceful sleep with only the sound of the waves crashing on the beach below.

Hailey took some photos of me on the beach enjoying the sunset.

And I took some of her on her evening ‘hunt’.

I knew that we were a long ways from home when the govt liquor store in Sault Ste. Marie had no Kokanee, but at least some of the Ontario stores are getting a bit more modern, and I did not have to order at the counter and have them send it out from the back on a conveyor!

Here’s a new record for you!  Believe it or not, in this section of Ontario near the famed Algonquin park (are you sitting down?), I counted three vehicles in a row that did NOT have either a canoe or kayak on the roof, in the back, or on a trailer!!  Three.  Previous record was 1.7

Now check out this photo of a typical road shoulder in Ontario. 

Notice the quality gravel on the shoulder that prevents any slower traffic from pulling over to let the speeders by.  And I assume you wake up rather quickly, if you start day dreaming and wander onto the shoulder?  But what about the cyclists?  They certainly cannot ride in the gravel. So Ontario gives them a full 12.43 inches of shoulder to ride on.  Then fills it totally with a rumble strip, so they are totally forced to share the driving lane with trucks, rented RV’s and the rest of the speeders on the road.  What’s with this?  And some of these roads are downright busy, too.  I think in this case you may agree that having a rumble strip 2 inches from the gravel is a bit, well, redundant?  Just my thoughts.

Missed the big nickel in Sudbury this time, but did check out the Science Centre.

 

Lots of good kids stuff, and a fantastic building.  But I think I was most impressed by the 3D movie on Ontario forest fire water bombers and fire crews.  As well as being in 3D, you are in ‘motion seats’ that jump, shake, vibrate.  Then there is simulated smoke blowing around, water

sprays you in the face (have to take off the glasses to dry them), winds that blow, and even something (!) slapping your ankles to simulate debris as a helicopter is landing.  I’m sure the Imax is good as well, but I didn’t check them out.  I did look at the butterflies, the beaver, and Quilliam the porcupine.

So there you have it, – till the next installment.