Well we have visited Ottawa Ontario and today we drove through a bit of Montreal Canada. Al Sinner drove us into the National Air Museum in Ottawa and it was a very fine museum indeed. Al drove as cool as a cucumber while Audrey, Gary and Judy gave conflicting directions and offered irrelevant commentary on everything that caught our attention. Audrey had a skimpy map that only showed the major arterials, and Gary’s GPS could only tell us where we had been. We got off the track when the selected exit only worked when you were westward bound. Thanks to Audrey’s excellent sense of direction we arrived without major delay. We had Sherbet, the Sinner’s Sheltie mix, along so Al voted himself the job of caring for the dog while the three of us strolled back in aviation history. Snoopy’s Sopwith Camel was there as well as a Spad, and an Avro. But The Red Barron’s Fokker Tri-plane was conspicuously absent. (I guess Snoopy finally shot him down.) They also had a North American Mustang, Messerschmitt 109, a Hawker Hurricane and a Supermarine Spitfire of WW-II fame. They have one of the very few surviving Messerschmitt rocket powered Komets. With only 2 and a half minutes of power and a tendency to blow up during the takeoff they indicated that 95% never make it back to land on their simple skid type landing gear.
After the excitement of the big city we drove out to Constance Bay on the Ottawa River. After viewing the serene river setting we spotted a bar/restaurant, called the Point Dining Lounge, and parked to have supper. We were warmly greeted by Rick the bar-keep and we went out to the courtyard to select a table. The only empty one was in the sun. The others were filled with assorted men and women patrons. A fellow sitting alone at a large table jumped up and offered to move over to a nearby table that was fairly filled with chatting people. The owner, also Rick, dropped by and suggested that the burgers were especially good, so we all ordered Cheeseburgers. Within a few minutes we were busy explaining how to pronounce Oregon and having a rather lively conversation with the owner and his patrons. Among other things we learned that even though Canada is officially metric, the people still use all of the imperial measures. They think in miles and 40 ounce quarts and plywood still comes in 4 by 8 foot sheets.
Today we drove into Montreal, Quebec and crossed the Pont Champlain Bridge across the Saint Laurent. (Saint Laurence Seaway) You should have seen us on their highway 15 with two big RV’s in traffic worse than anything Portland can dish up. We were sure happy to see our exit come up and to be able to drift off into the quiet French countryside and park in a quiet and peaceful campground called Camping Amerique.
We have broken the rain syndrome now. The Ottawa – Montreal area is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave. The temperature and humidity are absolutely stifling in the afternoons. When we plugged in we expected to run our air conditioner and get some real relief. I turned on an air conditioner and checked the voltage meter. The park was only delivering 104 volts, so I turned it right back off; brown-out.
Wednesday Morning (June 29th): Well maybe I spoke too soon. The rain was back with a flash and a bang at 4:00 A.M. this morning, and it is very welcome this time.
Stay tuned as we try our hand on an all day pass on the Montreal Subways.
