June 16th in Guelph

Thursday 16 June 2011

We spent the last few days in Our Nations Capital.  I actually like Ottawa; it's nice to see our tax dollars in action.  The night that Suggie and I spent at the Delta was pretty nice actually.  I chummed up to the bartender (a Newfoundlander) and, as I was leaving, I asked if there were any steak scraps around.  First he looked at me like I was pond scum but when I explained it was for my dog, I got a much more hospitable response.  I ended up with about 10 oz of beautiful steak for the dog.  The chef washed off all the peppercorn sauce so it was perfect for Sugar Bear.  Pretty decent, I thought, and I really did feed it all to the dog. 

The next day we moved over to the Holiday Inn in Hull because it was cheaper.  Evidently, the Pan-Am games mens' Volleyball tournament was in town so there were lots of hunky young Spanish-speaking tall guys.  It made me wish I were taller and thinner and maybe Spanish.  They must have all been pretty serious because there was no hooting and hollering in the hotel.  It turns out Sugar loves hotels.  She loves the big beds and all the smells.  I too like the big beds and, fortunately, I smelled no smells.

Coincidentally, the hotel was very near the War Museum so I spent the better part of a day in there.  They have a large scale model of the HMCS Athabascan, the ship my father served on during the war which was sunk.  Alas, no one was around me when I was looking at it so I couldn't say "hey, my dad was on that ship."  The exhibit was on war and medicine and it was quite fascinating and kind of gruesome.  I have to say that war is great for advances in medical science.  One kind of funny thing happened.  In the gift shop I bought a book on the Seven Years War (or the French-Indian Wars for my American friends) and the clerk didn't really know anything about it.  So I was telling him what it was all about and, as I was walking out, I said in way too loud a voice "and that's why we speak English instead of French." Anyway, about three people spun around shooting me such dirty looks.  Perhaps on one of their blogs there is a remark about some ignorant fat english lady making rude remarks at the War Museum.

We also spent some time with friends.  We visited with the wonderful Seetal Sunga and her partner Per Forsland and their lovely little doggie Snoopy.  Interestingly, Snoopy and Sugar couldn't give a shit about each other; we were hoping they would at least entertain us with cute doggie play but Sugar seems to be more of a people dog.  I also met up with the wonderful Christine Koggel and Andy Brook and spent the night there watching the hockey game.  I feel so lucky to have such nice people in my life.  I did have one pretty bleak day where I didn't leave the hotel room but to take the dog out.  I still miss Sue a whole lot and sometimes I find it a little overwhelming. Still, I think I'm doing okay.

Today was the day to get to Guelph and that meant driving on the dreaded 401.  I don't know what it says about me but I rather enjoyed the challenge of driving too fast while surrounded by transport trucks and other idiots going too fast.  As per Christine and Andy's suggestion, I took the toll road to bypass the sections of the 401 close to Toronto which, I understand, are truly insane.  I arrived in Guelph and my GPS which isn't broken (I'm only stupid) got me to Rocky and Renee's with no trouble at all.  I'm going to be spending some a few days here, maybe go up to London, or down to Toronto to visit.  I also pick up my trailer here so I've got to learn to go drive with that. 

Oh, I've decided not to post every day for, as you can see, I can be boring enough when I relate three days at a time.  I will, however, try to post at each new location.  Also, I've got more pics but, dickhead that I am, I forgot my card reader at home so I can't download them off of the camera.  I'll be picking up one tomorrow so I can post some boring travel photos to go with the dull travelogue. Well, that's it from the Holiday Inn in Guelph.

2 comments:

Ami Harbin said...

love the highway stories, no surprise you aced the 401. also no surprise sugarbear loves hotels. looking forward to full report on first days of trailer.

Liz said...

Sounds like you and Sugar are having a grand ol' time. Can't wait to see some photos of you two at different museums, parks, and hotels across the country!

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