Missing Toronto traffic means meeting Montreal's! So, finally aware of his bored almost to distraction passenger, Mike decided to take a different route around the city (other choice was through the tunnel and over the bridge in rush hour traffic). Wise move on a couple of counts :)
So, we're going to take the #30 highway around the city and through Chateauguay (where we lived at one time) and then catch the Eastern Townships Autoroute. Wow! The #30 has just recently been made into a nice 4 lane stretch - and we zoomed along until we met construction. Lots of it! The highway will, at some time, be an excellent route for us to take, but not so good today. At a snail's pace, and through intermittent rain (meaning an extremely muddy truck and trailer) we slogged through dirt and gravel. Chateauguay has really expanded in the many years since we have been there - big new houses where there were only fields before. There is lots of new home construction - I wonder who is buying them.
At last we are on the Autoroute, and making better time. We run in and out of rain, and hope it will be stopped by the time we get to our destination.
We are surprised at the number of boats at the marina and on the lake at Magog - we usually go through here in early spring or late fall and they have all be hauled out. Most of the boats are at the docks due to the rain and wind - it would be really pretty in the sunshine.
Patsy and Wally live on a gravel road off a gravel road......and it is absolutely pouring down rain. Backing up the driveway is difficult, first of all because it is uphill, also because it is somewhat at an angle, and to top it off has to be approached on the 'wrong' side - and Mike's passenger doesn't really want to get out to guide him. Mike figures he can do it without help, but without being able to see anything it's pretty hard - and I have an umbrella - so between the two of us we got the trailer into the driveway and up the hill and then more or less abandoned it for the dry and warm house, figuring we can finish the job later. Patsy has dinner ready!
It is really good to see them again, and we look forward to spending a couple of days with them. Deane and Doreen (Wally's brother married to Patsy's sister) stopped by and we played some hillbilly rummy until the rain became a full blown thunderstorm that sent them home to comfort Deane's dog, who like most dogs is terrified of thunder. The power went off and on, and then the storm moved on to keep someone else awake.
With the rain subsided, we situated the trailer properly and set it up, and slept soundly.
Wally knows when Mike comes he expects a 'Mike-list' of chores that need an extra hand, and Wally has a couple of small ones ready - and so does Patsy! She would like the dining table refinished!
The first day the weather was gorgeous, so the outside jobs got tackled first. Patsy and I walked into Fitch Bay (the guys drove) and we picked up a few things for lunch, etc. and did a few things outside to make the best of the fine afternoon.
Good thing - the next day it rained! All day. So Patsy and I drove into Magog to buy some stain/varnish while the guys sanded the table top (outside, under a covered deck). I got to practice my French, and the sales clerk her English, buying the stain, which, when the guys applied it, was absolutely the perfect color.
We took some time off to visit Patsy's brother who runs the large farm that they all grew up on. John is outside digging a drainage ditch for one of the barns - it is a construction zone with a small backhoe, a bulldozer and John and his son taking turns on the dozer and the jackhammer. There is a chicken truck beside one of the barns waiting for the catchers to come - 7000 large chickens going out today. This is a large, active working farm, and John and his wife Mireille plus two of their sons and a daughter-in-law all put in full days. I missed the photo-op of Mike and John down in the ditch working and laughing.
Mireille is a wonder-woman - works hard physically on the farm both outside and then inside, busy now with fall freezing and canning as she manages a large garden as well. Plus she is very artistic and is involved in community organizations too.
The next morning Mike planned to sand the table and give it another coat of stain/varnish before we left, but the table is still tacky. No sanding today. OK then, Mike is ready to hit the road! Wally needed more on his 'Mike-list'! So before I finished saying goodbye to Patsy, he had the trailer ready to go.
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