We have landed in Montreal, although have not been to the city yet. We had two somewhat predictably frustrating days on the road – nothing bad happened, but each day we ended up in rush hour traffic and then took one wrong turn finding our campground – they don’t tend to have those nice big parking lots where you can make a Winnie u-turn. And whatever the Canadians spend their 46% income taxes on, it isn’t their highways! (As we were bouncing down the road, I heard a crash and saw that the piece of ceiling molding had fallen off over the stove, taking the plastic vent cover from the microwave with it!) Those times are a little like childbirth – luckily we forget them quickly, or wouldn’t ever do it again - but then the rewards are well worth it! Monday night we stayed at a beautiful provincial park right on Lake Ontario – our site overlooked the water. We considered staying a second night there, but the weather on Tuesday was pretty gloomy and we moved on.

I knew that the province of Quebec is French speaking, but I guess I didn’t realize how exclusively French it is – all the road sign, all the brochures we have received so far, etc. And me without my French dictionary. We have been told the people can be very rude to English speakers, but I tend to think that is more a big city issue – Mom and I made it in Paris, so we should be able to make it here. After all, I groveled for a living for 35 years, so a little groveling to get a great meal shouldn’t be a big deal.

We are now watching Canadian TV (I forgot to shut the door to the compartment that holds the DirecTV receiver which jiggled loose and it fell right in my lap, ripping out the cable that hooks to the satellite – a trip to a Radio Shack is scheduled for today). But meanwhile, I am becoming a loyal watcher of Canadian Idol – they just made it to the final 22 J Luckily, they have English speaking as well as French speaking news programs.

There is a train station just 2 km away and a bus station a bit further, so are going to try to do all mass transit while we are here – we are 18 miles outside the city. This weekend is a 3 day holiday (we have a knack for hitting those), and we have been advised not to take the car in. There is a great canal bike trail, so assuming we can take them on the train, are looking forward to that,