Bienvenue a Ottawa

Bonjour! We arrived in Ottawa yesterday about 8 pm...5000 km of driving in 7 days is...um...a lot each day. However, it was worth it to get here to enjoy four days! So, an embarrassing story follows at the end of this entry, but you are supposed to read the interesting geographical information first.

We have driven 5000 km, as I said, but honestly, the TOTAL population of the cities and towns we have come through (except Ottawa) can't be more than a few million. Where the heck are all the people?? Considering about 300 million live in the States, they sure are crammed into some specific corners. We have driven through miles and miles and miles of evergreen forest, arid scrub land, ranch and farm land, trees and lakes, and then more trees and lakes...it really makes me see how incredibly BIG and uninhabited we are. We only took a wrong turn once (unlike in France and the UK, if you remember!), excepting when we left the Soo and the GPS was SURE we were driving through the fields, even though we were on the number 1, and kept repeating "Recalculating rowte. Make a legal U-turn. Recalculating rowte..." until it realized we were actually on the highway.

KOA, for Liz's benefit, is Kampgrounds of America. The Americans really like their Ks and use them every chance they get, which irritates Ceilidh since she sees it as an insult to her initial, but I quite like (KKK notwithstanding). So you have Korner Kafe, Kwik Karry, Komfort Inn, and so on. In fact, you can rent Kamping Kabins at the KOA.

So, we arrived at Jim and Therese's home in Orleans (right near Ottawa) and did make-your- own pizza. The girls went in the pool, and we visited. Dennis had about 5 beer to recover from all the days of driving, and I had a girlie drink (it was orange). The girls disappeared to play guitar hero with J and T's youngest, Caroline, and when I went downstairs to check, Mhairi's "character" was Lars Umlaut, who weighed about 300 lbs and had a penchant for head butting his guitar. Charming.

BP, we will look for pickled wild garlic...after we spend the day doing laundry and cleaning the approximately 1,000,000 dead bugs off our car. Why did nobody mention how humid and buggy it was here?!?!?

OK, OK...I know I need to tell you the embarrassing story...in our campsite in Medora, North Dakota a few nights ago, there was a fierce storm (thunder, lightning, pouring rain, the whole bit). I don't like these at the best of times, but I really thought we would be some lightning magnet in our trailer, until Dennis pointed out it was fibreglass. Anyway, he had to go out to put up the awning, which was flapping alarmingly, and came back in soaking wet. It was after midnight at this point...but I had been awake so long, I had to pee. I REALLY did not want to go over to the washrooms...so I told D I was going outside. He stood at the door while I went out into the pitch black. No word of a lie, JUST as I started, a truck pulls in to the campground and into the campiste next to us, its very bright headlights sweeping across the blackness, over the Canadian girl peeing on the grass. I could hear Dennis, as he saw the truck, say "Oh...Kerry" in a tone of both pity and amusement....When I got back in the trailer he was on the bed, collapsed in laughter. I guess they will have a good story to tell too...

So, I will post again in a couple of days, once we have seen something of Ottawa. Love and miss you all...

Kerry