Rapher's Log: Stardate July 4/23
Yes, I'm back, baby! Hit the Island (Prince Edward Island for anyone who might not know) for a few days again.
... and since it wouldn't be a vacation, there had to be a little stress prior to leaving. As with previous trips, the plan was to leave both of our cats home alone with a lot of extra food/water, etc. I'd frozen some water and some water mixed with canned food, and I planned to put those out to give Coal something to eat/drink over the 2.5 days that was a little fresher. Did the same thing on the last few PEI trips and it seemed to work really well. Unfortunately, Coal decided to add some stress the night before leaving by suddenly acting 'off'. Didn't seem to want to eat, was lethargic. I was seriously consider the possibility that the trip would be cancelled and I'd be heading to the vet. Tuesday morning, however, brought a change - he'd eaten a fair bit overnight, wanted to go out in the morning and got nosy when I took some stuff out to the car. Had to jump in the car to see what was going on. When I put out the frozen cat food/water, he tried to tuck into it immediately. I felt a little better leaving him (and I did have a backup plan in place).
So, off I went shortly before 9:00am to get Sandra, and off to McD's in Dartmouth Crossing for breakfast. Hey, it's tradition! The food was fine, as always. The floor, not so much. Frig, they had a 'caution wet floor' sign up in one spot but the floor was downright treacherous. And all over. It was a little frightening. After we were sitting at a table, I tried pushing my foot hard on the floor (wearing sneakers) and zooom...my foot just shot out. I am so shocked one of us didn't end up falling down.
Headed out of there around 9:30, making a pit stop to hit the washrooms at Mastodon Ridge in Stewiacke (which, as we all know, is the halfway point between the North Pole and the Equator!). I knew that the traffic around Truro was liable to be really bad, due to continuing road works, so it seemed a safe thing to do. Luckily, 10:00am on a Tuesday wasn't a bad time to go past the construction sites near Truro. Just past Truro, the weather started to turn a bit. Oh, a note on the weather, the week before we were on vacation, we'd had rain pretty much daily. The weather was crap. PEI hadn't looked as bad but we still didn't have the best weather forecasts for the trip. Anyway, the little sun we'd had that morning disappeared and we hit rain/fog all the way to Amherst. (but at least we didn't have to pay for the tolls at the Cobequid Pass again this trip, making for a funny moment when Sandra missed seeing the sign change to "Exempt" when I was about to pay) As always, stopped at the Amherst tourist bureau for another potty break and to snack on some food since it was getting close to noon.
The NB stretch of our drive was better, weather wasn't quite so wet and we hit Gateway VIllage around 1:00. Had some pre-packed lunch (protein bars mostly), wandered the dwindling shops, picked up some coolers at the liquor store and headed off to Summerside around 2:00. This wasn't necessarily a planned excursion but since we were early for check in, it seemed like a good idea. Heh, financially, it might not have been such a good idea as we both spent more at Celtic Mist than we'd spent in the past few trips. And, miracle of miracles, the sun came out! From there, we went through Summerside, through Kensington and off to Charlottetown to get checked in at our usual hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. Relaxed there for a bit, while we tried to decide what to get for supper. Surprisingly, we ended up going to Montana's. Traditionally we've gone to either Swiss Chalet or Boston Pizza but decided to try something else.
Usually we avoid Montana's locally, due to some less than stellar occurrences. This one did not go badly, the fried pickles that we shared were tasty and the fish & chips I had were pretty good. The fish was nice and crispy. Off to some more crazy shopping after supper...at Michael's...then back to the room where we enjoyed our refreshing coolers. Well, one of them.
Oh! And had issues with a haunted dresser. I was sitting at the desk next to the dresser and noticed that the top drawer started slowly opening. I got Sandra's attention and we both watched as the drawer just continued opening. I closed it. Then the second drawer did the same thing. Closed that one, expecting the bottom one to move next but it stayed put. I'd opened the drawers at least an hour before this happened, not sure if that's what triggered it or if the local ghost was trying to tell us something...
Next: An early morning, mini golf, downed trees and unexpected butterflies. And a loud singer.
... and since it wouldn't be a vacation, there had to be a little stress prior to leaving. As with previous trips, the plan was to leave both of our cats home alone with a lot of extra food/water, etc. I'd frozen some water and some water mixed with canned food, and I planned to put those out to give Coal something to eat/drink over the 2.5 days that was a little fresher. Did the same thing on the last few PEI trips and it seemed to work really well. Unfortunately, Coal decided to add some stress the night before leaving by suddenly acting 'off'. Didn't seem to want to eat, was lethargic. I was seriously consider the possibility that the trip would be cancelled and I'd be heading to the vet. Tuesday morning, however, brought a change - he'd eaten a fair bit overnight, wanted to go out in the morning and got nosy when I took some stuff out to the car. Had to jump in the car to see what was going on. When I put out the frozen cat food/water, he tried to tuck into it immediately. I felt a little better leaving him (and I did have a backup plan in place).
So, off I went shortly before 9:00am to get Sandra, and off to McD's in Dartmouth Crossing for breakfast. Hey, it's tradition! The food was fine, as always. The floor, not so much. Frig, they had a 'caution wet floor' sign up in one spot but the floor was downright treacherous. And all over. It was a little frightening. After we were sitting at a table, I tried pushing my foot hard on the floor (wearing sneakers) and zooom...my foot just shot out. I am so shocked one of us didn't end up falling down.
Headed out of there around 9:30, making a pit stop to hit the washrooms at Mastodon Ridge in Stewiacke (which, as we all know, is the halfway point between the North Pole and the Equator!). I knew that the traffic around Truro was liable to be really bad, due to continuing road works, so it seemed a safe thing to do. Luckily, 10:00am on a Tuesday wasn't a bad time to go past the construction sites near Truro. Just past Truro, the weather started to turn a bit. Oh, a note on the weather, the week before we were on vacation, we'd had rain pretty much daily. The weather was crap. PEI hadn't looked as bad but we still didn't have the best weather forecasts for the trip. Anyway, the little sun we'd had that morning disappeared and we hit rain/fog all the way to Amherst. (but at least we didn't have to pay for the tolls at the Cobequid Pass again this trip, making for a funny moment when Sandra missed seeing the sign change to "Exempt" when I was about to pay) As always, stopped at the Amherst tourist bureau for another potty break and to snack on some food since it was getting close to noon.
The NB stretch of our drive was better, weather wasn't quite so wet and we hit Gateway VIllage around 1:00. Had some pre-packed lunch (protein bars mostly), wandered the dwindling shops, picked up some coolers at the liquor store and headed off to Summerside around 2:00. This wasn't necessarily a planned excursion but since we were early for check in, it seemed like a good idea. Heh, financially, it might not have been such a good idea as we both spent more at Celtic Mist than we'd spent in the past few trips. And, miracle of miracles, the sun came out! From there, we went through Summerside, through Kensington and off to Charlottetown to get checked in at our usual hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. Relaxed there for a bit, while we tried to decide what to get for supper. Surprisingly, we ended up going to Montana's. Traditionally we've gone to either Swiss Chalet or Boston Pizza but decided to try something else.
Usually we avoid Montana's locally, due to some less than stellar occurrences. This one did not go badly, the fried pickles that we shared were tasty and the fish & chips I had were pretty good. The fish was nice and crispy. Off to some more crazy shopping after supper...at Michael's...then back to the room where we enjoyed our refreshing coolers. Well, one of them.
Oh! And had issues with a haunted dresser. I was sitting at the desk next to the dresser and noticed that the top drawer started slowly opening. I got Sandra's attention and we both watched as the drawer just continued opening. I closed it. Then the second drawer did the same thing. Closed that one, expecting the bottom one to move next but it stayed put. I'd opened the drawers at least an hour before this happened, not sure if that's what triggered it or if the local ghost was trying to tell us something...
Next: An early morning, mini golf, downed trees and unexpected butterflies. And a loud singer.