An unexpected holiday in Renfrew, Ontario

This last week has featured more surprises than we ever expected, some bad, some good.

We went to Ottawa for a checkup for Brian with oncologists at the hospital where he had his surgery.  The good news was that everything is clear and that he requires absolutely no further treatment rather than the normal checkups.  They credit his health and his positive attitude as good underlying factors, and he certainly is healing quickly.

The bad news was that shortly after leaving Ottawa, his muffler detached, giving him that great muscle car feeling as we literally roared along.  This was a problem that could be handled.  However, just after we passed through Renfrew (about 10% on our way home), to his shock the temperature gauge was on Hot-Hot-Hot and there was no question that we had to turn back.  Limping along at a slow rate of speed, we finally passed a little gas station, where he asked the owners for a suggestion on where to take the car.

The owner was more than kind, and drove to lead us back into Renfrew where there was a little owner-run repair shop in the back streets.  We would have never found it ourselves, and this guy drove off without even letting us thank him.

The repair shop owner, Jim, was even kinder.  He took us in immediately, did some problem solving himself, and determined that the problem was merely a stuck temperature gauge.  However, this was now about 4:30 in the afternoon, and he needed a part which wouldn’t come in until the next morning.  His wife drove us 10 minutes to the nearest hotel, where we stayed for the night.  Jim fixed what he could the next morning, gave the car a thorough test drive, and then picked us up at the hotel.  In the meantime, the hotel let us stay in the room an hour or so beyond checkout time, because they knew we were stranded.  I can’t speak highly enough of the kindness of strangers in the little town of Renfrew.

Coming back was a bit more of an adventure.  We knew a storm had blown through Barrie during the day while we had gone.  We had called a neighbour to let him know we were delayed and he offered to clean our driveway while we were away.    Thank goodness!  We had left with a foot of snow on the ground, and returned to another 8” of well-packed snow that had obviously compressed since falling.  We got another 3” after coming home, so we both did a lot of shoveling and snow-blowing yesterday.  The squirrels were invisible unless they were standing up like the one below.

We went snowshoeing today.  As usual after a good snowfall, it was a bit of a fairlyland.  We only saw tracks of a rabbit and a relatively fresh trail of a porcupine; the rest of the birds and beasts were probably a bit too snowbound to get around yet.

Hope everyone has a good holiday season, and we will be in touch in the New Year!!