A Road Trip

We took a break from house projects and went on a road trip to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in mid March. Nothing like driving north in late winter to a place where it is pretty much guaranteed to still be winter! Rowan was giving a lecture at the University of Waterloo Optometry School there and I was scheduled to pick up a piece of research equipment from a colleague there to bring back to the US for a new project we are collaborating on and about to begin in our lab. Our trip took us up through Michigan (we took the Flint/Port Huron route and crossed over into Sarnia, Ontario). We hit the road in the dark at 6am for the 10 hour drive. The sun came out and the air was very crisp. It was about London, Ontario that things started to get wintry. We could tell that it had snowed there the night before, the trees still heavy with snow.

As we continued east towards Waterloo and Toronto the temperature kept dropping. The car began to get covered with ice. You can see here the windshield as it began to freeze no matter how much we had the defroster on.

We eventually hit a major snow storm with about 2 hours to go to our destination. Thank goodness Rowan had downloaded the satellite directions to her iPad because we eventually were unable to see the road signs and really had no idea where we were. Thank god for the little blue moving dot that was us on the map. It eventually became a complete white-out. Such a relaxing drive! Rowan had to peel my white knuckles off of the steering wheel to get me out of the car. :o)

We had great luck when we finally got to our hotel. We got upgraded to a suite with a hot tub and fireplace in our room. Exactly what we needed after our very long and challenging drive to get to Waterloo. After a good nights sleep, we were up and at it the next morning to get over to the Optometry school for a visit with friends and colleagues. We woke up to a -14C temperature, that is about 7F. Brrrrrrrrr is all we had to say. And we thought winter was about over! Here is a photo of the school as we arrived. Looks like most sane folks stayed home today after that storm last night.

The front entry of the new clinic.

During our 5 day visit, Rowan gave her talk, we visited with friends, I loaded the Pneumatic

Esthesiometer into the car for the trip back to the US and we even had time for a trip to the local Amish farmers market on the weekend (a highlight of the trip for me).

The stacks and stacks of beautiful home canned vegetables were outstanding. What a sight! I could have bought it all.

The stacks of homemade pies set my head spinning.

And..........we can't forget to feature Gramma's Handmade Microwaveable Slippers. Yes, microwaveable slippers! Just wash em and throw them in the microwave to dry and disinfect. Who knew??!!!!

We really loved the horse buggy parking lot for the Amish farmers. They have covered parking, but the autos don't. Another reason to stop driving a car :o)

I've got a bunch of catching up to do, so I will be making a few more posts in the next few days.