Adventure

You know how some things are much funnier once a little time has passed, and you can distance yourself enough to tell the story? On Thursday we took an adventure trip - once Riley was out of school we went up to the cottage to do a few pre-winter chores. With the dog in the back hold and, gratefully very little other baggage since it was less than a 24 hour trip, off we went to get ourselves tangled in rush hour traffic. I had walked the dog mid afternoon, hoping to empty her tank(s) so that she would sleep the whole drive up. (Important detail to the story.) We were just off the main highway, on the secondary route when the dog wakes up, which isn't unusual since the smells of the country usually get her excited. Maybe a little too excited this time. I hear her scrambling, trying to get her footing as the car takes the hairpin turns down the snake-like road. I try to encourage her to sit down, peek in the rear view mirror and it looks like she's "taking the stance". In the next minute or two Riley, in the backseat, says it smells bad. I open all the windows (thanking the fact that I have electric windows) while Riley starts dry heaving. Cold air is blasting in the car, Riley is heaving and screaming for me to "pull over". One little detail - there's NO WHERE to pull over. A few kilometers later and closer to a small town I do manage to pull over, get out and assess the damage while Riley barfs out the window. Again, grateful he is old enough to get himself out of his booster seat and that the window was already down. I'm usually well-prepared, I'm the Queen of Wipes, Ziploc baggies of them in every bag I carry but this is not a job for wet wipes. No sirree. I do what I can with the limited supplies, strap Riley back in and with windows still down, finish the route. Getting to the house I walk straight for the vodka bottle, not stopping for a glass.

See, wasn't that funny?

I thought with the weird non-summer we had, I would have seen a lot more of this:


But the colors are just starting to turn. Usually it would be much more vibrant but I think my favorite fall time there is when the birches go - orange and yellow against a background of their silver white trunks.