Off to North Bay, Ontario

We left Ottawa in lovely sunshine after 2 weeks at Hither Hills Campground. One funny thing - our paramedic told us on our ambulance ride, that his daughter had gone to the summer camp at the Wildlife Rrefuge down the road. A big hit with the kids was when they brought their alligator up to our camground and let it swim in our pool. Guess you know I didn't go swimming! We’re been so fortunate on this trip. We’ve only had 2 rainy half days, one of them the sightseeing day with Suz when we got soaked. A nice drive through northern Ontario, following the Ottawa River which separates it from Quebec. It is rolling land with many small farms and a few towns. We passed through Petawawa, a Canadian Forces Base. It has a It has 2 museums, showing Canadian Airborne Units from WWII to present and an outdoor display of 25 military vehicles. Next was Chalk River, settled in the mid 1800’s. Lumber, pulp and paper mills, farming and the Canadian Central Railway were the economic forces until 1945, when the first nuclear reactor outside of the United States began operation nearby. It is one of the world’s foremost research centers in the field of nuclear energy. We’re in North Bay at the Petro station where we fuelled and are parked overnight. This town was originally a camp used by the Nipissing Indians, fur traders and adventurers. It’s a departure point into northern Ontario.

I have been corrected. I’ve said a bicuspid valve caused Ron’s problems. That was lazy of me. He has a congenital abnormality of his aortic valve, born with a valve that has only 2 cusps instead of the normal 3, therefore called a bicuspid aortic valve.