Traffic, Construction, Torrential Rain, Red Lights, Detours and even a Tornado warning!

So, tonight I sit in the Quality Suites in Montreal, but it has been a LONG road to get here. On Monday morning, we woke up, had breakfast and got on the road by about 9:20 am. Before jumping on Route 2, we had to go a bit further south to drop off my dad's secretary's daughter with her aunt and cousins for a short holiday. We were told to meet at the Burger King at Exit 103. Unfortunately, this exit did not have a Burger King but a toll booth, and it was also NOT accessible by her Aunt who suggested it but was coming up from the south. After MANY cell phone calls, (a couple arguments between my dad and I), and lots more driving, we FINALLY found a gas station and her relatives. At that point, we could head to Ottawa. 11:30 or so, (two hours behind schedule) we started the westerly trek across the forests and hills of the American Northeast. It is truely beautiful scenery and the towns are often really well kept and historic. Hours and hours passed as we re-thought our route and consulted maps and cooled ourselves with the air conditioning. After passing through the trees of Maine, and the mountains of New Hampshire with a 10 mile detour on a single lane dirt road, we started traversing Vermont. This is where the story gets a bit interesting. You can guess the outcome since I am still alive but at the time I was not so certain of our fate! In Vermont, I was tired of playing my same Jack Johnson CD over and over, so I tuned into the radio. I scanned a few channels before getting on a channel that had a great song. Within 30 seconds there was suddenly a very weird alarm-like beeping that began. My dad and I looked confused at each other but turned the volume up a couple notches. "This is the Federal Weather Service with a severe weather warning for Franklin County, in the far Northwest corner of Vermont. Accompanying the extreme thunder and lightning storms that have recently passed through the county, a low pressure system has been identified resulting in a very high likely hood of Tornados developing. If you should be in the proximity of a tornado, you should blah blah blah.... leave your car immediately and find shelter in the nearest concrete basement... blah blah blah..." The towns the named, the time they were giving and the path they were describing was the exact location of where we were planning on driving to within 20 minutes of the projected tornados... We wrestled with what to do, imagined the worst and the best and finally, reluctantly, followed cars with Vermont plates in the destructive zone. Luckily, we saw nothing but our heart rate certainly elevated for a while! As we crossed into New York, near the top of Lake Champlain, we met the first rain we saw that day, but it was one of the hardest rains I have every driven in. It sounded like the rain would break our windshield it was so hard! Crossing the border in Cornwall was a complete joke, and we got into Ottawa with JUST enough time to take Kenneth out for some ribs. They were worth waiting for! After chatting and eating, dad and Kenneth dropped me off at by friend, Andrea's condo, and they went back to his place to sleep. I enjoyed seeing Andrea for the second time this summer, we chatted for a while and then I allowed her to get some sleep! LOL This morning, I ate a delicious "Kenneth" breakfast, fancy seasoned egg and genoa salami in light rye bread! YUM! Then we all went to get something for mom at Ikea, before packing our car SOOOOO FULL with Kenneth's things and driving on to Dorval. After another argument on the highway, we finally found our hotel and were able to relax. I picked up so fruits and veggies and cheese at the grocery store, which will be packed up tomorrow morning so it can be my second piece of luggage for the plane. Hmmm... what else to say? I can't think... Guess I am still pretty tired out from a few long days! Nice to see all of your posts and to connect despite the different time zones and hours of driving between us! Take care everyone and keep in touch!