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Old 07-04-2017, 07:35 PM   #141
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Originally Posted by Ron in BC View Post
We changed our plans when we found there was RV parking near the old town at a marina. Went there, $50 for up to 6 hours. No thanks. Found and paid for 2 spots on the street right by the old city. Perfect visit to the old city. Nice to see it in a different season without the cold and snow.

Up the road aways and stopped at a historic site, oldest iron works in North America. Very interesting. There was a quote from "A tale of two cities", it was the best of times......" Little did I know before the day was out we were going to live that quote.

At the end of the day, having made quite a few miles, almost to Montreal, we stopped at an RV park and a terrible accident happened. Our little rescue chihuahua took a nasty fall. It was immediately obvious that her front leg was broken. Found a vet. "No appoinntment, too busy to look at her". This with the dog screaming in agony and her paw hanging down. They gave us 2 other names and addresses. Spent 45 minutes driving around looking for apparently non-existent vets. Went back. Language was an issue. We started to plead for them to look at her as it was near the end of the day and the thought of her having to spend the night in that condition was too horrible to think about. Other clients in the waiting room joined in in French and they relented.

French speaking only vet looked at her and his assistant said they would take xrays. She returned and had the xrays on an ipad. Her english wasn't good but she said words like "abnormal structure", "bone cancer" and to take her for radiology in Montreal. The vet never showed up again. We managed to get pain killers but the assistant said no splint, no cast because it wouldn't do any good, she wouldn't be able to walk on it again.

Spent a sleepless night figuring out how to a least splint it if we couldn't find a vet in the morning. Next morning we drove past Montreal into Ontario below Ottawa. Thought speaking english they might be more agreable to seeing her even if she didn't have an appointment. 3 vets said no. We'd almost given up as the next day was Canada Day and everything would be closed. Phoned one last vet and the receptionist said that he was out operating on a cow but would return if we could wait 20 minutes. He returned, looked at the xrays that I had gotten a copy of on a CD. His comments aren't printable about what the Quebec vet said. He could show us the area with much more clarity and explain the situation. Wham bamm, injection, cast on and we were on our way in less than an hour. Gertie is now able to hobble around and she's getting back to her what is her new normal for the next 6 weeks.

The Quebec vet is lucky that he doesn't live in BC, I'd go after his license with a vengeance.

To be continued

Ron
So sorry for your little one . Glad you finally found a vet . What a nightmare for all of you . Hopefully no more of this for the rest of your trip ! Sending positive thoughts your way for all of you, including ,Gertie . Pat
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Old 07-04-2017, 08:01 PM   #142
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Glad it worked out in the long run and the little guy will be okay. Another example for getting a 2nd opinion.
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Old 07-04-2017, 09:32 PM   #143
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Back in 2008 my wife and I took a trip across the U.S. visiting various opal and other gemstone mining areas. We crossed into British Columbia and went up to Vernon. After that we worked our way across Canada until we reached Montreal. My wife had her hair done and did a little clothes shopping, afterwards we were walking down a street when she tripped on a spot where the sidewalk was raised. She fell forwards and threw out her arms and hit the ground hard. She was saying her arm hurt bad so we started looking for an emergency room or clinic. We had travelers medical insurance for Canada which we had been assured would cover us anywhere in Canada. We had gotten it mainly because of me for just in case. So after several quite fruitless attempts we finally arrived at a clinic that had the ability to take x-rays. I show them the card and paperwork we had been provided. The people in front did not speak English so they had to get someone to act as an intermediary. "We do not accept foreign insurance." This is travelers medical insurance and covers us in Canada. Sorry they do not take it. Would you call them. "No sorry we do not take foreign insurance." OK remembering that we had been told we would be reimbursed if we were somewhere and had difficulty I said If I pay can you see what is wrong with my wife? Next problem, they do not take credit cards as we could cancel it later. It had to be cash and they wanted $500 and if they had to treat her it could be more. I did not carry that kind of money and was trying to find where a bank with a teller machine might be so I could withdraw the money. Sorry that wont work they close in 1/2 hour, it's 3:30 on a weekday. I asked OK, do you know where we could go that can x-ray her arm and might take insurance or a credit card? No sorry they had no idea. So we leave and find a police officer and ask him where the nearest hospital is. We go there and are are told it will be at least 4 or more hours before someone can see her. Finally I give up and with a wife in pain I decide to leave Canada and went to Burlington, Vermont. We arrived around 7:30 pm and I take her to an Emergency room. Shortly after we are told she fractured her arm just below the socket.
End result of this, we have a running joke that she can do one or the other on vacation, get her hair done or buy clothing, but not at the same time.
And the insurance company could not believe what happened, they gave us the information needed to file a complaint which probably was fruitless but I did it anyway.
So it's not just dogs that can have problems.
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Old 07-04-2017, 09:43 PM   #144
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Thanks for the kind words.

It's definitely a special type of agony when something so helpless is so dependent on you and you can't seem to get anything done for her.

I won't get political, I don't think it was a Quebecois issue although I couldn't help notice that those of Acadian heritage, in the Maritimes, are so fluently bi-lingual I was very impressed.

My issue is with the vet, English or French, he's not fit to practice.

With an invalid dog, still suffering trauma, we made a couple of changes to our plans. Instead of lingering in Ottawa for 2 days, in crowds etc. just to hear some hot air from politicians and see some fireworks, we decided to keep moving.

Our original plan was to go North of Toronto, to the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory and take the ferry. We decided to go more quickly by going up to North Bay and head to Sault St. Marie. We then crossed from there into Michigan.

Enjoyed seeing the locks and the St. Laurence seaway. Wouldn't you know it, another Walmart.

Lucked into a great place last night. Saw a sign for a county park. Went down a road, found the park and saw that they had 10 double sided power posts. The place was huge with barns and corrals etc. Not a soul in sight. We spent a perfect, quiet night with a dark sky. In the end we didn't see anyone and there wasn't any envelopes etc. out the indicated any payment. Well, you have to get lucky once in a while.

Ron
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Old 07-05-2017, 12:34 AM   #145
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Originally Posted by Ron in BC View Post
Thanks for the kind words.

It's definitely a special type of agony when something so helpless is so dependent on you and you can't seem to get anything done for her.

I won't get political, I don't think it was a Quebecois issue although I couldn't help notice that those of Acadian heritage, in the Maritimes, are so fluently bi-lingual I was very impressed.

My issue is with the vet, English or French, he's not fit to practice.

With an invalid dog, still suffering trauma, we made a couple of changes to our plans. Instead of lingering in Ottawa for 2 days, in crowds etc. just to hear some hot air from politicians and see some fireworks, we decided to keep moving.

Our original plan was to go North of Toronto, to the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory and take the ferry. We decided to go more quickly by going up to North Bay and head to Sault St. Marie. We then crossed from there into Michigan.

Enjoyed seeing the locks and the St. Laurence seaway. Wouldn't you know it, another Walmart.

Lucked into a great place last night. Saw a sign for a county park. Went down a road, found the park and saw that they had 10 double sided power posts. The place was huge with barns and corrals etc. Not a soul in sight. We spent a perfect, quiet night with a dark sky. In the end we didn't see anyone and there wasn't any envelopes etc. out the indicated any payment. Well, you have to get lucky once in a while.

Ron
Hi Ron ! Good for you ! Be safe ! Pat
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Old 07-10-2017, 09:32 AM   #146
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OK, the last post was from Iron River, Wisconsin. Time for a little update.

Our route home was via Hwy. 2 rather than 94. We don't like 94 and the associated high volume of truck traffic etc. Hwy. 2 was a bit of a crap shoot but in the end was a really good decision for our style of travel. The highway was in generally good condition and we could normally travel at the speeds suited to trailer towing.

Enjoyed Minnesota and the lakes and crossed into North Dakota. The oil and gas boom there was obvious. Must be what Texas was like in the 50's.

As soon was we started across Montana, because we have kayaks, we ran into the first of 3 watercraft inspections. Fortunately I had anticipated this happening somewhere so we had scrubbed both of them clean. So no problem, the first inspection gave us a copy of the inspection and the others accepted it without getting their step ladders out. My, what a big state Montana is, it felt like driving across Texas.

We had no reservations for any stop on the whole trip. We did want to see the Going to the Sun Road. It wasn't open the last time we were there. We went to West Glacier to see if there were any available campsites but, of course there weren't. So we left the trailer in the parking lot of the visitors center and drove the road. What a zoo! I can see the day coming when they're going to have to limit the number of vehicles allowed on the road per day. And, wow, do those rocks come close to your mirrors. No wonder there are size limits.

On through Idaho and entered Canada near Creston. Our last night was a small provincial campsite near Greenwood. Picture perfect, probably the best campsite on our whole trip.

We managed to avoid any detours or stoppages due to forest fires and are now back home.

Once we sort through a few thousand of our best photos I'll post a few.

Most importantly little Gertie made it home without further problems. It was difficult having her travelling with that type of injury but she was a little trooper.

In case anyone considering travelling with a pet should think that maybe they shouldn't take a pet with them I should point out that we have had dogs with us in excess of 50,000 miles of travel by plane, train, bus, car and boat with only one previous minor problem.

Ron
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Old 07-10-2017, 11:22 AM   #147
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Originally Posted by Ron in BC View Post
OK, the last post was from Iron River, Wisconsin. Time for a little update.

Our route home was via Hwy. 2 rather than 94. We don't like 94 and the associated high volume of truck traffic etc. Hwy. 2 was a bit of a crap shoot but in the end was a really good decision for our style of travel. The highway was in generally good condition and we could normally travel at the speeds suited to trailer towing.

Enjoyed Minnesota and the lakes and crossed into North Dakota. The oil and gas boom there was obvious. Must be what Texas was like in the 50's.

As soon was we started across Montana, because we have kayaks, we ran into the first of 3 watercraft inspections. Fortunately I had anticipated this happening somewhere so we had scrubbed both of them clean. So no problem, the first inspection gave us a copy of the inspection and the others accepted it without getting their step ladders out. My, what a big state Montana is, it felt like driving across Texas.

We had no reservations for any stop on the whole trip. We did want to see the Going to the Sun Road. It wasn't open the last time we were there. We went to West Glacier to see if there were any available campsites but, of course there weren't. So we left the trailer in the parking lot of the visitors center and drove the road. What a zoo! I can see the day coming when they're going to have to limit the number of vehicles allowed on the road per day. And, wow, do those rocks come close to your mirrors. No wonder there are size limits.

On through Idaho and entered Canada near Creston. Our last night was a small provincial campsite near Greenwood. Picture perfect, probably the best campsite on our whole trip.

We managed to avoid any detours or stoppages due to forest fires and are now back home.

Once we sort through a few thousand of our best photos I'll post a few.

Most importantly little Gertie made it home without further problems. It was difficult having her travelling with that type of injury but she was a little trooper.

In case anyone considering travelling with a pet should think that maybe they shouldn't take a pet with them I should point out that we have had dogs with us in excess of 50,000 miles of travel by plane, train, bus, car and boat with only one previous minor problem.

Ron
Morning Ron and Family ! Glad you made it home safe and sound and Gertie is doing well . What a adventure ! Can't wait for some pictures after you rested . Welcome home . Pat
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Old 07-10-2017, 12:15 PM   #148
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What a great trip, Ron, and a great job of logging your adventures. Really enjoyed ready it, from start to finish!
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Old 07-10-2017, 03:39 PM   #149
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Thanks.
Some stats: 10 Provinces, 9 States
Nights on the road: 51,
Number of times stayed 2 nights in one location; 4
Number of times stayed 3 nights in one location; 1

Total distance to Cape Spear, Newfoundland return; 18,070 km., 11,228 mi.

Number of nights spent at a Walmart; 8 Hey, it works for us. When you're traveling and only really stopping for dinner, sleep and go, they work really well. And some Walmarts are better than some RV places.

One item cropped up that we really hadn't noticed before. That is the huge difference between Rest Stops. First of all is the variety of names that they're called. The West Coast is pretty consistent but we ended up encountering a real variety of names for them.

Some are much better than others. If I'd know at the start how much variety we were going to encounter I'd have keep track and rated them. One, however, does stand out from the rest. If I'd been keeping a rating system I'm sure Ontario would be the winner with a solid 5 thumbs down. Truly 3rd rate. Not much advance notice, if any, and then a 90* turn, no off ramp, into what sometimes looked like a private driveway. An accident waiting to happen.

Ron
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