Because I was so close to Port Perry now, I was only a few hours away from my sisters. She emailed me to find out where I was. Seems like the phone I have is buzzing constantly with people asking on my whereabouts. I need to stop into the conservation office and have them implant a transmitter so people can follow my moments. I told Kathy the location and which highway I was heading down, I suspected she would come do a driveby with the kids and she did but it was with the bass booming and her throwing her hands in the air to the music. Nice. She pulled over and I made as if to keep going for 2 seconds before I spun around again. I noticed the Snickers bar in the passenger seat and made to grab for it casually but she cut me off and said it was for me anyway. She also produced a bottle of cold water. Well done! She wanted to sully my biking record by offering to take me into town but we compromised on her taking my bags in. While she went shopping, I entered the house and calmed the barking Boxer Toby by saying his name. Because my clothes were at her house though, I did not have a clean set to change into so I did what any reasonable person would do and helped myself to a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Soon enough, she arrived with enough food to feed the Maple Leafs training camp. I cleaned up and we had a good talk and caught up on family events. Soon her husband Andrew arrived with son Jake who proceeded to give a fashion show of his back to school clothes. Songs and stories with the little ones Keira and Brooklynn followed.
My younger sister Kathryn has struggled for years with Autism so it is sometimes hard for her to seperate some nuances in dailty life. So, when we we started talking about the bike trip at dinner, she would shout out,"Trains! Cheating!" and bang her cultery on the table several times. She doesn't understand that I was not riding the train but only riding on the old railbeds. It's the same with the Ferry across Georgian Bay. She would shout out, "Boat ride!!! Cheating!!!!" and no matter how many times I tried to tell her that I HAD to take the Ferry, she wouldn't listen. This distraction oppoing up occasionally did not spoil a fantastic dinner of Quesadillas! During dinner, the subject of Brooklynn's filled diapers came up and Jake quickly put an end to that conversation but no sooner had he done that when he started discussig how Toby had a leaky bottom. He went into great detail about how Toby would be on his sheets and in the morning, it was like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina! I put an end to that topic but also found that I was ok without a 2nd helping of Quesadillas. After dinner, Keira saw me as an easy mark and had me read "Peter Pan" to her and Brooklynn. The version is a collector's item becuase of the extra-small fine print and the highly detailed version of events. Apparently, its her favourite but rare for her to have people read it because it is so long! One 45 minute version was enough for me to summarize the next day.
When the little ones were put to bed, we played an energetic version of the card game,"Pit". For those of you unfamiliar with the game, you try to get a set of 9 cards by trading a number of hidden cards with other players. Apparently, the rules have changed a bit because my nephew would trade 3 cards for 2 and Kathy was calling out the kind of cards she wanted. Big no-nos in this game. Still, its not my house so who am I to judge. Oddly enough, Kathy won the game but I found great satisfaction in trading the "Bear" (penalty card") to Andrew seconds before someone had a set. Great fun (even with the cheating). I got to sleep in Jake's bed and apparently it is a package deal with Toby the Boxer included. To his credit, he slept straight as a board and he managed to control his bottom wonderfully. Thank goodness too because he was coming at me with guns hot!! A great day!