Ottawa and the Luggage

This past weekend, I rode my motorcycle up to Ottawa. I was a little worried, considering the length of the trip, around 6 hours. But, it was a beautiful day! I headed out of work around noon and realized that I had lost my motorcycle key. Are the fates against me? What is it about me lately and losing things? So, my sister kindly picked me up and drove me home to get my spare key. Finally on the road by 1pm.

I just want to say that Hwy 7 is quite beautiful and awesome on the bike. So twisty! The traffic wasn't bad, I made it to Heidi and Jen's place around 6:30 (with a stop for lunch and a couple stops for gas). The only time I hit traffic was once I was in Ottawa at rush hour.

Heidi received an Xbox for her birthday and I was hooked. I hardly left the cottage at all. CSI is so much to play! We also tried out Halo (not really for us) and a couple of other games that were fun. My thumbs hurt so much by the time I left.

We celebrated Heidi's bday at Ottawa's pride parade. Jen was actually in the parade with the Ottawa Library book mobile. Way to go Ottawa library. It was an extremely sunny and hot day and we believe we all were suffering from some sun stroke by the time it was over.


While in Ottawa I received a rather weird phone call from a woman in London (Ontario). It appears that her husband had found some luggage on the side of the 402 (for those of you who don't know where that is, it's between Brantford and London). A rather odd place for my luggage, wouldn't you say (there was also someone else's luggage beside it). Needless to say, the luggage wasn't completely full when I got it back. Electronics were missing and of course, my clothes didn't all smell so good after being on the side of the road for a couple of weeks. The luggage smells so bad! Thanks dad for washing my clothes. So, now I am dealing with the police and my insurance company to see what can be covered.

The moral of the story - don't fly air canada. No, that's not the moral (well, one of them). Don't trust the security at airports (anyone can steal your luggage - any one can get into the baggage claim area); check your fine print of any gold credit cards that may have travel insurance (there's a lot of it and they don't cover what you think); check the airlines fine print, there is a ton of stuff that they don't cover if you have it in your luggage; keep a copy of all of the cards that you have in your wallet (you never know what you might have to cancel or remember that you have); don't take any clothing that you really like (it's a bitch to try to replace); don't keep anything other than clothing and toiletries (not glasses or contacts) in your checked baggage.

I guess that is about it for today. Back to work I go. I'm off to visit with the police tonight to file a report on my stolen bag.

I hope everyone is having a more fun end to their summer, than I am. I can't believe it is September 1st. That reminds me: Happy Birthday Grandma!