So we arrived at the cottage on Canada Day with two canoes (of the four I purchased from Jeff), the absolutely stunning boundary 17-6, and the well built ugly duckling Bob Special 15, one of the 'cosmetic defects' that were the three other boats.
Jeff had re-applied gel coat, and mostly sanded the one side, leaving me the other side to sand, with work progressing as depicted in the pictures above. I had just about got it good enough to go on our scheduled four day paddle into Algonquin Park, everything arranged and looking good, when our little world changed...
After two visits to the hospital in Barry's Bay about a week apart, Rudi was diagnosed with a collapsed lung, but more serious was the swollen lymph system evidently causing it. An ORNGE helicopter flight to Ottawa, and two days of tests while in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at CHEO, we learned the diagnosis... T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
A week in Ottawa starting in ICU, and then the Children's Oncology Unit, treatment having actually begun the morning after his arrival, a full day before his actual diagnosis, followed by a Medivac plane flight to London where he spent most of the summer. Katherine flew with and stayed with him, while I headed back to the cottage to complete the minor bathroom renovation, and store the Boundary in its cradly in the basement...
Until next year, when we should try once again for our first four or five day trip into the park...
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