EQ7 Deliveries

I have received more Canada Post notices of software deliveries and I thought it might be fun to track these deliveries as they make their way across Canada.

Monday, June 15: take packages to post office in Sechelt, BC
 
Tuesday: deliveries to Langley, Burnaby, Surrey - cities surrounding Vancouver, BC    (red X's)

Wednesday:  Three orders will take their second ferry ride since leaving Sechelt as they head over to Vancouver Island and are delivered up the coast to customers in Chemainus, Parksville and Campbell River. One order headed northeast to be delivered in Prince George, BC. The trek east is definitely underway with deliveries in Alberta to customers at Blue Ridge, Duffield and Calgary.

Thursday: It was shaping up to be a real duck race late last night as the 'girls' headed into the prairie provinces. After leaving the lower mainland, Gertie took the northern BC and Alberta route while Gilda headed to Duffield and Hilda had Calgary. After Blue Ridge, Gertie was making a bee line to Manitoba and the twins, Hilda and Gilda, would handle Saskatchewan. It should have been a no duck-brainer that the twins would arrive first; alas; the pair succumbed to temptation around 3 am and stopped in a Saskatchewan wheat field for a  nibble, over indulged and had trouble taking to the air again. Gertie, being the trooper that she is, pushed on and at 8:18 am this morning made her delivery in Headingley, Manitoba - just this side of Winnipeg. The twins have yet to arrive in Arcola, Saskatchewan - shame! They are probably still waddling along the Trans-Canada somewhere in southern Saskatchewan. (No GPS - the ducks are low tech...LOL)

Friday: My two little 'piggy' ducks were not alone in that Saskatchewan wheat field. It turns out they were attracted to the spot by the honking of a group of young male Canada Geese. Well, when they realized they were a tad too stuffed to fly, they batted their beady little

eyes and recruited two strutting males to deliver the software to Arcola while my wayward girls high-tailed it east. The boys being boys didn't listen to directions and circled southeast Saskatchewan for a day. However, they finally arrived early this morning.

Gertie, meanwhile, was resting at the rendezvous point - The Sleeping Giant at the head of Lake Superior across from Thunder Bay. She was beginning to fret when, at last, Hilda and Gilda appeared around midnight. They took to the air shortly thereafter winging their way across Lake Superior, past Sault Ste. Marie, and over Georgian Bay to Bracebridge.

After Bracebridge, it was onto Kitchener, Brantford, and Woodstock. Then moving east around Lake Ontario the girls made their deliveries to Oakville, Toronto, and North York with a final delivery at Whitby just east of Toronto. Now, it is onto the Maritimes!

(P.S. The "A" above marks London, Ontario - the soon-to-be new home for Three Ducks on a Roof!)

Tuesday, June 22: 

The Ducks have completed their journey across Canada and all EQ7 orders have reached their destinations!

After leaving Whitby, Ontario on Friday, the girls had one more Ontario delivery at South Mountain. This EQ7 order was left at the village post office and Ivah received her upgrade yesterday (Monday) morning. That "A" on the map to the left is over Morrisburg which is the home of Upper Canada Village and I highly recommend a visit there should you find yourself travelling this stretch of the Trans-Canada highway between Kingston and Cornwall.

After leaving South Mountain, it would have made perfect sense for Hilda, Gilda, and Gertie to cut across New York state, Vermont and Maine which would have taken them directly into Nova Scotia. Instead, they were forced to take the scenic route and follow the St. Lawrence River until they arrived at Montreal where they took a breather on Mont Royal (Mount Royal). Anyone with an interest in Canadian history should take a walk through Mount Royal Cemetery which is the final resting place for a few of our "Fathers of Confederation"; important early industrialists (the founding Molson brothers - oldest brewery in North America!); and many Canadian literary figures (F.R. Scott to name one - I studied one of his poems "W.L.M.K" - about Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King -in highschool and I met F.R. Scott in Vancouver in 1980). 

I digress - back to the ducks. The girls couldn't make up precious time and go "as the crow flies" to Nova Scotia because Gertie, the eldest, has a history - a couple of years ago she got "busted." She was very honest with me when I was setting up the shop and here is her story:

"A few years back, we went through some brutal winters in Sechelt Inlet with vicious wind storms and months of never ending rain and even a duck gets fed up with that; so, a few of us in the flock thought we would join the 'snowbirds' in Arizona for a mid-winter break and dry out the down. We headed to Boundary Bay south of Vancouver and that is where I made a fateful mistake. I was approached by a hippy, dippy drake who asked if I would hold a flower for him while he went for swim and I tucked it under my wing and promptly forgot all about it in the excitement of meeting other water fowl from through out the province and northern territories. Well, "Hippy-Dippy" never came back and when we took off 'en masse' the flower fell out from under my wing - but not completely. Some of us decided to take a pit-stop in Oregon and we were caught in bird-banding net and while the U.S. Wildlife authorities were conducting a full body search they found some seeds stuck to the underside of my wing. Oh-Oh! I was immediately caged and repatriated back to Canada."

Gertie was one lucky duck that was all that happened to her at the time. However, the repercussions of her fateful meeting with "Hippy Dippy" continue to this day as she is now on the "No-fly" list and is forever banned from flying over United States air space.

After Montreal, Hilda, Gilda, and Gertie took the south shore route past Quebec City to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River then south over the forests of New Brunswick to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. This morning the three made their last deliveries to Bible Hill just outside Truro and then up to Pictou and then it was over to North Wiltshire on beautiful Prince Edward Island. With their coast-to-coast journey complete (over 5,200 KM or 3,200 miles), they are taking a much needed holiday amongst the dunes of Rustico beach and will meet up with me in Ontario in September. Have fun, girls! - but beware of dashing drakes proffering unknown flora!