We've finished out fourth day of conductive education at Ability Camp in Canada. Mom, Aidan and I arrived after a three day drive straight up through the United States, entering Canada at Port Huron, Michigan.  We drove through Detroit.  I've never been to Detroit, but its problem of urban decay and blight is sometimes discussed in connection with New Orleans' blight problems, if not directly compared to it, and I have to say, that Detroit looked sort of how I imagined it, although the downtown was surprisingly vibrant on the Sunday evening that we passed through.

Other than Detroit, the highlight of the border crossing came as we approached the border check point and realized that I had misplaced my passport. After driving for three days, I came very close to losing it.  The immigration officials were very nice about it and let us through after asking a few questions, and without even looking in our car.  As it turns out, it is the U.S. government that wants it citizens to have passports.  Luckily, when we arrived at our hotel room in London, Ontario, we found the passports.  Whew. . . . .

Were it not for the use of the metric system in road signs and gas prices, it would have been hard to tell that we had crossed the border at all.  In London, we stayed at a Quality Inn, which was across the street, more or less, from a WalMart. Since arriving at Ability Camp, other differences have emerged, most notably at the grocery stores, where the prices are very high, the product packaging is written in English and French, and the store personnel are unusually friendly.

Its actually day one of week three now and I'm a little disappointed in Aidan's ability to participate in the activities at Ability Camp.  The highlight so far has been that one of the moms has a potty chair called an aquanaut, that she brought from home and Aidan will actually sit on it.  He has had success twice in two days.  For two years or more I have been trying to find a potty for him.  I finally bought one last year but it has not worked out that well.  Unfortunately, the Aquanaut retails for around $700, so I am holding out hope for finding a used one somewhere.

This trip is probably going to cost about $10,000.00 or more, and we raised less than 1/4 of that in the recent fundraiser sponsored by rick Crozier so, I really hope its worth it.  We'll see.