Everyone laughed at my portable toilet....

But who's laughing now??? Probably you. At me. Yeah, today was a rough one. Spent most of the night either emptying my stomach or wanting to. Very little sleep was had. By the time we were ready to leave, I felt horrible and wondered if I would make it to the destination for the day. Naturally, this was also the day that Ross had planned all kinds of food stops, so that was wonderful.

First stop was a sugar shack. It was freezing cold out, and my stomach was churning, but I managed to pick up some things at the gift shop and try a few maple goods. That's like honey, right? Honey's good for an upset stomach.

Insert stick into taffy, twirl, enjoy.

The Cathedral of St. Anne de Boupre

 After the sugar shack, we continued on some very bumpy local roads that did not sit well with my stomach. I decided not to get out of the car at the cathedral, and snapped some photos from the comfort of my heated seat. We found a pharmacy to pick up Claritin and Pepto. Apparently there's no Sudafed in Canada, the bastards. After downing a swig of Pepto, I managed to doze for a bit, electing to skip the chocolate shop. You know I'm not well when I can't be bothered with chocolate. I did get out at the cheese shop and picked up a few things, just in case I magically got hungry. But then Ross threw in the kicker: a lunch stop at a smoked meat house. I got about one step in, spun around, and went back to the car. That was SO not happening!

As I sat in the car, my stomach decided it had had enough. I remembered that I'd thrown one of the portable toilets into my bag and grabbed it. Needless to say, NASA's space-age technology worked wonderfully. More importantly, I felt LOADS better. Good enough to even go back to the meat house. I didn't eat anything, but I had some ginger ale and could at least converse with my friends like a normal human.

You have to question where your life is going when this becomes necessary.

After lunch, it was a straight shot to the ferry. Only it wasn't so straight. As we pulled into town, there was a sign indicating that there was a 2 hour-plus wait for the ferry. At this point, half the group decided to turn around and take the long way around, adding over 300 miles to their day. The rest of us sat there and watched the continuously growing waves, wondering what the heck we were getting into.

After 3 hours, we finally pulled onto the ferry! By this point, the winds had reached 60mph and the bay was rocking big time. I will put up videos at some point, but there is a particularly awesome clip of Dave and Ross getting blasted by a wave. It could be the funniest thing I've ever seen. We continued on, still with 3 hours to go. We weren't sure where the splinter group was, but we thought they'd be ahead of us based on how fast they like to drive. We made a quick stop at McDonald's, my first time in many years. I was hoping it would be one of those instances where I'd take a bite and realize that I hadn't been missing anything all these years. But you know what? Those fries are every bit as tasty as I remember.

We continued on and pulled into the hotel just before 9. As we pulled into the lot, the other group was waiting, having just arrived minutes before. Meh, I'm glad we didn't do all that extra driving. Plus I got to see Dave and Ross get drenched. Apparently, they passed us while we were stopped at McD's, but are being rather ungracious winners.

Tomorrow is our longest day, but there are no stops planned. We can take our time and do as we please. I figure if the burger stays down, I'm in the clear and whatever it was has run its course. Let's hope so!