Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 01:00 PM PDT

My wife Chris and I flew form Albuquerque to Manchester New Hampshire yesterday. We are on our way to Quebec City, Quebec for some sight seeing and then on to Montreal for a veterinary meeting. We stopped for the night in Woodstock, NH (not that Woodstock) at a little motel right out of the 50's. It's kind of a dump, but we prefer places like this to the chains that have no character at all.

This place even has a coin operated "Magic Fingers" massaging assembly in the bed. This has to be the best deal in America. For a measly quarter you get "Quickly carried into the land of tingling relaxation and ease." You don't get that at the Comfort Inn.

We had to wear our shades yesterday because it is so green here. We are used to shades of tan and brown with a little green thrown in along the river valleys. It's really beautiful and we crossed several rivers yesterday, anyone of which would have qualified as the biggest river in New Mexico.

Today we'll drive through the White Mountains and up into Quebec. We'll go right by Mt Washington, known for the worst weather in the world. We plan to cross over into Canada at a little border crossing on Highway 3 at the very top of NH after a side trip to Dixville Notch. Political junkies will recognize this little burg as the first precinct to report results in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary every four years.

We are very excited about seeing Quebec City...

While we've been to Montreal several times and really love it, Quebec City is supposed to be the real deal for a francophile like me. I plan to practice my high school french on the poor unsuspecting French Canadians. I seem to use the phrase, "un peut plus lentement, s'il vous plait" a lot when speaking to real French speakers. It means, " a little more slowly, please," in English.

After a couple of days at our B&B in the "Old City" we head for Montreal and the annual ACVIM meeting. The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine is the group that certifies veterinarians in the specialty areas of Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Neurology and Oncology. These veterinarians have had several years of additional education in these specialty areas and are the true experts in our profession.

Many of them work at Universities and Teaching Hospitals where they train future veterinarians and perform research. Many others work in specialty referral practices around the country. Hopefully you'll never meet one of these doctors on a professional basis. That would mean your dog or cat had a fairly serious problem that your own veterinarian felt a specialist should handle. It is nice to know that they are there when you need them though.

There is sure to be lots of interesting material presented at this meeting.

If I see anything really exciting I'll post about it. I'll also let you know what we come across in Quebec City as tourists.