I lived on the 1000 Islands for a long time but I never really appreciated it being a snotty teenager. So we decided to take a 2-hour boat tour of the islands. We drove down to Rockport and it was packed, a lot of Asian and French Canadian tourists. Now, I can imagine coming from Montreal to visit the 1000 Islands but why would people come all the way from Asia to visit our little part of the world? I understand that this a normal occurrence, thousands of Asian tourists take the boat tours every year. The bus drivers must get a kick-back LOL!
We were walking from the very primitive parking lot, our car was literally perched on top of the rocks, and I managed to fall and twist my ankle in a pot hole. I was amazed by all the buses and wasn't looking where I was going. Luckily, I had tennis shoes on but my ankle was pretty sore. Figures, it was my "good" ankle, I had sprained the other ankle a number of years ago and it's been gimpy ever since. So now they're matching.
The 1000 Island was breathtaking. Funny that you don't appreciate what you have until you're away. When I was here it was just the river and we took it for granted. We'd stop and watch the large laker ships passing by because of the Brockville Narrows they come quite close to the shore when passing by Brockville. But that was about it. I did go on a boat tour when I was a teenager but I was not really paying attention. I think I was forced into going because my mom was visiting or something along those lines. Again, snotty teenager at the time.
BTW, if you've never seen them, the Laker ships are quite strange looking. Because of the locks on the St. Lawrence the ships are very long and narrow. My father used to be a skipper on a few of them before he started working for the Canadian Coast Guard. (The CCG isn't "military" like the US Coast Guard.) There are no other ships like them in the world. Again, I took them for granted but now that I look at them with adult eyes, they're rather stunning. Especially when they're so close to the shore when going by Brockville.
I was sitting down for most of the boat ride so I didn't realize how much my foot had swollen until I stood up. I could barely get off the boat and Bruce had to bring the car to me. We got back to the house and I called my insurance company because I knew I had to go to the ER but wasn't sure how that worked. Basically, you pay the hospital and the insurance company pays you back. I was thinking...great, there goes my savings account!
We got to the Brockville General Hospital about 5:30 pm. The waiting room was very small and there were about 5 people in it. Much different than the ER at home, usually there are about 50 people waiting. The triage nurse saw me right away and then I was whisked away for x-rays and was diagnosed with a sprained ankle. Less than 3 hours later (average time in my ER at home 5-6 hours) we were on our way home (with a stop at Harvey's, I was starving) and it only cost me $320 for the ER visit and 2 sets of x-rays. That's it!!! The nurse said it would have been more expensive if I had come in by ambulance. She said they charge up to $300. I told her the time that Bruce had to be transported by ambulance it was over $1,000. She was horrified. What a difference in health care. I also didn't have a ton of HIPAA forms to fill out LOL.
So today I'm hobbling around but feeling a bit better. If it doesn't feel better soon they told me to get an air cast. I was thinking, will that get me on the plane faster on Sunday???
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