2025 A to Z Challenge Blog for the Letter R

April 21, 2025. Good morning. It’s another cool rainy day, but we did get some sunshine if not heat yesterday for the holiday celebration. I’m in countdown mode for my surgery. My pre-op went well. The EKG verified that I have a heart and that it’s working well, I have blood, and the X-rays showed that the hip is still there and in critical need of repair.

Based on all of the evidence at hand, I will be in and out on the same day–barring complications, although the nurse didn’t elaborate on what those might be. I’ll be frozen for the procedure–think epidural on steroids. Not sure how I feel about hearing everything going on, but I’m sure whatever I do hear will someday make it into a book.

Today’s letter is R and I’m thinking about rivers, specifically, the St. Lawrence River that runs along the edge of my city. The river is playing a critical role in my newest book, a romance suspense titled, And Justice for All. The river separates the city from the Mohawk reservation here, but farther along, it separates Canada from the United States. The following is taken from Wikipedia.

The St. Lawrence River (French: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, pronounced [flœv sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃]) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border.

As the primary drainage outflow of the Great Lakes Basin, the St. Lawrence has the second-highest discharge of any river in North America (after the Mississippi River) and the 16th-highest in the world. The estuary of the St. Lawrence is often cited by scientists as the largest in the world. Significant natural landmarks of the river and estuary include the 1,864 river islands of the Thousand Islands, the endangered whales of Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park, and the limestone monoliths of the Mingan Archipelago.

Long a transportation route to Indigenous peoples, the St. Lawrence River has played a key role in the history of Canada and in the development of cities such as Montreal and Quebec City. The river remains an important shipping route as the backbone of the St. Lawrence Seaway, a lock and canal system that enables world marine traffic to access the inland ports of the Great Lakes Waterway.

The river has always played a significant role in my life. I grew up eating perch, still enjoy it although it’s no longer as plentiful as it used to be. My sister lives beside the river, and we spend time there each summer, more so because my daughter’s significant other owns the cottage next to my sister’s home. Going boating on a sunny summer day is something we’ve always done. There’s something relaxing about being on the water. I think that’s why I enjoy cruises. I love being on the water.

Over the years, the river has had both positive and negative roles. It’s a transportation route into the Great Lakes, essential to trade for both Canada and the US. As well, in my area we have a hydro-electric dam that provides electricity to both our area of Ontario as well as new York State. Chevrolet and Alcan used to have plants on the American side, and for years the water was seriously polluted, but efforts were made to clean it up and that worked.

The river has also been a route by which smugglers have moved contraband from one country to another. During Prohibition, it was alcohol going from Canada into the US. In my lifetime that’s changed and alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, guns, and people have been smuggled from the US to Canada. Is there traffic the other way? Yes, but what’s ceased on our side is far more than what gets across form here. The RCMP and the OPP as well as Canadian Border Services do their best to stop the flow both ways, but criminals always seem to find a way.

Still, despite that, I love the time I spend by the river. What better song could I pick for today?

That’s it. Come back tomorrow for what I have to say about the letter S. See you tomorrow for Q. Here’s the MASTER LIST https://tinyurl.com/tauke86z