by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: November 18, 2009

The week we rented that vacation mountain was a real nightmare, as the zombie family came out of the woods and surrounded us after we stopped to check on our flat tire. These "undead" people looked like they were stiff and just learning to walk and talk, and they seemed to be saying "brains, we want your brains...". Oh, no, wait. That was a movie. Oh, and the mountain wasn't for rent either, but there was a cabin for rent on a beautiful mountain a few miles from the ever popular Mont Tremblant ski resort north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And we rented it for two weeks, at $800 per week, plus $100 per week for access to the boats. There were zombies, but they were all college aged guys who had drunk way too much way too quick and wandered too far from the resort.

We rented a cabin on a beautiful lake from a lovely elderly couple over the Internet. When we got to the cabin, about a six hour drive from home, we looked for the key where the owners told us it would be, but there was no planter box under the side window. There were, however, people inside, people outside, and a few police cruisers started approaching with their light bars flashing but no sirens wailing about half an hour after we arrived. Yup, you guessed it, we were the victims of Internet fraud.

The mountain vacation rental horror story started with renting a cabin, with a combination fishing and water skiing boat, boat house, docks (3 of them!), swimming platform about 20 yards from shore, with a huge water front property filled with old wood, meaning lots of free firewood laying there for the taking. Unfortunately, this cabin was about 20 feet by 15 feet, on a lot about twice that size, with a trail that led to a really small lake about a twenty minute's walk from the outhouse, uh, cabin.

Considering that we paid by check about 3 months prior to the vacation, all we could do was wait for our turn at trying to talk to some Quebec Provincial Police officers, about 2 weeks ahead of the separation referendum. They had little like and patience for anglo-Canadians, and made sure that we felt unwanted and unliked. After assuring us that it was basically our fault, while all the other families were inside the hut talking to a couple of detectives, we were sent on our way. We went right to Montreal, and found the Provincial Police Headquarters building.

They had copies of all of the people's complaints about the fraudsters, except ours. We were then asked if we were trying to take advantage "of some dumb Frenchmen?" for our own financial gain. We reminded him that we were out $1600, and had two weeks, packed vehicles, and nowhere to go. He gave us a tourist brochure for Ontario, and told us to "have a good day, eh".

If I could have, I would have voted for separation that Fall. We went back to Mont Tremblant, rented a nice cottage that had a for rent sign out front (one night in tents, and the rest in a nice, accommodating cabin right on a nice lake, chock full of speckled trout.

Sometimes nightmares can be turned into dreams if you try hard enough.

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