We took a quick picture of Lynne on the front stairs of our Toronto apartment and got in the car to head out at 9:15am. We weren't rushing, but I was glad to see we were leaving about the time I wanted to be going. I don't know why it mattered, but it did a bit. Even after all of our packing and unpacking and driving more stuff up the storage unit yesterday, we still had too much stuff to travel with. We got everything (except for two sets of bar bells) into the car, but we couldn't move, or see out anything but the front and our immediate side windows. Off we went to the storage unit in Newmarket on more time to drop off a bit more stuff! We got away from there about 10:15. Headed over to the 400 and headed north.
Goodbye stuff, goodbye fiends, goodbye chiropractor, goodbye . . . yea, we really did say goodbye to everything as we passed by. Goodbye upper Canada Mall. We were remembering how small it was when we moved into Aurora a bit over 20 years ago.
My friend Wilf phoned us as we were just south of Barrie. We talked a bit about how we were feeling. We, or at least I, was pretty excited up until a day or two earlier when I started thinking about all the cool stuff we did and the friends and family that we were leaving. I did look in the rear view mirror and think, Holy Carp - everything we know and love is back there. Up ahead, the sky was dark and dismal. The weather report was calling for rain on and off all day. It looked like we were just heading into a huge storm.
As soon as we got north of Barrie, the trees were all turning colour. Bright red and orange. Beautiful. We commented on the rock at the side of the road where the road had been blasted through. Great coloured veins in the rock and the curves in the rock in this "Canadian Shield". For some reason it stood out more, and looked more beautiful than in the past. The rain came and went all day long. One minute hot and sunny, two minutes later, a bit of drizzle, 30 seconds later pouring for a minute. I spent the better part of the day adjusting the windshield washer.
We got to Sudbury, the Home of the Big Nickel (image)at about 2:00. We filled up with gas and decided that it was too early to stop driving so we headed straight west, out towards Sault St Marie. Strange the trees haven't changed colour much along the way here. There were patches of colour, but for the most part it was all still pretty much green. We past a town called Echo Bay. Those folks obviously have no sense of humour. If I were the mayor, I'd rename it Echo Bay, Bay Bay immediately!
We found a hotel across the road from the Agawa Canyon Train Tour station. Wilf tells us this is a wonderful tour. We're going to see about getting tickets and checking it out tomorrow.
i wonder how long we're going to do what we did here tonight though. We got into our room, immediately unpacked our laptops, got online and started checking email and writing. We're both pretty happy doing that, but I feel like we really should be putting off getting online and get our butts out the door to explore the town a bit.
I have been here before. Back in the Polka Dot Door days we played here a couple of times. The town seems vaguely familiar too as the town where Kevin and I played flip. Flip is where you take out your cigarette package (it was OK to smoke back then) and sit it on the table on an edge. You reach around to the far bottom corner and 'flip' it around so that it turns at least 360 degrees and, if it landed on it's edge, you win the flip and nothing happens. If it falls to the back or front of the package, you had to down a shot of . . . . whatever we had with us at the time. Kevin was good at that game. I remember laying with head on my arm which was grasping to hold on to the top of the toilet seat and being so sick I was wishing I could die. Kevin, Gerry and Cindy got me a blanket, laid it over me because I was freezing, and then left me their while they went out dancing. I woke up the next morning. I don't remember the next day's shows as being that good! I'm pretty sure that was in this town!
So - day 1 is out of the way. We got further than we'd planned to, and it looks like we'll have a 'play day' tomorrow! I expect that soon we'll be back to getting excited about what's out the front window and not that rearview mirror!
Thanks to everyone for their email, Facebook and Twitter 'bon voyage' wishes.
Goodbye stuff, goodbye fiends, goodbye chiropractor, goodbye . . . yea, we really did say goodbye to everything as we passed by. Goodbye upper Canada Mall. We were remembering how small it was when we moved into Aurora a bit over 20 years ago.
My friend Wilf phoned us as we were just south of Barrie. We talked a bit about how we were feeling. We, or at least I, was pretty excited up until a day or two earlier when I started thinking about all the cool stuff we did and the friends and family that we were leaving. I did look in the rear view mirror and think, Holy Carp - everything we know and love is back there. Up ahead, the sky was dark and dismal. The weather report was calling for rain on and off all day. It looked like we were just heading into a huge storm.
As soon as we got north of Barrie, the trees were all turning colour. Bright red and orange. Beautiful. We commented on the rock at the side of the road where the road had been blasted through. Great coloured veins in the rock and the curves in the rock in this "Canadian Shield". For some reason it stood out more, and looked more beautiful than in the past. The rain came and went all day long. One minute hot and sunny, two minutes later, a bit of drizzle, 30 seconds later pouring for a minute. I spent the better part of the day adjusting the windshield washer.
We got to Sudbury, the Home of the Big Nickel (image)at about 2:00. We filled up with gas and decided that it was too early to stop driving so we headed straight west, out towards Sault St Marie. Strange the trees haven't changed colour much along the way here. There were patches of colour, but for the most part it was all still pretty much green. We past a town called Echo Bay. Those folks obviously have no sense of humour. If I were the mayor, I'd rename it Echo Bay, Bay Bay immediately!
We found a hotel across the road from the Agawa Canyon Train Tour station. Wilf tells us this is a wonderful tour. We're going to see about getting tickets and checking it out tomorrow.
i wonder how long we're going to do what we did here tonight though. We got into our room, immediately unpacked our laptops, got online and started checking email and writing. We're both pretty happy doing that, but I feel like we really should be putting off getting online and get our butts out the door to explore the town a bit.
I have been here before. Back in the Polka Dot Door days we played here a couple of times. The town seems vaguely familiar too as the town where Kevin and I played flip. Flip is where you take out your cigarette package (it was OK to smoke back then) and sit it on the table on an edge. You reach around to the far bottom corner and 'flip' it around so that it turns at least 360 degrees and, if it landed on it's edge, you win the flip and nothing happens. If it falls to the back or front of the package, you had to down a shot of . . . . whatever we had with us at the time. Kevin was good at that game. I remember laying with head on my arm which was grasping to hold on to the top of the toilet seat and being so sick I was wishing I could die. Kevin, Gerry and Cindy got me a blanket, laid it over me because I was freezing, and then left me their while they went out dancing. I woke up the next morning. I don't remember the next day's shows as being that good! I'm pretty sure that was in this town!
So - day 1 is out of the way. We got further than we'd planned to, and it looks like we'll have a 'play day' tomorrow! I expect that soon we'll be back to getting excited about what's out the front window and not that rearview mirror!
Thanks to everyone for their email, Facebook and Twitter 'bon voyage' wishes.
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