Turns out Chris is taking a scenic tour to get from Toronto to the farm (around 2800 km journey according to Google). Third night out and he reported in from Thunder Bay. Night 1 - Port Parry - barely into cottage country, Night 2 - The Sault (that it is pronounced 'Soo' is up there with Quay being 'key', but I digress).
This is when I am reminded of one of many sometimes subtle differences between westerners and 'easterners' (and yes, after nearly two decades away, I realize it is Central Canada, but am reverting back to The Old Ways). While I did leave a long time ago, my formative years were in Alberta and Saskatchwan, training me for long haul driving.
A long weekend meant an 11 hour drive to the farm for a two night visit. This was pre any car safety concerns, so road trips meant lying in the back of the station wagon with a supply of Harlequin Romances (damaged me for life) with mom periodically tossing bolognie sandwiches our way and passing a cooler of stale water with a shared straw. Ah...magical times.
In my day (I HATE that I am old enough for that phrase to be applicable to my life) western urban sprawl was in its infancy It meant that there was actually country/space between population centres. You left Calgary to get to Cochrane. It wasn't a continuous suburb.
I was in my teens and taking my first big trip with the school band to St. Catharines, Ontario before I knew distance driving could be any different. We were crammed onto a school bus to go visit the big city of Toronto and it was the first time I found out that towns were allowed to touch. We seamlessly passed through one municipality to the next...no space in between. Bizarre...
(This trip was also notable in that the planned trip to the CN Tower was thwarted due to cloud cover -I still, to this day, have not been up - AND our little motley crew of 13 year olds had our first encounter with a cross-dresser in the Eaton Centre. Let's hear it for broadening horizons.)
All this to say that by Night 3 any average prairie driver would be pulling into the farm yard running on Tim Hortons and a numb bum. We also would have very vague notions of scenic outlooks, descriptive roadside plaques or healthful, circulation-restoring rest stops.
Chris may be taking his own sweet time getting here, but he's also the one trying to show me how to slow down and enjoy the scenery.
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SO TRUE! Man, when my family moved out to BC, we made the trip back to Thunder Bay to visit the grandparents and other assorted family at least twice a year. And that meant filling up our mini van to capacity, and driving non-stop out to Ontario - who wants to spend more time than necessary on the road, when your destination is so much more enjoyable? It's all about the Tim's and the Husky restaurant cheeseburgers, all the way. And if you think ALBERTA is far...! xo's
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