Birds, real and imaginary

MiMiMiMiMiMiMiMi Minnesota Minnesota

Clear skies:

Colorful boats:

Quiet highways:

Pamela's Hair Salon - Brainerd:

How bank money is spent:



Drove the quiet back roads of Minnesota, up through the Mille Lacs area, where the shores are lined with cottages and boats, hoisted on lifts, presumably to protect from wave damage in the shallow edgewater. Imaginative windsock/kites, shaped like eagles and ospreys, flap realistically in the wind over some docks, to discourage nesting birds which are in abundance. Clouds of white flys swirled so thick in places that we daren't leave the car, but away from shore, the air was fresh, the sun warm, and the sky clear and blue. The world is at peace here. Had the best deal ever on a pork rib dinner in Brainerd, then visited some quilting stores, landing overnight in a very nice AmericInn in Crookston, in preparation for our second assault on the border tomorrow.

Indy rethink

Just watching the highlight video of the 500, and, you know, in the comfort of a nice motel room, and reduced to 12 mminutes, it's not bad! Linky:

http://www.indy500.com/videos/watch/1651-2009_Indianapolis_500_-_Race_Highlights

50 days!

Quincy downtown:

A Moffat house in Iowa City:

Corn to the horizon:

Can't hold a camera straight at all!!

Near Decorah:


Our route took us up the east shore of the Mississipi, quite rain-swollen and lapping at the low banks. There are many large and gorgeous estates facing the river, some for sale; tempting! The back roads pass through small towns, rich and poor, each with a radar trap for the unwary, the speed limits going up and down faster than the stock market. A passing farmer redirected us after we'd found ourselves running east when we thought we were headed north. An early Mormon settlement, Nuavoo, is in pristine condition, while some of the poorer towns are barely holding it together. One wonders how and why they exist.

We were treated to a wonderful dinner by friends Benn and Cel in their charming, eclectic and most comfortable home in Iowa City. Their laughter, warmth and generosity are a testament to the American spirit; without prying, you'd never guess how hard the depression has hit them. Benn's very spiritual too: he fixed my camera just by holding it! (Benn - we never got photos of you guys! Send some, please!) Toured some 'Moffat houses', quirky one-offs built without plans out of what-have-you, and quite 'collectable' hereabouts, then had a huge breakfast at Hamburg Inn No. 2, (another burger bar favored by Obama. And Clinton!) and reluctantly parted ways.

It's rained a bit, but The Weather Channel shows storms across the entire U.S., so we don't feel hard done by, and the break from the heat has been most welcome. We're leaving the cornfields behind, and headed into the sun again today, to explore the lakes of Minnesota.

Ah...that's better!

Taking side roads now that there are no deadlines pressing. So much more to see, and not much slower at 55mph. The car is quieter, radio and CD's clearer, sights more scenic. It's cooler, with the odd shower, but so humid that there are vapor trails inside the car, pouring out the vents!

We're bummed that, having committed to seeing Indy, we raced through or completely by-passed so much of the best countryside. Live and learn. We'll do Maine again one day, and spend a month there. Whatever, we're draining our bank account at an ambitious rate, and couldn't have held out much longer anyway, financially or physically: I've gone pear-shaped.

St. Louis' old suburbs are badly in need of rescue. There are literally miles of abandoned buildings, some architecturally interesting, being century-old brick, but now windowless, gutted and forlorn. No pictures, as they didn't look like safe neighbourhoods for sightseers, and the camera's acting up, mostly taking photos that look like they're melting, like this:




Downtown proper is clean and modern looking, with remnants of cobbled streets near the river, covered with silt from heavy rains. Busch stadium is quite beautiful, but I forgot to circle back for photos, and can't find a decent one online. Oh well, I only came to see the Arch, and it was very cool.

Stayed the night in Quincy, an old town on the decline, hotels empty. Ale and hearty chicken at a riverside bar, but the waitress wouldn't sell me the Bass glass for any price. No business instinct left, I guess.

Been there. Done that.

Well, that's over with. Heat, humidity and a hypnotic eeeeennyoww.... eeeeennnyoww...eeeennyowww of ugly cars flashing past, and I slept through the race not once, but twice!

6AM, 2 miles from IMS, traffic was at a standstill; 2 hrs to park. Track: impressively large, but size more annoyance than wonder. Parking's all to the north, as were our seats; 'will call' is at the very south; a 2 mile sprint for tickets & I was hot under more than the collar. Crawled to our seats by 8:30AM; stands empty. Sun: merciless; our battery-operated fans couldn't cope. Smart people were hiding below, drinking.

Pre-race entertainment was sparse: huge, precise marching bands played very early to 2 1/2 miles of bare aluminum. Why don't they save these for later?? The partyers trickled in; booze poured in: you can bring as much as you like to the stands. 3 historic race cars made a single lap. As did 33 'Princesses' in nice 'vettes. And truckloads of actual vets. No driver's parade though. Strange. 2 old B52s flew over. Invocations and anthems were delivered. Florence Henderson belted out a desperate vesion of 'America the Beautiful'. Jim Nabors did his usual; nice rich voice after all these years. Hoosiers cried. The stands filled.

Finally, after 4 1/2 hours in the sweltering heat, the race started, everyone lept to their feet, and we couldn't see a thing! Caution on the very first lap as Marco spun. Then round and round and round they went. Slowly at first, then faster, then slowly again. Some skidded along the wall in front of us, to loud cheers. One bounced off dramatically, ending out of sight a 1/4 mile down the track. But other than their incredible speed, there wasn't a lot to watch. I don't know what I was expecting, but somehow I thought this type of racing MUST be better live. It's actually better on TV, though not by much.

Of course, on TV you don't get to see the apoplectic 9-year-old in Danica garb, red-faced, on the very edge of a stroke, screaming and pointing wildly at her car, EVERY lap, enraged that she wasn't trying harder or something; bizarre! They get the fans going early here, I guess, which might explain why most around us were there for their 4th, 5th 16th or 32nd year. I can't think of a reason to go twice.

With Robbi and I both nodding off, and not wanting to battle 400,000 drunken fans on the highway (oh yes, the police were ready) we left the track at lap 120 of 200, hoping to catch the ending on TV. And it wasn't even on! So I showered, napped, had dinner, watched the Sunday funnies, and went to sleep, only to awake to find Robbi catching the replay. I really tried, but fell asleep again, waking near midnight to a tearful Helio, choking down the milk. Robbi was asleep, so I have no idea how he won; he hadn't led a lap all day. Maybe it was 'dramatic'.

Anyway, I'm going back to road-racing, where they brake, shift, steer and pass once in awhile. And the cars are often quite beautiful.

Why are we here?

Before:

After:

What we saw:

A typical race shot of cars going by:

A fan:

Race Day

My big day began at 1:10AM when the revellers down the hall poured out of the bar. With luck, the bastards'll all sleep in and get stuck in traffic. I don't know why they were leaving so early because I could hear the music booming well past 3:30. That and the indigestion I gave myself at the buffet meant little sleep, as I awoke at 4:44 after a very strange dream involving a HUGE technicolor swan with a heavy quilted cover tied over its back, flying out of a lake at me. Man, I miss my drugs!

So we'll get an early start at the track anyway: gates open at 5 and 'Will Call' opens at 6AM!! Glad I phoned. More later.....time to hit the road!

The road to Indy

No pics today: the drive down from Lansing was the usual 5 hr monotone of farmland, dead animals, and road signs. Nice apple-pecan pie at a small-town cafe tho. It's the little things that keep me going.

On a whim, we decided to check out the Speedway on the way through to our motel in Crawfordville. Wrong. 3:30PM and there was HUGE traffic trying to get IN to the track. Uh, people...the race is TOMORROW! The boulevards are choc-a-bloc with campers, trailers, lawnchairs, BBQ's and beers. Every home is offering parking, hospitality or both. So, off to the motel, 40 miles west and filled to the pool-edge with pot-bellied fans in race garb, mean age: 50. Lucky we booked ahead, or I'd still be driving. Local TV of the Indy parade through town has Derek "Look at her chest! Look at her chest!" Daley, of all people, narrating. For some reason, the sidewalks are PACKED with spectators. Indy really does seem to be a big deal here. Who knew?

Friends, Family & Fauna

Ottawa to Waterloo

One of many cabinets full of curios in Glenna's house:

An anonymous barn:

My cousin's barn:

Dad's home in Burlington:

The 401 past Toronto, with it's express/collector system is a wonder to behold: 16 lanes wide & no skidmarks! Canadian drivers are just so civilized. Again, no pictures due to lack of forethought, but here's a link; just click on a camera! =)
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/compass/camera/camhome1.shtml

My cousin Glenna & Murray Collings' big old farm in Campbellville has been in their family since the early 1800's. They've got scores of fallow dear, lilacs, knicknacks and woolie mammoths, and gave us about 50lbs (literally) of loose change and old bills to distribute amongst the siblings, plus some scribblers of Mom's from the '20s, antlers, and artifacts of unknown lineage. Good thing we're driving a Tupperware; it's getting awfully full.

There sure is a lot of farmland around here, though they're planting more houses than corn in places. There are some beautiful estates, too, especially along Cedar Springs Road, right around the corner from dad's home in Burlington, which is now up for sale. Had lunch with Uncle Walter in the old hotel in Waterdown; 2nd big meal of the day, with one to go. This whole trip has been an eating marathon.

Roman and Michelle Rak sheltered us in their beautiful Waterloo home; he's an ID guru at RIM and showed off his Blackberry prowess. Nice work if you can do it. They took us to a Woodstock concert with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Jeans and Classics combo, with some great guitar and vocal tributes to Hendrix, Grace Slick and the rest. Teared up more than once.

Cried for all the kamikaze raccoons and deer lining the highway too. Gee, but they must be dumb, plentiful or both.

Crossed into the States again at Sarnia. Lunch at Big Boy Burgers = good value.

Every so often you stumble into a restaurant, expecting nothing, and discover a gem. La Senorita was just so, and we had another memorable meal, after the teaser at the hotel turned out to be just that: free drinks, but no food available at any price. And no outside booze allowed? Curiouser and Curiouser.

Heh heh...found F1 Qualies live on the internet. It's in Italian, but who cares! Go Jenson!

Civilization?

Our capital:

Our radio:

Meant to tour the Parliament Buildings but spent the whole day at the Museum of Civilization. Here we are 10,000 miles on, and the very first display we see is about the Musqueum reserve, two blocks from where I grew up! I thought "I came all that way to see THIS??" But we never even made it to the third floor, the place is so full of interesting stuff. They even had our kitchen radio...boy, do I feel old now.

Had a Chinese feast at Aunt Rachel's, and reacquainted with cousin Ted (after 40+ years) and met his wife Christine. Does he look like his dad! Same twinkle in the eye. He used to race Mini's, now he just tinkers. Here's one of the surviving loves of his life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iyVSakz4U

...and then the trail went cold.

Really cold! It was one degree overnight in Quebec, but warmer today in Ottawa, where Brandon, Morgan's ex, has revived my laptop, and our blog is alive once more. He's also graciously relinquished his bed to us, and cooked an excellent steak dinner last night.
Brandon's named his golden retriever 'Carmen', which I should find offensive, but he showers the thing with so much love that it's obviously meant as a tribute. Hmm....

His new mate Drew is in stem-cell research, but it doesn't show. No Frankenstein ambitions.

Today it's off to the parliament buildings and museums, for the usual tours, then dinner with Aunt Rachel in Nepean. If I'm not still full.

Quebec City

Strong headwinds and showers buffeted our little box all the way down the St. Lawrence to Quebec City. We've been lucky with the weather though; only about 1.5 days of rain TOTAL since we left Vancouver, nearly six weeks ago. The roads were pretty quiet too; Queen Victoria's birthday doesn't seem to be a big deal here for some reason. We stopped at the first indigenous 'restaurant' we recognized (from all the road signs) St. Huberts, but mistakenly walked into the take-out entrance, and not finding a place to sit, had to eat in the car. Duh.

Then we drove downtown and walked around the old city until we'd burned thru two sets of camera batteries, and with sore feet, sat on the street with the laptop, 'borrowing' wifi from an anonymous donor so that expedia could find us a home for the night. Very, very strangely, it put us in an excellent hotel, 4.5 miles across town, and RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the VERY SAME St. Huberts where we'd bought lunch!!! Wow...life is weird sometimes.

Our arrival coincided with anti-homophobe day here, which was quite cool.

Quebec City is without a doubt the nicest town in Canada, maybe in all of north America. They obviously value and have preserved their history here. It hasn't been re-created, as in so many places, but lives on, uninterupted. Their melodic language fills the sidewalks and shops, and there's no evidence of the anti-anglophone sentiment that we feared. Maybe it's because we always try to converse in French, no matter how pitifully. Our hosts have been, without exception, gracious and accommodating. The whole place oozes charm and pride. Beautiful! Speaking of oozing, we happened into Casa Calzone, home of the best, what else, calzone anywhere. Scrumptious! This little family-run eatery alone was worth the trip here.

New Brunswick revisited

(.......above photo is in Halifax, actually)





Felt a lot better about New Brunswick on the way out. There are a lot of prosperous and attractive farms here, and I feel bad about slagging Saint John! We really had little time in Nova Scotia, either, as the race to Halifax kind of did us in, and we'd felt we'd 'been there, done that' and had best keep motoring. The highways really offer little to look at, unfortunately being mostly cuts through endless forest, but it's the same from here to Florida, so what's to expect?

Cape Breton

Robbi's welts continue to grow and spread, and we may have to forego our tour of Halifax harbour today, in favor of a visit to Emergency.

Yesterday we drove the Cabot Trail, which can best be described as the old Sea-to-Sky Highway without all the assholes. It was virtually empty, and a real pleasure to drive. It's a good thing we ate first, though, as the tourist season hasn't arrived here yet, and EVERY restaurant was closed. There's still snow here! Bought a CD of Atlantic women's music to accompany us, which was very nice. Once again, the views that haunt me are the ones I couldn't photograph; I need a movie camera permanently running, attached to my head.

Day 40!

Hard to believe it's been 40 days. Today we spent $97 on gas, and still haven't made it out of New Brunswick. Can't help but feel that our race thru NS and NB has denied us the best scenery, but we did chance upon the longest covered bridge, and some pretty scenic spots. Actually saw a moose too, so the signs don't lie. We're in a cheap dive in Edmundson, with 'free' wi-fi that you can't connect to, and anyway no google-related app will run on this laptop anymore. Bizarre. Got the full poutine treatment from two charming young francophone filles at a new little restaurant where we felt like their very first customers. Stuffed. Happy to be back in Canada with good ol' Canadian TV, though and was even able to watch Man. U clinch the English title with a fiercely fought 0-0 draw over Arsenal.

Lots of French spoken here. Wished I'd learned more. Robbi's swelling is going down, just a painful itch remaining. Didn't need hospital treatment, just some anti-inflammatory medication and calomine lotion.