notes from a travel day
February 13, 2010
A Tims cup amongst other garbage left behind by hockey fans at Memorial Gardens in North Bay last night. Nipissing Lakers won 7 to 2. Better than that one game I watched a bit of on the local cable t.v., in which the Lakers got scored on in such quick succession that two goals went into the net in the time it took me to raise my teacup to my lips.
Peter and I have gotten so used to me living away in the States that we keep finding ourselves surprised at how easy our travel back and forth is now that I’m living away but still in the same province. At some point last week I was pondering where in North Bay I could go to change my money before coming home, and I’m embarrassed to admit how much time I spent worrying on that before remembering that I don’t have to change my Canadian money back to Canadian. Even this morning as we packed our last few things before hitting the road home, I felt that familiar apprehension in anticipation of crossing a border, and had to remind myself out loud that this time we have no border to cross, no questions to answer, and no worries about what’s in our car or how much money we spent while we were away.
But the best part of traveling home to Windsor from North Bay? WE DIDN’T HAVE TO DRIVE ACROSS OHIO TO GET THERE.
Peter’s happiest realization was that he could drive all the way up to get me and drive all the way back with me and never have to stop listening to CBC. You can’t believe how dismal the radio offerings are through Kentucky and Tennessee unless you’ve driven it yourself.
My years living in Georgia left me with an abiding love for the red iron oxide dirt colour, and seeing that same colour cropping up here and there in the jutting towers of rock that rise over Northern Ontario roads gave me that warm sense of home. Funny that my home province feels more like home when it reminds me of someplace away.
I think there must not be any teenagers living in South River, Ontario. Because there was an arrow sign there that read “BUCK YE HORSE FEED” and it had not been hacked. I mean, come ON.
In Huntsville, a Tim Hortons employee chastised us for not approaching the counter quickly enough. Not that remarkable, perhaps, but it was kind of funny how irritated he was. Last night at the hockey game in North Bay, hanging back for a moment before approaching the ticket booth totally paid off because a man saw us, came over and gave us a pair of free tickets (good seats, too!). Nobody at Huntsville Tims offered us free coffees, though. You can’t win ‘em all.
Next time I’ll call ahead to the Fluevog store before wasting a good three hours of our trip parking at Yorkdale Mall and taking the subway to downtown Toronto only to find that the boots on which I’ve now got my heart set MIGHT be available in my size again in August. Argh.
dans des nouvelles de tricotage
I finished up the last few cable repeats of this legwarmer at the hockey game last night; my crowning moment was crossing a four-over-four cable without a cable needle without once taking my eyes off the puck. That only happened once, mind you. But still, it only proves that I am AWESOME, right?
The ribbing and bindoff were finished in the car and #2 is started; I should have been able to knit most of the second legwarmer during our seven hours or so in the car today, if only Northern Ontario weren’t so damned pretty.
Posted by jodi on February 13, 2010 at 8.47pm
