The Great Canadian Adventure: Day Two

Saturday, 9 March 2002 - 9.19 AM

Slept well. Awke to an absolutely fantastic breakfast, again courtesy of Claire's dad. Sausages, pastry (okay, that was storebought), eggs, and biscuits. Milk, too. Yum-a-rama.

Was upset last night right before bed; I was in the bathroom changing and heard firecrackers and what really sounded like a cat yowling. I desperately hope the two weren't related. Cried a little because I was afraid they were.

But regardless, we're on the road again. Packing all our gear into the car was a rather epic adventure in itself. I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't go on a CD-buying spree ... where are we going to put the stuff we buy? Ah, well. Things to worry about later.

Oh, further on last night, I got teased at dinner a lot and blushed really hard four distinct times and playfully hit Claire twice for being a dork. Once about my major, once about being "Canadian", once about tomatoes, and once about something else, presumably Robert, even though I forget now.

Not much to write now. Update later. Fumbling off to read.

SOUNDS: REM/It's the End of the World As We Know It, windshield wipers, occasional singing along, rain.
SIGHTS: Ohio highway (watching speed still more imperative). It's a lot like Kentucky highway except without rock. Much flatter around here. (I just said that Ohio was flatter than my roommate and Karen smacked me. I probably deserved it, but I'm still rather bitter about her locking me out during my shower yesterday. In my damn robe, for God's sake. Clouds of water running off of cars.

3.03 PM

CANADA!

We have arrived in Canada and are just outside Windsor. We ended up taking the route I'd wanted to take earlier because it was clearly marked "BRIDGE TO CANADA". Passage to Canada was extremely smooth. The guy in Customs looked so absolutely bored with his job. He was one of those people who speaks in a monotone, too. He didn't even ask for our birth certificates, just our driver's licenses. Fine by us; we're on legitimate business.

Canada road signs are different: km/h speed limits (with the occasional mph for poor stupid Americans like us), British spellings, trapezoid and crown-shaped highway numbering signs, and most foreign to all of us, French translations on every sign. Karen, the only French student among us, has been reading the translations aloud for us.

We ate lunch just before hitting Detroit; we were trying to hold out for a Subway (since Lindsay used to work at one, they gave her 12 sets of free-sandwich stamps), but when there were none to be found, we finally gave up and stopped at a McDonald's. (Note: There was a Subway at the very next exit. Fate, you are cruel.) There were a bunch of Canadian high school kids there, and it was really weird for me, hearing the pronunciations that get me mocked at home tumbling, unchecked and without comment, from their lips. Truly, they were obnoxious, as are all high-school students in restaurants, but I couldn't get enough of their sarcastic high-school "Soooooooooorry" because it sounded like my own.

We stopped and bought posterboard and a red Sharpie and made a "CANADA or BUST" sign.

Seeing Canadian flags is a major morale-booster, even though we still have a long way to go. Canada is even flatter than Ohio.

SIGHTS: Canadian highway! Yay! Wide expanses of grass, trees lining the road (presumably as buffers), power lines, rain and mild fog (at least, much milder than it was a few minutes ago), farmhouses, and the occasional industrial areas.
SOUNDS: Alanis Morissette/You Owe Me Nothing In Return. Otherwise it is very quiet in the car.