Day...uh...Ottawa the First. Trip Three.
So, once again I’ve managed to find myself at a hostel without wireless Internet. I don’t know how this happens - they really /should/ have internet, and I think they have terminals that you can pay to get internet, but no wireless. Oh, well. Another copy-paste job, I guess.
Yesterday I did not write because I pulled into my stop, in Wawa ON (population somewhat less than 10,000, plus one or two giant goose statues) at 11:15 at night, after leaving Winnipeg at 7:30 in the morning, and drove past several NO VACANCY motels (including my beloved $58-per-night Beaver Motel) before finding the Bristol, which charged me $71, after taxes. This works out to about 9 bucks an hour, for the time I stayed there, plus a little for a shower in the morning. Highway robbery. This must be where that term originated.
The Bristol Motel smells exactly like my Nana’s cottage on Lake Huron. A little musty, a little woodsy, maybe with a hint of decades-old smoke and whiskey sweat. There are fake flowers /everywhere/, and a cheap red carpet that leads up the stairs to a veritable silk-flower shrine at the top of the stairs, which is cleverly places to distract you from the fire hose attached to the wall at ankle height.
The room that I got was quite nice, almost as big as the dorm room at the Winnipeg hostel that could have housed six or seven, with a Private Bathroom. Upon consideration, and especially given the hypothetical that I could have gotten there a couple of hours earlier than I did, if I had sped, the private bathroom alone could have been enough to make the motel worth what I paid for it, had I had time to take a bath, or watch some of the satellite TV. Instead, I cursed to myself that I had not brought my computer bag up with me, as my cell phone was dead, then thought “screw it,” and went right to bed. Good bed, mediocre pillow. My neck hurt.
Actually, my neck was a bit sore today, too, but I suppose two straight 14-hour days on the road will do that to you. I finally made it to Ottawa at about 9:15 tonight. Well, actually I entered the city maybe half an hour before that, but Ottawa is, in fact, quite large, and there were lane closures on the freeway, and my exit was a good 50 kilometers into the city, and my GoogleMap was stupid and wrong, and I had to try and remember, in the dark, while driving, and without a light inside my car to help me read my incorrect map, where the freaking hostel was, from when I had been here a year ago. Considering all that, I actually found it after only about 5 minutes of confused driving.
Tomorrow is going to be a touristy day. Because last year I only had from about 4 in the afternoon until bedtime to explore, I really only walked /to/ the Parliament buildings, and around Byward Market a bit. Tomorrow, because I am staying all day and leaving on the 5th, I can go for a Parliament-building tour (shades of grade ten, but without horrible uniforms and 60 other people), and either to the National Art Gallery or the Museum of Civilization. Or both.
Although I’ve been thinking, since I went to the Winnipeg Museum, like, two days ago, and got all history-ed out by two thirds of the way through it (I know, I didn’t think it was possible either), I may go to the art gallery first, and then see how my museum-strength-serum levels are doing before going to the museum of civ. Because even though it’s my first choice, if I get frustrated and mad while I’m there, the experience will be ruined and I will hate myself just a little bit. Anyway, so I get to walk around Our Nation’s Capital and hopefully take some artsy pictures of it. That’ll be fun. Have to think about where to have dinner tomorrow…I’m not eating tonight because I am currently the opposite of hungry, despite the fact that the last thing I ate was two Subway white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies four hours ago. So, tomorrow dinner must be good with a capital yum.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but you notice different things when you drive. Today it was two things. First, it’s harvest time. I actually noticed this the first day, driving through Alberta, because although you still see a few fields of hay, and lots of corn, lots of fields have also been harvested already. A couple of times I’ve actually seen the combines out in the fields, Actively Harvesting. This is strange because, for one, last year I don’t think there was nearly as much harvesting going on, despite the fact that it was only a week earlier that I came through. Second, even though you hear about Fall Fairs, and Harvest Festivals, and things of this nature, I don’t know how many of us city kids actually sit around and think about how a farmer makes the decision that, yes, this is the week to do it. Any longer and we’re all ruined. Three days from now I think there will be frost, so I must call my brother-in-law, and get this (insert crop here) in now. Really, it seems like such a huge decision, not quite life or death, but…what if you have a feeling, an intuition, that this is the week. That the tropical storm whatever is going to hit some coast and the world will end, and if you don’t sell your barley now, say goodbye to next year’s new tractor. And then, what if there’s a miraculous three more weeks of perfect growing weather, and all your barley-farming friends are laughing at you, and next year they go out and buy tractors and Chevys and a pony for their kid? I suppose there are guidelines, rules, but…I don’t know. I think it would take balls.
Anyway, the second thing I noticed today is how the biggish cities tend to delineate, fairly exactly, the kinds of terrain there are. Before Calgary, mountains and hills. After Calgary, prairie. After Regina, Really Flat Prairie (before that, it still kind of rolls). That lasts until Winnipeg. After Winnipeg comes the minor forests, Thunder Bay and onwards takes the Trees and Rocks of the Arrogant Worms song to a whole ‘nother level, but with awesome lake views and cliffs, Sault Ste. Marie is just conifers for as far as the eye can see, and around Sudbury the bare red rock takes over. After North Bay, the farmland creeps in. Corn fields, and hay fields, and some trees, but you can tell they’re only the ones left on purpose either as windbreaks or just to look picturesque. Anyway.
Driving this long for two days straight drives one into a bit of melancholy. I managed to think myself down into a semi-depressed stupor in the last couple of hours of the drive. The sunset was nice, though. Anyway, I’m going to cheer myself up with a little problem solving. The writing has already helped, although the lack of wireless hasn’t. I am going to sleep in tomorrow, and not set my alarm, and I will check in with you all tomorrow night, perhaps from a fully-wired Starbucks. Their wireless (I bet) always works.
Yesterday I did not write because I pulled into my stop, in Wawa ON (population somewhat less than 10,000, plus one or two giant goose statues) at 11:15 at night, after leaving Winnipeg at 7:30 in the morning, and drove past several NO VACANCY motels (including my beloved $58-per-night Beaver Motel) before finding the Bristol, which charged me $71, after taxes. This works out to about 9 bucks an hour, for the time I stayed there, plus a little for a shower in the morning. Highway robbery. This must be where that term originated.
The Bristol Motel smells exactly like my Nana’s cottage on Lake Huron. A little musty, a little woodsy, maybe with a hint of decades-old smoke and whiskey sweat. There are fake flowers /everywhere/, and a cheap red carpet that leads up the stairs to a veritable silk-flower shrine at the top of the stairs, which is cleverly places to distract you from the fire hose attached to the wall at ankle height.
The room that I got was quite nice, almost as big as the dorm room at the Winnipeg hostel that could have housed six or seven, with a Private Bathroom. Upon consideration, and especially given the hypothetical that I could have gotten there a couple of hours earlier than I did, if I had sped, the private bathroom alone could have been enough to make the motel worth what I paid for it, had I had time to take a bath, or watch some of the satellite TV. Instead, I cursed to myself that I had not brought my computer bag up with me, as my cell phone was dead, then thought “screw it,” and went right to bed. Good bed, mediocre pillow. My neck hurt.
Actually, my neck was a bit sore today, too, but I suppose two straight 14-hour days on the road will do that to you. I finally made it to Ottawa at about 9:15 tonight. Well, actually I entered the city maybe half an hour before that, but Ottawa is, in fact, quite large, and there were lane closures on the freeway, and my exit was a good 50 kilometers into the city, and my GoogleMap was stupid and wrong, and I had to try and remember, in the dark, while driving, and without a light inside my car to help me read my incorrect map, where the freaking hostel was, from when I had been here a year ago. Considering all that, I actually found it after only about 5 minutes of confused driving.
Tomorrow is going to be a touristy day. Because last year I only had from about 4 in the afternoon until bedtime to explore, I really only walked /to/ the Parliament buildings, and around Byward Market a bit. Tomorrow, because I am staying all day and leaving on the 5th, I can go for a Parliament-building tour (shades of grade ten, but without horrible uniforms and 60 other people), and either to the National Art Gallery or the Museum of Civilization. Or both.
Although I’ve been thinking, since I went to the Winnipeg Museum, like, two days ago, and got all history-ed out by two thirds of the way through it (I know, I didn’t think it was possible either), I may go to the art gallery first, and then see how my museum-strength-serum levels are doing before going to the museum of civ. Because even though it’s my first choice, if I get frustrated and mad while I’m there, the experience will be ruined and I will hate myself just a little bit. Anyway, so I get to walk around Our Nation’s Capital and hopefully take some artsy pictures of it. That’ll be fun. Have to think about where to have dinner tomorrow…I’m not eating tonight because I am currently the opposite of hungry, despite the fact that the last thing I ate was two Subway white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies four hours ago. So, tomorrow dinner must be good with a capital yum.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but you notice different things when you drive. Today it was two things. First, it’s harvest time. I actually noticed this the first day, driving through Alberta, because although you still see a few fields of hay, and lots of corn, lots of fields have also been harvested already. A couple of times I’ve actually seen the combines out in the fields, Actively Harvesting. This is strange because, for one, last year I don’t think there was nearly as much harvesting going on, despite the fact that it was only a week earlier that I came through. Second, even though you hear about Fall Fairs, and Harvest Festivals, and things of this nature, I don’t know how many of us city kids actually sit around and think about how a farmer makes the decision that, yes, this is the week to do it. Any longer and we’re all ruined. Three days from now I think there will be frost, so I must call my brother-in-law, and get this (insert crop here) in now. Really, it seems like such a huge decision, not quite life or death, but…what if you have a feeling, an intuition, that this is the week. That the tropical storm whatever is going to hit some coast and the world will end, and if you don’t sell your barley now, say goodbye to next year’s new tractor. And then, what if there’s a miraculous three more weeks of perfect growing weather, and all your barley-farming friends are laughing at you, and next year they go out and buy tractors and Chevys and a pony for their kid? I suppose there are guidelines, rules, but…I don’t know. I think it would take balls.
Anyway, the second thing I noticed today is how the biggish cities tend to delineate, fairly exactly, the kinds of terrain there are. Before Calgary, mountains and hills. After Calgary, prairie. After Regina, Really Flat Prairie (before that, it still kind of rolls). That lasts until Winnipeg. After Winnipeg comes the minor forests, Thunder Bay and onwards takes the Trees and Rocks of the Arrogant Worms song to a whole ‘nother level, but with awesome lake views and cliffs, Sault Ste. Marie is just conifers for as far as the eye can see, and around Sudbury the bare red rock takes over. After North Bay, the farmland creeps in. Corn fields, and hay fields, and some trees, but you can tell they’re only the ones left on purpose either as windbreaks or just to look picturesque. Anyway.
Driving this long for two days straight drives one into a bit of melancholy. I managed to think myself down into a semi-depressed stupor in the last couple of hours of the drive. The sunset was nice, though. Anyway, I’m going to cheer myself up with a little problem solving. The writing has already helped, although the lack of wireless hasn’t. I am going to sleep in tomorrow, and not set my alarm, and I will check in with you all tomorrow night, perhaps from a fully-wired Starbucks. Their wireless (I bet) always works.