9/11/14 So we have made it as far as Detroit, MI

9/11/14
So we have made it as far as Detroit, MI. We had a good time in Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. I think I’m glad we’re out of Canada for the time being, of all the days we spend north of the border, it was only dry one. I believe we were to a drenched state no less than 4 times throughout the trip, ie. soaked socks, pants, shoes, water anywhere a 75mph “wind driven rain” could get. Quebec and Montreal were pretty. Old Quebec as well as Old Montreal was pretty stunning, especially considering many of the structures build hundreds of years ago are still standing today despite the weather up here. The cathedrals, I think, were most impressive in their intricacy and attention to detail given to all of the woodwork and paint / coatings used. The organs were also equally as spectacular as, I believe it was the one in Notre Dame, Montreal that had over 7000 individual pipes. We headed south after Montreal to arrived in Toronto to $400/night hotels, but to our excitement and possibly dismay as well, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is running this week. So, as to be assumed, we didn’t stay in the heart of Toronto, but instead stayed in one of Misty’s home away from homes (Holiday Inn Express) just North of Toronto. Once we arrived, we ran over to Kensington Market, which really isn’t a market at all, but a bohemian/eclectic neighborhood area where lots of people that sell stuff, seems like a nifty name for just about anyplace where you can find things that are bought and sold I guess….. We did not take up the offer for experimental Marijuana Cecastion treatments, but for the Oklahoma readers, this would be the equivalent of a neighborhood about three times the size of Paseo and twice as liberal, you’d probably be better off hanging up posters to attempt to establish your local drug trade than cessation ads. While we were in Toronto and TIFF was going on we decided we couldn’t leave without at least seeing one screening. Misty picked out “Songs She Wrote About People She Knows,” this was a comedy about a lady that basically goes elderly (read: loses her filter) before she really reaches elderly age. It was pretty funny. After the movie, we walked out onto the streets of downtown Toronto greeted by and hour of traffic and more rain. There’s nothing more frustrating than sitting on a motorcycle, in traffic, and in the rain all the while wondering if; 1. The tripod strapped to the luggage would clear the mirrors of the cars ahead, and 2. If lane splitting is kosher in this town, I didn’t find out, we got soaked and would have regardless as it rained the whole way to Niagara Falls. As the skies cleared and the border to the US became visible, Misty found another HIX (now a commonplace acronym for Holiday Inn Express in the Room4Two Webster Dictionary) and went to bed. We got a not so early start in Niagara to head to Detroit this morning and after a brief discussion about how we would get to Detroit Misty seemed to agree with myself and the border agent that going “Over the Top” of the lake, even though through Canada, dodging hundreds of Justin Beibers behind the wheels of anything from minivans to three trailer semis, it would be faster than going through the US and below the lake. As we were about to embark on the next leg of our journey to Detroit, I asked Misty if she needed anything else, to which she replied, “No, but you might want to use the restroom before we leave.” I replied,“Not now, there are plenty of places along the road to stop if need be.” About this time, Misty had a blonde moment look on her face and I couldn’t, in my wildest dreams, have predicted what was about to come out of her mouth next. She said,“Well, if it’s a bridge, where can you stop?” Now at this point, I really couldn’t figure out what bridge she was talking about, nor where she thought there might be a bridge where one couldn’t stop and on the side and pee if it was an emergency (Ok, I’m joking about the second part). So, she pulls up the map and shows me a red line through the middle of Erie and said, “Isn’t this the route we’re taking?” She had confused the US / Canada Border for an “Over the Top” bridge that would lead us directly through the center of the lake and just a bit East of Detroit. Maybe this was funnier in person, but I just thought I should share. Needless to say, we neither took a tunnel nor a bridge all the way to Detroit, but managed to get here safely and arrived to empty streets and buildings, but are going to take in a few sights and hopefully make our way southwest somewhere from here, hopefully with no clouds, as the Aurora Borealis is supposed to be visible tomorrow evening and since all we got the chance to see north of the border so far was fog, rain, and Tim Hortons, we’ll get a chance to see the Northern Lights before we get too far south.