Distance travelled today, double click to enbiggen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Braindrops from the Road~~~~~~~~~~~
Poignancy:
I think this is my last road trip. From here on in it will be air, if planes will be operating a year from now. I travelled 655 KM today and felt it. The highway is mesmerizing, lulling me into a 'ready for a nap' state consistently. So I did. Twice. It could be something to do with the acute bronchitis I've had, still present in the lungs from time to time. But lucky me I can nap on a clothesline just about.
Juxtaposition:
The gas station with ancillary fast-frankenfood pods, the truck speeding by, the floodlight for night sight, the lovely old operating farm across the road.
Radio:
Best of both worlds, NPR just across the U.S. border and CBC. NPR jawing about Bill Haley and his Comets, offering prize to anyone who can call in and tell how many Comets there were. I'm a little disturbed by the sponsors, i.e. those who fund NPR, mainly medical and dental. One a specialist in face reconstruction.
CBC reviewing "The Cove" a documentary about the secret dolphin slaughters in Japan. Dolphins have a bigger brain than humans (I didn't know that) and their vocabularies exceed ours, we just can't understand the incredible variations in their speech patterns.
A stranger in a French land:
And then silence. Me and the dog. The only Ontario car passing through and around Montreal. And those Quebecois drivers. Sacre Bleu! They squeeze me close to right off the road at times. It's a game. I'm a no-good anglaise on some monarchy sponsored anglicising mission and they will annihilate me.
And in Quebec restaurants I speak my fractured French as I order and it never fails. The servers respond in impeccable English. Every time. End of day scorecard: English 0. French 2.
That brings back memories .The wife and I travelled the south shore on our way to watch the whales off Tadoussac.We found the French to be quite friendly and when I told them in my high school french that I didnt speak the language they would switch to English.
ReplyDeleteThe drives there do drive with a certain elan and at that time they all seemed to drive black VW Passats GFB
I'll be following in your tire tracks very soon, headed to Nova Scotia for the summer. Always an interesting trip! Hope your bronchitis improves.
ReplyDeleteTake plenty of breaks and travel safely.
ReplyDeleteYou are wise to think of flying in the future.
Stay safe - and well - WWW! At least the weather is treating you better than on your last trip in the opposite direction.
ReplyDeleteGFB:
ReplyDeleteYou'd be amazed now, so many, many Smart cars in Quebec, bully for them. On the way shortly!
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Hey Anne:
ReplyDeleteWhereabouts in NS? The grandgirl and I were thinking of a hike through CB for our annual vacation together so may be in your neighbourhood?
XO
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GM:
ReplyDeleteI deliberately slept in today and am allowing maybe only 500k today. Talk of a boneweary body!
XO
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T:
ReplyDeleteThough raining today much better than the ice and snow I must say!
XO
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So is this road trip for the sheer hell of it or is there some business to do? I thought Quebec City was pretty but in a rather chocolate boxy sort of way. We travelled from Toronto by train - relaxing but very slow!
ReplyDeleteNick:
ReplyDeleteI'm heading back to Newfoundland so it is a necessity so I can be home until end of December (with a break for Dublin and Paris, of course!)
I bypassed QC - I've always loved the choc box feel of it and adore Le Promenade.
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And when will you arrive home, dear traveler? Pull over, take naps on that clothes line, hang on to your piece of the road!
ReplyDeletelove,
v
Napping on clothesline....me too..I tried it once a Kentwell Hall in Suffolk, England...apparently a way of squeezing extra people into a small space on board ship.
ReplyDeleteIt's true..honest...oh yes I fell off but one of the kids in my class spent about ten minutes on the rope.
V:
ReplyDeleteI keep hoving to on those clothesline, currently holed up in Cornerbrook, NL, maybe I'll make it home tomorrow!
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Magpie:
ReplyDeleteLOL!!! You actually did it! did you see Man on a Wire? Right up our alley, he does look as if he's sleeping!!
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Well...I really do need to visit you more often...been busy gardening and not much writing going on these days...but my, I enjoyed reading the whole sequence of your travelogue...I particularly enjoy your colloquialisms and dialect and Irish "mishmash"...reminds me so of my dear friend, Tessa...the two of you could be sisters in your delightful, ironic take on life and all its (and your) ramblings...
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDelete