I forgot to put into my LA-Indy post a photo that will give a chuckle to our fellow Lazy-Dazers:
Once we got to Indy and Mom’s house, a blessed rain came thundering through, giving Albatross a “natural” car wash, and loosening the bug splats enough so that I could wipe them off relatively easily. This storm also carried some pea hail, so I was glad I had covered the solar panel (blue plastic on roof enclosing foam pad).
We left Mom’s place this morning for the first day of our 12 day bus tour through Ontario and Quebec. The tour is operated by an outfit called Sunrise, which bought out the local tour company that Mom has been using for many years. Sunrise is based in Saint Louis, so the bus we’re traveling on originated there, stopping here in Indy to pick up us three and four others. The three of us were to go to a place in the NW corner of Indy, join two of the other Indy passengers, board a limo, and travel to the SE corner of Indy where the bus would arrive and pick up our group and the remaining two Indy folks. Then it would head north, past where we met the limo (!), and continue on up to Jackson, Michigan, the first stop. Why the tour company didn’t just have the bus make a second stop to pick us up in NW instead of having us limo down south is beyond us. We were told vaguely that the driver couldn’t make two stops. Huh? Anyway, we got into the most ridiculous limo imaginable. I guess it would dazzle the high school prom set, but the seating was awkwardly low (you literally had to crawl and scoot into it) and uncomfortable. Cool lighting, but that was it. And no seat belts!
At our limo pickup point, another big storm moved in, an ominous beginning to our trip. It took us 35 minutes in the limo to reach the bus stop. It arrived empty, having just dropped off the St. Louis passengers at a lunch spot. They had boarded at 7:00 a.m., and it was now after 2. We seven Indy-ites loaded into the bus, and drove over to the lunch spot, which turned out to be three fast-food places in a big parking area. Since they weren’t leaving until after 3, I went over to the Steak-n-Shake and had a steakburger and vanilla shake. Sigh. I can’t help myself. Loni and Mom had eaten a bit before we left home at noon.
By three, the St. Louis passengers were back on board, making 38 of us in all. The rain had let up during lunch, but it started again with a vengeance once we got on the freeway. I was just hoping the driver could see more out the windshield than I was able to from my 8th row seat. We passed by one rollover accident, and conditions were pretty bad. We plowed on. Since it was rather dark and dreary out, our guide put a movie on. They had six screens spaced along the coach, so viewing was actually pretty good. The movie was ancient – “The First Wives Club” with Diane Keeton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hawn. Harmless enough, and better than staring at the rain-swept windows.
Our dinner stop was in Marshall, Michigan, which has to be one of the cutest towns we’ve driven through. Looks like everything was built in the very early 20th century, well-preserved Victorians with big porches, a downtown with nifty-looking shops and nary a vacant storefront. Wish we had stayed there for the night as we would have liked to walk around town. Dinner was at Schuler’s, which has been operating under the same family since 1909.
Some of these old legacy restaurants just operate on auto pilot, but this was not bad at all. Loni and I had prime rib, nicely cooked and flavorful, and Mom had a pot roast that she and others thought was very good. A good start to the culinary side of the trip. After dinner we had some 30 miles to go before getting to Jackson. We crashed there in the Country Inn & Suites. Nothing remarkable, but perfectly fine. Breakfast at 6:30, bags out at 7:30, depart at 8:30. If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium. Off for zzzzz’s
DAY TWO/May 2: Oye. Little sleep last night. New bed? Nighttime noises from room companions? Hmm? Not much to report about this travel day. Traveler’s breakfast bar. Cold cereals, bagels/breads, fruit all gone (replenished just as we finished), pressed-egg pucks. You get the picture. Outside it was all gray skies and fog. I have to say that this is not a particularly scenic area of Michigan, at least from the freeways. We motored NE towards Port Huron as our port of entry into Canada, as it was hoped to be less trafficked and a quicker crossing. Our guide cautioned that we should not crack any jokes or make any stupid remarks, as this would result in baggage checks and an interminable crossing. We all clammed up. The agents came on board and just walked down the aisle as we raised our passports. That was it. First stop in Canada was the tourist welcome station where we loaded up on maps and booklets about Toronto. Welcome to dual language heaven.
After customs, we were on our way again to our lunch stop, which was a freeway stopping point with multiple fast food places under one roof. We chose a Canadian outfit – Tim Horton’s, a cross between Subway and Dunkin Donuts. We were told that this outfit is approaching McDonald’s in number of outlets! Never heard of them, but we were to find them, like Starbucks, on every corner wherever we went. The sandwiches had great bread, but the fillings were hit-or-miss. Mom’s was excellent; mine was pretty skimpy. I did have an excellent roasted tomato soup. Our first meal in Eastern Canada!
From lunch, it was a straight shot into Toronto. Again, bleak countryside, absolutely nothing to look at. Still overcast and dreary. To brighten (?) things up, our host put a DVD on of old “I Love Lucy” episodes. Oh, Lord. I desperately tried to sleep. No luck.
Toronto looks just like any other big metropolis. A zillion highrise office buildings and condos, a lot of them built right up to the edge of the elevated freeway. We were looking into living rooms as we passed by. Our hotel here is the Fairmont Royal York, one of those early 20th century grande doyens that has a great lobby and cramped rooms, all at snooty high prices. It’s almost in the shadow of the CN Tower, which demanded pictures.
No free internet like last night. Here, they want to soak me another $17.50 a night for access. Not this kid, brother. It’s always the most expensive places that want to nickel and dime you for everything. Trust me, unless you really like lounging about the public spaces, forget this joint. We were in the room for an hour, and were still waiting for our bags to appear. I called the bell desk and they said, “Oh yeah, that’s the room that got mixed up. We’re working on it, sir.” Apparently, ours was the only room in our group that was not yet ready when we arrived, so we got switched to another. Only the master list didn’t get updated. I think they were waiting for us to call in order to figure out where we were. To their credit, the bags appeared within minutes after my call. But the room was so cramped we had no place to open them up. Not exactly elegance.
Dinner was at an Italian place called Joe Badali’s and it was pretty darn good. I had a penne pasta with shrimp, very nicely done. What’s that? Chocolate fudge cake for dessert? If you insist.
The highlight of the day was to go see the stage production of “War Horse,” the same story as the current movie. Too bad no pics were allowed inside. We were totally blown away by this performance. It was incredible. The accolades in the poster below are all justified.
The theatre is actually fairly recent, but wasn’t much to look at on the inside. According to the tickets that we received, the price for each was $99! Wow. I generally would refuse to pay that amount for a ticket to anything, but I have to say that in this case it was worth it. If you get a chance to see this stage version, jump at it. The “puppetry” (I hate to use that term as it seems to diminish the brilliance of what we saw) was almost unbelievable. We quickly succumbed to the artifice and accepted these metal and leather creations as the real thing. Jim Henson would have been agog. The “animals” were made in South Africa, according to the playbill. Somebody there is sheer genius, but equal kudos go to the humans who propelled the beasts and made the movements lifelike. A stunning show.
I just hope it’s not all downhill from here.
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