Heart like a Wheel

To create our first impression of Canada the guy at the border seemed unphased by all the clothing (mostly Blair’s ) in our car , given the 2 night duration of our stay, but was confused by our plans to ‘have fun’ in Toronto and perplexed by our idea of going to Kingston at all.

A bit after that we pulled off the highway and threaded our way through a picturesque township close to East London, to the filling station to gas up. We were culturally dislocated, surprised and touched that you were supposed to fill your tank and then pay later! Try that in the US without encountering buckshot! This trusting openness was exemplified by the gracious Karim, snatched from behind the counter and all up for a future cross country trip.So we pushed east through the flatlands doing the old Australian crawl, encouraged by the McGarrigles, but intimidated by all those speeding signs, including vehicle seizure, a $10000 fine and potentially jail time. While this chastened me into the mpg / kpl conversion, it seemed to offer a challenge to Canadians, similar in their speed to Americans, except with less lane discipline.

At last, Toronto spread out along the lake. In order to avoid attention they stayed in a down market hotel.Glad to spend two nights here, I realize I erred in Chicago: THIS is the defrocked Trump Hotel. At least the shower is unpretentious . Slipping into an ever diminishing supply of clean t shirts and my evening jeans while Blair draws on the limitless sartorial supplies of Big Bertha, we prepare to glide ( after a few Uber screw ups ) to Byblos. Well, a restaurant called Byblos.This place is hopping . Our server Andrew is a bit of a clone of son John. A snowboarder, he’s hung out in Queenstown and done the comparative shopping between Whistler and some of the crazily priced resorts in Colorado. Utah is in his dreams. The eastern Mediterranean food, tapas style, is excellent.I direct our choice of wine to the Bekka. First sampled this one with Kate decades ago in Kuai. A touch of emerging Amarone. Tracy approves and, of course, had once lunched with the late Serge.What an evening. We contemplated the fundamentals of existence. Blair’s desire to find a cure for Friedrich’s and the necessity to temper that urge with a lifestyle that allows time to do it; how we humans cope with loss and it’s prospect – of those closest to us and of ourselves; how Canadians have stricter speed limits , frequent signs warning of doom if they exceed them and yet drive faster than Americans and of course, what a wonderful life it has been. Those children ( mostly ), those grandchildren, cats and dogs ( always) our treasured partners, our precious friends.Andrew gave us some great recommendations for tomorrow. We slipped into the night and, after another Uber screw up, when it seemed there was no direction (their GPS is confused by Toronto’s building boom), home.