But, Some Are. (RE: "Not All Who Wander Are Lost") Part II
Continued from here.
Before I knew who J.R.R. Tolkien was, I saw countless cars with bumper stickers that advertised the line, "Not All Who Wander Are Lost." Mostly, the cars were in rough shape and belonged to hippies... but that is really neither here nor there. The line struck a chord with me, as I'm sure it does with many. Alone, the line is pretty deep and introspective. It's somewhat empowering to the loner who seems to not have a focus or path to follow. In the context that it is written -- a poem or song that a god-esque wizard uses to describe an exiled king who protects hairy footed short people from tormented elves and goblins and a dark lord -- seems to suggest that we may not be advertising our true purpose or path and that when we do, look out.
I used to feel connected to this line and felt pride in my wandering ways, because, someday, my path will be revealed to all and my wandering ways will suddenly make sense. With utmost confidence, I can share that I am wandering because I am, in fact, completely lost. There is no secret path or purpose that I'm withholding for the right moment of revelation. Nope. I have no clue WTF (as the kids say) I'm doing.
Right. So. The road trip I took.
Third Leg: Niagara Falls, ON to Toronto, ON. 80 Miles. 1 Hour, 30 Minutes.
I woke up early Saturday morning. I was pretty excited about getting back on the road. I showered, quick, and loaded up my car. The continental breakfast at the hotel was really weak, so I skipped it, and ate a granola bar in the car.
I plugged in the address for the Toronto Hard Rock into the GPS... and nothing happened. After repeating this a few times, it occurred to me that my GPS only had USA maps and, while the satellite could still pick up the GPS signal, the GPS didn't have a map of where exactly I was or where I intended to go. I thought about using my phone, but because I was out of the country, there were additional charges for data usage. Not wanting to spend an arm and a leg on data, I looked up directions while I was still at the hotel, wrote them down, and did things the old fashioned way. How did we ever survive with out GPS? Mapquest? So archaic!
The drive was uneventful for the first hour or so. Then, the storm rolled in. As I drove north, the sky was like a half and half cookie. To my right were blue skies. To my left were black skies. I tried to take a picture, but traffic was picking up because of the storm and I needed to pay attention to the driving.
This storm was intense! Loud cracks of thunder, like someone had clapped two pieces of wood together followed by the grumbling of a giant's empty stomach. Soon, it started pouring heavy buckets of rain. For the next half hour, traffic was nearly stop and go, as was the rain. I went from having my wipers on high, to not using them at all.
I eventually passed through the storm and entered the city. I didn't have any rain issues after that.
(A sports stadium of some sort)
(Another sports stadium)
(A sports hall of fame)
(Aha! The music stuff)
(This. Yes. I couldn't not buy these Dr. Who themed pins)
It was too early for lunch and so the restaurant was nearly empty. One group was just being seated and I overheard them comment to their server that they were disappointed to be seated near some pop artists memorabilia. The server said that she could have seated them near the Justin Beiber skateboard.
(The aforementioned skateboard)
Now that I think about it, why is this kid's skateboard in a place called "Hard Rock?" There is nothing "hard" or "rock" associated with Justin Beiber... moving on.
(Tom Petty's guitar)
After wandering around Hard Rock, I busked a little bit in this open area. There were not very many people around. I played a handful of my songs and then realized I was hungry. Someone had dropped a coin in my guitar case. It turned out to be a Canadian two-dollar coin.
I had parked in a parking garage, which turned out to be underground by about three stories. Above the underground garage was a five story mall and movie theater. It was sort of a maze of escalators to get back to my car. I grabbed my cooler and my laptop, made my way up to the food court area of the mall, and ate lunch while I mooched the mall's WiFi and wrote down directions out of Toronto.
While in Toronto, I really got a New York City vibe. Having been to NYC a handful of times, I really felt a strong comparison. Sadly, Toronto seemed to be under a lot of construction. It was almost as if every other building had scaffolding. I used the bathroom in the mall and it was torn apart, as well.
I went back out to the open area where I busked and looked into taking a sight seeing tour. It turned out to be forty bucks. I decided that since I bought four pins in Toronto (the three Dr. Who themed ones and the Toronto City pin) that forty bucks was too much. I was going to check out the space needle, but that was twenty dollars. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had splurged on the space needle.
(I did not go up in the space needle, but I wish I had)
(The other side of the sports place thing)
Fourth Leg: Toronto, ON to Detroit, MI. 230 Miles. 4 Hours.
Leaving Toronto was a lot of “fun." The traffic was thick and I barely made any progress for the first half hour. Finally, I passed by one of the stadiums (the baseball one?) and the road opened right up. Must've been game day or something. Since I didn’t have GPS, I relied on my hand written directions from Google Maps, which were confusing as hell. There were many major highways just outside of Toronto that crisscrossed, doubled-back, twisted and turned, and ran parallel to each other. I knew I needed to just get to 401, which ran the whole way to Detroit; so, I just stayed on one road, following signs for 401, despite the Google Maps directions telling me to do other things.
After about two hours of driving, I stopped briefly on 401 to stretch my legs. I tried to use the WiFi at the rest stop in order to see how far I had left to travel, but it wouldn’t connect. An employee at the rest stop noticed that I was giving my laptop a frustrated look. He told me that the WiFi there can take up to 20 minutes to connect on a good day. He said it’s a real problem. I thanked him and gave up.
(Canada is flat, eh?)
When you live on the cusp of the Adirondack Mountains and frequently drive through mountainous regions, seeing all the flatness is kind of a surprise. It's amazing how "open" things in general feel along 401 in Canada. I was also real impressed to see, literally, hundreds of these things:
(Wind energy! Teach us your environmentally friendly ways, Canada!)
To get into Detroit from Canada, you can go over the Detroit River or under it. I opted for under it. When I emerged from the Windsor Tunnel, I passed through customs pretty quickly and turned on my GPS. I was 8 minutes from the Hard Rock and downtown Detroit. I was also happy to have GPS and my phone back.
("Do you have anything to declare?" "I have nothing to declare," I declared)
I found a parking lot that was right next to the Hard Rock. I was hungry and tired of being in the car, so I really didn’t care too much about paying for parking. This lot was only $10 and the lady at the gate was really nice. For some reason, I was expecting Detroit to be an unpleasant place to visit. I was dead wrong.
There was a jazz music festival happening a half of a block away from Hard Rock and there were food vendors and people selling jewelry and other crafts lining the street. It was a cool vibe.
(Hard Rock sign selfies have become a thing this trip)
I went to Hard Rock and into the Rock Shop. The clerk working there was super polite and said “hi” to me as soon as I walked in. I picked up the pin I wanted and decided to get a second one since I wasn’t expecting to return to Detroit any time soon. The clerk told me that there was a 20% off deal if you buy three pins. So, I grabbed one that was marked down. The clerk then showed me my receipt and explained that if I logged on to the Hard Rock website and filled out a survey, I would get a $5 off coupon for my next visit to any Hard Rock. I told him about my “tour” of Hard Rock Cafes and he said that I could do a survey a day and save money at each restaurant. Sweet.
(Pins! My collection is bigger than this)
Starving, I sat at the bar and asked for a menu. I had a beer and ordered a “Legendary Burger.” While I waited for my food, I logged onto the Hard Rock website via my phone and filled out the survey. There were questions about the employees. I found the name of the guy at the rock shop on my receipt and I wrote about how awesome and polite he was. I hope he gets a raise.
After eating, I grabbed my guitar to busk for a little bit. I had to walk quite a ways away from Hard Rock because the amplification of the jazz festival was going to drown out my busking.
(I love the neon guitar when the lights start going down!)
I made my way to Greek Town, which is a small cluster of blocks that contain much of Detroit’s night life. It was getting dark and the street was lit up with neon. It was a pretty cool atmosphere. There was a huge casino right next to a hotel and a huge parking garage attached to both. I decided to ride an elevator to the top of the parking garage to get a view of the city.
(Greek Town)
(Another sports stadium)
(General Motors)
It was still pretty hot, despite the sun having gone down a while ago, and I was tired from walking around. I followed a corridor that connected the casino to the hotel and overlooked the street. It was air conditioned and I decided to sit down there for a little bit and watch the goings ons of the street.
I decided that I didn't feel like busking. It was just too hot out. So, I shouldered my guitar and headed back toward Hard Rock and my car. While on my way, I came across two buskers playing together. One played a Djimbe. The other used drum sticks and a variety of pots and pans and lids. I nodded as I walked by and the pots and pans guy asked me to stop and play. I said "sure" and pulled my guitar out of its case and started playing. I played “The Girl’s Already Gone,” but didn't sing. The noise of the hustle and bustle of the city street was loud. I could hardly hear my acoustic guitar over the sound of the percussionists and the city. It was kind of fun. I talked to the buskers about tips. Pots and pans guy said he was going to need another wallet and added, “Seriously.” I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. No one dropped any money while I was there and the money jar only had a couple dollars in it. I guessed he was being sarcastic. I wished them luck and moved on my way.
I found my way back to my car by 11 o'clock and decided to leave Detroit now, rather than experiencing the night life. As it turned out, I wish I had stuck around. For all the bad things that people have to say about Detroit (typically, urban decay related), I found it to be the most pleasant city (aside from Niagara Falls) that I visited on this trip. Granted, I was only able to experience a small part of it, but it was definitely a nice part.
(To be continued...)
Before I knew who J.R.R. Tolkien was, I saw countless cars with bumper stickers that advertised the line, "Not All Who Wander Are Lost." Mostly, the cars were in rough shape and belonged to hippies... but that is really neither here nor there. The line struck a chord with me, as I'm sure it does with many. Alone, the line is pretty deep and introspective. It's somewhat empowering to the loner who seems to not have a focus or path to follow. In the context that it is written -- a poem or song that a god-esque wizard uses to describe an exiled king who protects hairy footed short people from tormented elves and goblins and a dark lord -- seems to suggest that we may not be advertising our true purpose or path and that when we do, look out.
I used to feel connected to this line and felt pride in my wandering ways, because, someday, my path will be revealed to all and my wandering ways will suddenly make sense. With utmost confidence, I can share that I am wandering because I am, in fact, completely lost. There is no secret path or purpose that I'm withholding for the right moment of revelation. Nope. I have no clue WTF (as the kids say) I'm doing.
Right. So. The road trip I took.
Third Leg: Niagara Falls, ON to Toronto, ON. 80 Miles. 1 Hour, 30 Minutes.
I woke up early Saturday morning. I was pretty excited about getting back on the road. I showered, quick, and loaded up my car. The continental breakfast at the hotel was really weak, so I skipped it, and ate a granola bar in the car.
I plugged in the address for the Toronto Hard Rock into the GPS... and nothing happened. After repeating this a few times, it occurred to me that my GPS only had USA maps and, while the satellite could still pick up the GPS signal, the GPS didn't have a map of where exactly I was or where I intended to go. I thought about using my phone, but because I was out of the country, there were additional charges for data usage. Not wanting to spend an arm and a leg on data, I looked up directions while I was still at the hotel, wrote them down, and did things the old fashioned way. How did we ever survive with out GPS? Mapquest? So archaic!
The drive was uneventful for the first hour or so. Then, the storm rolled in. As I drove north, the sky was like a half and half cookie. To my right were blue skies. To my left were black skies. I tried to take a picture, but traffic was picking up because of the storm and I needed to pay attention to the driving.
This storm was intense! Loud cracks of thunder, like someone had clapped two pieces of wood together followed by the grumbling of a giant's empty stomach. Soon, it started pouring heavy buckets of rain. For the next half hour, traffic was nearly stop and go, as was the rain. I went from having my wipers on high, to not using them at all.
I eventually passed through the storm and entered the city. I didn't have any rain issues after that.
It was too early for lunch and so the restaurant was nearly empty. One group was just being seated and I overheard them comment to their server that they were disappointed to be seated near some pop artists memorabilia. The server said that she could have seated them near the Justin Beiber skateboard.
Now that I think about it, why is this kid's skateboard in a place called "Hard Rock?" There is nothing "hard" or "rock" associated with Justin Beiber... moving on.
After wandering around Hard Rock, I busked a little bit in this open area. There were not very many people around. I played a handful of my songs and then realized I was hungry. Someone had dropped a coin in my guitar case. It turned out to be a Canadian two-dollar coin.
I had parked in a parking garage, which turned out to be underground by about three stories. Above the underground garage was a five story mall and movie theater. It was sort of a maze of escalators to get back to my car. I grabbed my cooler and my laptop, made my way up to the food court area of the mall, and ate lunch while I mooched the mall's WiFi and wrote down directions out of Toronto.
While in Toronto, I really got a New York City vibe. Having been to NYC a handful of times, I really felt a strong comparison. Sadly, Toronto seemed to be under a lot of construction. It was almost as if every other building had scaffolding. I used the bathroom in the mall and it was torn apart, as well.
I went back out to the open area where I busked and looked into taking a sight seeing tour. It turned out to be forty bucks. I decided that since I bought four pins in Toronto (the three Dr. Who themed ones and the Toronto City pin) that forty bucks was too much. I was going to check out the space needle, but that was twenty dollars. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had splurged on the space needle.
Fourth Leg: Toronto, ON to Detroit, MI. 230 Miles. 4 Hours.
Leaving Toronto was a lot of “fun." The traffic was thick and I barely made any progress for the first half hour. Finally, I passed by one of the stadiums (the baseball one?) and the road opened right up. Must've been game day or something. Since I didn’t have GPS, I relied on my hand written directions from Google Maps, which were confusing as hell. There were many major highways just outside of Toronto that crisscrossed, doubled-back, twisted and turned, and ran parallel to each other. I knew I needed to just get to 401, which ran the whole way to Detroit; so, I just stayed on one road, following signs for 401, despite the Google Maps directions telling me to do other things.
After about two hours of driving, I stopped briefly on 401 to stretch my legs. I tried to use the WiFi at the rest stop in order to see how far I had left to travel, but it wouldn’t connect. An employee at the rest stop noticed that I was giving my laptop a frustrated look. He told me that the WiFi there can take up to 20 minutes to connect on a good day. He said it’s a real problem. I thanked him and gave up.
When you live on the cusp of the Adirondack Mountains and frequently drive through mountainous regions, seeing all the flatness is kind of a surprise. It's amazing how "open" things in general feel along 401 in Canada. I was also real impressed to see, literally, hundreds of these things:
To get into Detroit from Canada, you can go over the Detroit River or under it. I opted for under it. When I emerged from the Windsor Tunnel, I passed through customs pretty quickly and turned on my GPS. I was 8 minutes from the Hard Rock and downtown Detroit. I was also happy to have GPS and my phone back.
I found a parking lot that was right next to the Hard Rock. I was hungry and tired of being in the car, so I really didn’t care too much about paying for parking. This lot was only $10 and the lady at the gate was really nice. For some reason, I was expecting Detroit to be an unpleasant place to visit. I was dead wrong.
There was a jazz music festival happening a half of a block away from Hard Rock and there were food vendors and people selling jewelry and other crafts lining the street. It was a cool vibe.
I went to Hard Rock and into the Rock Shop. The clerk working there was super polite and said “hi” to me as soon as I walked in. I picked up the pin I wanted and decided to get a second one since I wasn’t expecting to return to Detroit any time soon. The clerk told me that there was a 20% off deal if you buy three pins. So, I grabbed one that was marked down. The clerk then showed me my receipt and explained that if I logged on to the Hard Rock website and filled out a survey, I would get a $5 off coupon for my next visit to any Hard Rock. I told him about my “tour” of Hard Rock Cafes and he said that I could do a survey a day and save money at each restaurant. Sweet.
Starving, I sat at the bar and asked for a menu. I had a beer and ordered a “Legendary Burger.” While I waited for my food, I logged onto the Hard Rock website via my phone and filled out the survey. There were questions about the employees. I found the name of the guy at the rock shop on my receipt and I wrote about how awesome and polite he was. I hope he gets a raise.
After eating, I grabbed my guitar to busk for a little bit. I had to walk quite a ways away from Hard Rock because the amplification of the jazz festival was going to drown out my busking.
I made my way to Greek Town, which is a small cluster of blocks that contain much of Detroit’s night life. It was getting dark and the street was lit up with neon. It was a pretty cool atmosphere. There was a huge casino right next to a hotel and a huge parking garage attached to both. I decided to ride an elevator to the top of the parking garage to get a view of the city.
It was still pretty hot, despite the sun having gone down a while ago, and I was tired from walking around. I followed a corridor that connected the casino to the hotel and overlooked the street. It was air conditioned and I decided to sit down there for a little bit and watch the goings ons of the street.
I decided that I didn't feel like busking. It was just too hot out. So, I shouldered my guitar and headed back toward Hard Rock and my car. While on my way, I came across two buskers playing together. One played a Djimbe. The other used drum sticks and a variety of pots and pans and lids. I nodded as I walked by and the pots and pans guy asked me to stop and play. I said "sure" and pulled my guitar out of its case and started playing. I played “The Girl’s Already Gone,” but didn't sing. The noise of the hustle and bustle of the city street was loud. I could hardly hear my acoustic guitar over the sound of the percussionists and the city. It was kind of fun. I talked to the buskers about tips. Pots and pans guy said he was going to need another wallet and added, “Seriously.” I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. No one dropped any money while I was there and the money jar only had a couple dollars in it. I guessed he was being sarcastic. I wished them luck and moved on my way.
I found my way back to my car by 11 o'clock and decided to leave Detroit now, rather than experiencing the night life. As it turned out, I wish I had stuck around. For all the bad things that people have to say about Detroit (typically, urban decay related), I found it to be the most pleasant city (aside from Niagara Falls) that I visited on this trip. Granted, I was only able to experience a small part of it, but it was definitely a nice part.
(To be continued...)