30 years ago check-in - the Ride continues!

30 years ago today I was in Ontario heading toward Stratford. I'd crossed over a day or so before, treated to free nights at various campsites and befriended by the border gaurd at the bridge who, impressed by the trip I was on, raised the gate and let me pass through gratis. I had had my first taste of anti-French Canadian sentiment when I visited the washroom in diner I where I was breakfasting and read all the vitriol scratched on the walls and door of the toilet stall. Raw rage equivilant to unleashed homophobia. What a waste of passion. But it does remind me of my favorite inscription on a bathroom stall wall, a syllogism:
"God is Love
Love is Blind
Ray Charles is Blind
Ray Charles is God."

More convincing evidence of God's existence than most religions provide.

But on with the Ride. I was staying in a campsite/trailer park. It was Queen Victoria's Day Weekend which I found was a holiday on par with our Memorial Day. Everyone was going or on vacation. Busy roads, especially as I neared Toronto.

"8:00 am Deseronto May 19 (1979)

A nice windy night which "blew the mosquitos up to French Quebec where they can have them" as Harold would say. Very windy off the lake - may be a bit hard going - beautiful day.

Let us now praise famous men. HAROLD - next door. 58 - stonecutter - in the war - traveler - just had a stroke this winter, but fully recovered except for a slight eye twitch. Good talker & listener. Had a Labotts & talked til 11 under a clear sky. MARNEY 81 - been coming here fishing for 50 yrs. Told me of the fish: "everything you want except trout - including a new fish the gov't calls a white perch but we call "stinkers" because they always nab the bait." A short animated good-natured man. The owners, the place, the people - all pleasant. A pleasure. Hope to get above Toronto tonight - we shall see. Good night's rest - now off for a good breakfast & goodbyes."

The "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" reference is from James Agee and Walker Evans book of the same name which I had carried around for years, but had never gotten past Agee's and Evan's Forward which I read over and over and over. Never ventured into the book proper despite good intentions. I love the little snippets of people I set down briefly in the journal. Just shared them with Richard and said that even a brief sentence gives you the rhythm of that person as sharp as if you were cloning them from DNA samples. My God how enriched my life has been with the people that have passed through it, even if only for a conversation or a night's lovemaking.

Not that I made love to either Harold or Marney. I just wanted to clear that up.

"5:30 pm Newtonville

Stopped by rain - the most amazing cloud formations before the storm - like a gigantic sideways tornadoe. From afar it looked like a peninsula jutting into the lake. Good morning ride - lots of sun, blisters on back, a bit of negativity as the clous came in. Perfection is demanded by Dan. Nice parade - Highlanders & all - in Caroque where I ate lunch. Sipping coffee in a general store as the sky hopefully (wrong usage) clears long enough for me to get to a campsite 15 miles away. Who knows???

9:00 pm Provincial Park (Darlington)

Just to a shower & waiting for clothes to wash. $5.50 for a spot on Lake Ontario near Oshawa. I'm hungry & on the verge of being grouchy, but I will survive. Breakfast will save me - an early start perhaps because rain threatens again tomorrow afternoon. The rain-wait was fine & I was treated to a spectacular double rainbow afterwards - then coming into the park, I took a spill that was alot of fun."

Actually, it was. More embarrassing than anything. My front tire got stuck in train tracks as I went over a track heading into the campsite and the fall was cushioned by my back side packs.

"Stratford sometime Monday it looks like. These places are so crowded - suburbia by the sea. Hmmm? I forgot to mention this morning that I dreamt of Al Pacino & Marlon Brando - Godfatherish-type rigamarole - don't ask me where it came from."

That's me 30 years ago; oh so interested in dream interpretation.

"The countryside after the rain was emaculate. All of a sudden I had these panoramic views of the surrounding land - gently rolling green farmland as far as the eye could see. There are some wonderful moments on a bike."

That's it for the ride. And here 30 years later, our Canadian Geese are the proud parents of 4, count 'em 4, baby goslings. The parents had them out on the pond pronto. They're adorable.