It wound up being a few weeks between posts for some understandable reasons. Canada Day I was dropped by a hard, nasty cold. Doctor visits, meds, etc. Felt like a complete bag of shiite for two weeks and even then another week to recover enough to go back to work. No excuses, just illness, but I’m fine and back on the horse.
It’s too easy to finish up a week, park your ass on the sofa and become a farting lump of humanity that only moves to eat, excrete or struggle to find the remote. Then come Sunday around 4 pm, recognize that you’ve blown a whole weekend doing nothing, contributing nothing and accomplishing nothing. We’re making an effort to do ‘something’ every week, so we’ll catch you up with some short snappers.
Wes’ Chips. If you only know french fries from Mickey or the King, we mourn for you and your poor palate. Chip Wagons are indispensable, as they provide a very high quality product. Wes’ Chips in
Arnprior Ontario has been around since the dawn of time. Big bags of potatoes go in the back, perfect french fries come out the front. You can tell it’s the real deal if they ask you “Halfway?” even if it is a size small. “Halfway” to translate from chip truck slang, means, we’ll fill it halfway, hand it to you to add your toppings (salt and malt vinegar please) then you pass it back to the counter person who fills it the rest of the way up. Then you dose the rest of it. It’s not me saying it, it’s a God thing: In Fallopians 3:17, to quote: “The halfway is the way of the Lord and merchant who does not, shall be cast unto the fire” I don’t make the rules…
Countryside. With all the technology grabbing at our eyes, algorithms designed to frustrate, reward then frustrate again, we forget to do the basics. Basic #1 is this: Look out the effing window!
We live in Ontario, which is stunningly beautiful if you look out the window. Drive somewhere, eyes up out the windshield. See the hills, trees, houses, farms, birds, cows, pigs. We joke about the big round white poly-wrapped hay bales as being part of the early marshmallow crop.
Take the back road you don’t know, or tell your GPS voice to get stuffed. It will recalc if you want to go elsewhere, or just go home. Buy some veg from a farm stand. Part of our trip to Lake Huron involved us covering part of the Butter Tart Trail. Destinations abounded and then rewards of butter tarts, several of which are residing comfortably in our freezer for later. Did we see all kinds of beautiful pieces of Ontario that we didn’t know about? Sure did, picked up a couple of t-shirts and shot the breeze with the locals here and there. Even talked with some Americans who were up being tourists. We did welcome them, as we are Canadians and polite. They did apologize for their Toddler-In-Chief and we replied that we like you, just not that asshole. They agreed, we shook hands and life went on.
Eganville. Small town north and west of Ottawa, in the heart of the Ottawa Valley. It’s a ways from the Trans Canada, Highway 17, so it is back in the bush, not gravel roads, but a bit off the usual. A pretty little town on the Bonnechere River and they held their Taste Of The Valley event last weekend. Various artists, weavers, jewelry makers, pet treats, soaps and lotions. Sunshine, food and as added hook, an old colleague of mine from television days (’81 to ’88) lives up that way. We semi-stay in touch over social media but have not actually seen each other for close to 30 years. We dragged our various spouses along, prefacing things with “You both will be bored to shit, as we talk ancient history” Spent a lovely hour and change catching up and NOT boring our spouses. I call that a win.
That is the sort of pleasure of Countryside Basic #1. You never know what will show up, or who will show up. You get to enjoy the scenery, disconnect a bit and share some experiences. Can you do it yourself? Do you have a bicycle, or access to transit? One I’d like to accomplish, probably in the fall, is use a day off, get a day pass for OCTranspo and ride the whole length of the LRT. Might take a couple of hours, north-south-east-west and see the stations, as well as parts of the city I haven’t been to in years. Plus, my taxes are paying for this shit, so I might as well take a ride on it and see what we paid for. I may be pleased, or I may be aggravated. Who knows.
If you’ve got a trip, or an idea, comments are always welcome, but keep the scope close to your home. Yes, I would love to fly to Nepal and hike up a mountain for complete enlightenment, so let’s keep it local and a daytrip.
RoadDave 