Back from vacation. It was a very good time. My Mom and I were gone for 22 days and travelled 8200 km. 2/3rds of that being the 3 days each getting to, and coming back from, the Toronto area; the reminder was our sightseeing riding around.
There was lots travelling the back roads finding old family homesteads and just seeing interesting countryside. Plenty of twisting turning roads with canopy tree cover too. We followed many a picturesque lakeside road instead of the nearby freeway.
A few attractions were also taken in. Mom and I explored a cave, a fort, and visited a couple of museums. While visiting with my sister and her family we all went to an aquarium, a couple of boat locks, travelled the go-train, and even did some go-cart racing.
Finding meals at times was troublesome. The internet is full of restaurant listings; businesses eagerly post websites but seldom remove such when they close down. And lots of places were closed down.
On night we searched for an hour until we finally found an in-business and open restaurant. My car’s navigtion system, web searching, brings up plenty of places yet the buildings are firmly closed with signs removed. I think these are more economic causalities of the Covid legislations; edifices of a government quick to act to limit, yet far too slow to act to remove, restrictions.
We had two different main base camps for our day trips. For each of these we did successfully find a nice family restaurant. And dozens of closed places, and not just some local Mom and Pop shop (in fact those are the ones that are open). Boston Pizza; Swiss Chalet; McDonalds were closed and boarded up. When McD closes you know something has gone awry.
Mind you at one of our lunch stops while travelling we did eat at a McDonalds and the bathrooms were only accessible by request to the manager. I inquired as to why, and he told me that the local clientele has become so bad with drug use and such, and the legal avenues to this decriminalized actions so ineffective, they simply had to lock the bathrooms to move the problem off the premises.
(And country mouse continued his way through the big city. )
Been back home a few days. Got the grass mowed down. And the laundry done. Life’s pace around here is much slower and serene, and you can see stars at night.
D
Feelings are fleeting. Be better, not bitter. Love the person, forgive the sin.
