Montreal to PEI

The wine and pasta in Montreal was great. While we were too tired to head downtown to see Lisa's percussion group play (sorry Lisa!) and too late by the time we finished eating, we did head around the corner to a little pub for some more wine, and hit the hay in the early morning hours.

We awoke the next morning and hit the road shortly before noon. We arrived in Edmonston around 6 or 7pm. I called up my sister Jean in Miramichi, and we started on the terrible terrible road from Plaster Rock to there. I don't understand how people were driving so fast on it. I averaged about 60 km per hour the whole way, and we were still bouncing around. FIX YOUR ROADS NEW BRUNSWICK!

So what we figured would be a 2 and a half-hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive, but it felt more like 4 hours. But we got there, and slept well. I got up early to chat with my neices before they headed off to school, and shower. We eventually left Miramichi around 10am and got home to PEI around 1pm. The roads were heavenly after the Plaster Rock Road night-time horror.

I drove almost straight out to mom and dad's for the night, and slept quite well. I'm back in Charlottetown now, and it feels wierd. Sort of like I've just had one crazy long dream. :)

Drea

in montreal, drinking wine, pasta in the midst of creation. this is good.

ottawa was amazing. i love that city. it was SO good to see alex and jeremy again. and just as good to meet michelle and tema. i'm sad our stay was so short, but perhaps it is best it was, and have left on such a high note.

almost home...

Driving and driving and driving . . .

After a day of driving around the Rockies we eventually left Canmore, AB, around 9pm on Monday night to start the drive toward Ottawa, with the intention of getting there sometime before Friday night for the show with Alex and Neil.

That night, I drove until around 1:30am when we arrived in Medecine Hat, AB. It was windy and rainy. Lovely driving conditions. We then parked Doris behind a 24-hr Shell station and slept for a few hours. At around 6am I got up and went inside to have a greasy breakfast and down some coffee. Then we started driving again, and made it to Winnipeg around 7pm that night. We had dinner with Roddy and Judy, and then slept, awaking to the wonderful sound of Moe's cellphone alarm around 7am. We started driving again, and drove and drove and drove until we were somewhere in the rocky hills of Northern Ontario and I was getting sleepy. We pulled into a funny little motel in a tiny village called Shreiber, or something like that. We drank some wine, watched some Lost and I fell asleep shortly after. We got up early again the next day and left around 8:00, hoping to make it to Ottawa that night. We almost made it. We drove and drove and drove and then ran into wet snow and slush. After we passed North Bay it got worse and worse until we had to pull over, a few hours away from Ottawa, close to Deep River. We found a cheapy hotel and checked in.

This hotel was awesome in it's funkiness. The TV was straight out of 1981, UHF, probably a 13 inch screen. There were 70's patterned patches on the walls, and the carpet was also circa 1978, I believe. There were no phones in the rooms, and definitly no wireless internet connection. We had some snacks and watched the two channels we received, and then passed out.

Friday we slept in for the first time in a long time. We didn't leave the motel until around noon, it was awesome. We arrived in Ottawa a few hours later, and found Alex and Jeremy and his friend Tema downtown. Then we ate, and then we rocked! The show at Cafe Nostalgica was packed and a good time was had by all. Our friend Rozalind MacPhail came by to jam out some flute tunes with us, and Alex and Neil and Steve surprised me by learning one of my songs off myspace to play with me - So Tired. It was pretty damned cool.

Today we're heading back to Montreal to see our friend Lisa Shalom play with her percussion group somewhere downtown - it's going to be interesting to see if we can actually find it. :)

So here we are, almost home, almost out of money . . . and so glad to be around old friends!

See yas all soon,
Drea

p.s. I'm going to be opening for Air Traffic Control at Baba's on May 10th. Be there!

PS

Moe, The Constantines are playing in Canmore on Monday night - should we stop in and see how much the show is? Canmore's not that big, we shouldn't have a problem finding the place. And, I have a friend there!

Just an idea. We should probably drive back toward Ottawa that evening, though. Hmmmm . . .

Beer and Chocolate Ice Cream

Today consisted of a Farmer's Market (where I scored a new piece of Kyanite and a necklace to hang it from), fun time with Caelan, almost finishing my copy of "I am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe (yes, Sean, it is pretty amazing), makin' jello, eating steak and rice (and cheesecake, I love vacation), finding my way to my friend Dan's place and watching South Park while drinking beer.

Now, it's bed-time. Tomorrow I'm exited to finish the book, help to make Easter dinner and maybe even look around Calgary a bit. On Monday Moe and I are going to drive through the Mountains and then head back East on the Trans Canada, to see if it's possible to drive from Banff to Ottawa in four and a half days. Yay! The true test of the road-tripper!

I'm excited for four days of long driving and little sleep. Call me crazy.
I like beer and chocolate ice cream. It's sort of like beer and chocolate cake, which I find surprisingly awesome. Call me crazy.

regina was pretty unexciting. just chilled at the hostel. and didn't sleep.

right now andrea is in calgary visiting one of her sisters, i'm in edmonton visiting brandy. one of my closest friends. we've been friends for most of our lives. it's really good to see her again, and her little boy also. it's been almost 2 years since i saw them last. jakob (her son) was just 2 when they left pei. i was pretty scared that he'd forget me, but he saw me down the street and exclaimed "moe changed her hair!".
so i had nothing to worry about.

last night we tried to go to the constantines show (again, heh), but it was $19 (!!), it started early (8pm!), and we couldn't find the bar anyway.

for the first time ever i get to witness "the easter bunny". ha.

andrea is picking me up monday morning. i really have no idea where we are going from there exactly.

oh! i tried out to be an extra in a hollywood movie!

wouldn't it be hilarious if i got a call? i'm fairly sure i won't though.

Leaving again

Today we're gonna drive to Regina. We sort of thought, since it's about a 14-hour drive from Winnipeg to Calgary, and Clothes Make The Man is playing in Regina tonight, we'd break up the drive and stop in Saskatchewan to see a show. We're also going to interview the band for the documentary. Interestingly enough, I've been chatting with them online about setting up a show on PEI, and then we ran into them at the Constantine's show at the Pyramid Cabaret on Tuesday night. That would pretty darn cool. Not to mention the amazing show the Constantine's put on. It was super-duper fantastic. They started off the show with "Working full-time", my favorite song ever, almost. And they didn't stop rocking. The first opening band, Ladyhawk, was pretty cool too. The other one, well, sort of put the place to sleep. But it's alright, we had a creepy guy in a red shirt staring at us most of the night to keep us company during the slow spells.

It's still really cold here. I can't believe it's averaging -10 in April. This place is crazy.

So we're heading to Regina, and will be in Alberta on Friday. I'm pretty excited to see some old friends and family, especially a nephew that I don't get to see very often . . .

I'm hoping it'll be warmer as we head west.

Cheers folks,
Drea

so, we're in winnipeg. it's really flat. not that i didn't know that already. it's just so.. odd. coming from hills and stuff, and having just driven through massive mountains (although, certainly not the biggest in canada!), then suddenly WHAM, as far as the eye can see.

it's also apparently STILL WINTER here. it was shorts & t-shirt weather in toronto. london & goderich was pretty sweet weather too. then we drive into winter.

guess i'll have to dig out my scarf & mitts!

i'm going to go explore winnipeg shortly. maybe find an internet cafe so i can upload some pictures. they have highspeed here, just not wireless. it seems anyone who HAS wireless has it locked down.
i haven't been able to leech off some poor shmucks signal since cambridge.

oh, we're going to see the constantines tonight.

An Open Letter To The Province Of Manitoba

WINTER??! WTF!

it's, like, really flat here.

Thunder Bay stiff leg

Yesterday we left Sudbury around 9:30 and made it to Thunder Bay around 10pm. By the time we were getting out of the car at the cheapy motel we found, we were hobbling around and making funny noises and complaining lots. The choice of whether to get a non-smoking room (upstairs) or a smoking room on the main floor was a pretty big one. Were we too tired to get up the stairs? Not quite. We took the non-smoking room with the leaky toilet and the thin walls. On the upside, there is a mini-fridge to put our food in, AND free wireless internet. So, here we are.

In a few minutes we'll get back on the highway, and hopefully be in Winnipeg by this evening! Whoopee!

Drea

An Open Letter To The Kids At The Quality Inn In Sudbury,

SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP SCREAMING/RUNNING IN THE HALLWAY!

Sudbury

We got a bit of a late start yesterday, and thus only made it to Sudbury from Goderich, about 7 hours of driving. We still have 22 or so to get to Winnipeg. So, like yesterday, we're going to keep driving until I can't drive anymore and then stop and sleep. I was really hoping to get to Winnipeg tonight, but I just can't see that happening. I'm thinking we can get to Thunder Bay, though. That would be good.

Doris is working wonderfully, and we slept in a motel last night so we're also working wonderfully.

See you in Thunder Bay!
Drea