At the Metaphorical (and Literal) Crossroads

At last I can breathe a sigh of relief. Things that appeared to be in limbo have now become solid and I am free to begin wandering in earnest. Mexico turned out to be pretty great. I'd recommend Playa Del Carmen as a resort town with a little more for those willing to pay for it. And the historical stuff is well worth the visit as well.

I'm back in Toronto for a couple of days. Due to certain outside forces I can't really leave the continent until August (and then you better believe I'm getting out of here!). My hotel runs out on Friday so I needed to make some decisions about where I'd be spending the majority of July. Looked at Vegas, which still remains very much on the list, but I've decided -- as was my original plan -- to see Canada.

Rental cars are a weird thing. For a simple 11 day trip between here and a coast it can cost upwards of 2 grand. Unless it occasionally costs far less for some reason. I would assume because a car needs to be taken back somewhere? Who knows. However, I did manage to get one of the far less costly cars for my Canadian road trip -- only instead of the original destination of Vancouver, I'm going to Halifax.

11 days is more than enough time to get to out to Nova Scotia so I plan to hit as many of the roadside attractions and tourist traps as I can. Along with that I plan to spend some significant time in Ottawa and Montreal, which I have, to my embarrassment, never been before.

So tomorrow I plan and relax, and Friday I pick up the new short-term one-way Dave. And then, we see what this country (east of Toronto version) has in store.

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Florida in the Key of West

Yesterday was not a pleasant day. 10 hours of driving only to end up at the Best Western in Jacksonville, just so I could stand around waiting for my laundry to finish because the hotel in Key West that I'm staying in for 4 nights had no laundry mentioned on their website. So it's 10:30 at night and I'm sweating on the second floor between the world's loudest dryer and the local ice machine for an hour. And that's following 30 minutes of washing. I even had to hang dry some stuff because even after an hour it still wasn't dry yet. It's times like that that make me question whether or not this trip was even a good idea. It usually happens in the waking moments before sleep when I'm lying in my rented bed in the middle of a town where I know no one. Why am I here? Am I learning anything? Is this just a giant waste of time and money? And then there's times like the Wendy's. I got in too late in Jacksonville and the hotel was far enough ...

A long time coming but I'm finally here

So I made it to New York. That's the long story made short. Here's the story at longer length: I got out of the house and on the road about an hour later than I expected to, but judging by all the maps I was looking at I would still be able to make it within a reasonable amount of time. The thing about trips though is you always forget something. I knew that once it was too late I would realize I forgot something that I absolutely needed. That's just the way it goes. I was dreading the border most of all, it would have really sucked to have to go through a hassle just cause some border guard is having a bad day. As I was approaching the Queenston/Lewiston crossing I picked a spot with two cars in front of me. The first car got the point. As in please park over there sir so we can ransack your car . The second car also got the point, and now I'm thinking is this the designated point guy for the day?! Am I gonna cavity-searched cause it was his turn to search everybody? ...

Walkin' in Memphis, and boy are my feet tired!

The trip through Tennessee, incidentally, was beautiful. Hilly, with roundabouts and full forests. Fun to drive. I tried to take some pictures with my phone, but they all came out pretty assy. I arrived at Memphis at around 4:20 which I later discovered was 3:20. Ah time zones. Looking for a place to eat I headed south down the road to what I hoped would be a nicer area since my hotel room gives me a beautiful view of the freeway. Walking through Memphis I got the impression that this is a city that's either on the verge of a fall or the verge of a comeback. At first I thought it was the former, though now I'm leaning towards the latter. There's a lot of nice things around, decent restaurants, nice views, ok shopping... but for every location with activity there seems at least one other that's boarded up with big For Lease notices stickered to the window. The other thing I noticed as I was walking was that nobody else was. Nobody. The city was dead to walking traffic. P...

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