Big driving day today, yippee…. Usually not a problem but today is a lot of driving in the pit of despair that is the 401 in Ontario. It’s about 7 hours from Montreal to Guelph (where I’m dropping off Claire), and another 2 hours back to Toronto where I’m staying with my friend Joah for a few days. We were aiming to get going at about 8am, though got a slightly earlier start at 7:45am. I took the train back to the car, where Claire met me and we got on the road.
Our first stop was MTL Bagels, “the best bagels in town”. If you don’t know, Montreal bagels are some of the best bagels you’ll ever have. When my grandparents used to live in Laval (right next to the island of Montreal), they would always bring a bunch of bagels with them when they visited, and those bagels would be treasured and enjoyed by us in BC. Because we were here, we figured we had to get some, even though we can’t store them, we can get some to eat on the road.
Traffic in Montreal at 8am is painful, and the roads are terrible. It took us like 40 minutes to go 10km, but we eventually made it and were able to get our bagels. We got a half-dozen sesame bagels, along with a dressed up bagel for Claire, and an extra sesame bagel for me to eat right away. After our quick stop, we got back on the road and headed for the highway.
We pretty much drove straight to Toronto, with a few bathroom stops and a gas stop. We were aiming to be in Guelph by 3, so I had enough time to get to North York and pick up Joah from work at 5, but we quickly realized that wouldn’t be possible, as the ETA ticked up and up as the day went on and we hit more and more traffic. Eventually I had to let Joah know he’d have to take the train home, and that I’d just meet him at his house instead.
We got to Guelph around 3:45, unpacked the car and threw out extra garbage we’d accumulated, said our goodbyes, and I got back on the road. I knew I wasn’t going to make it in time to pick up Joah from work, but I still wanted to get there before 6:30 when he was leaving for a show. The 401 was as awful as ever, especially during rush hour. I still don’t understand the people in $150,000 cars that try and play chicken with someone (me) in a $2000 beater car. Like no, you’re not going to win this battle because I do not care about the aesthetics of this car, and this slow speed crash would do no mechanical damage to my car but would absolutely destroy the paint of yours. I will always let people in to zipper merge or to be polite, but if someone wants to tailgate me and then zip around me and immediately try to squeeze in, then no, you’re not getting let back in.
I eventually made it to Joah’s house around 6pm, and after bringing my stuff up to the car, the three of us (him, his partner Madeleine, and I) went for dinner at a small shop down the road, where Madeleine and I got pizza, and Joah got a meatball sub. I didn’t realize when I ordered that a “slice” of pizza was actually two large slices, and so upon getting my food I was confronted with four huge slices of pizza, and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to finish it. Thankfully it was very good, and I was able to eat 3 and 3/4ths of it, though it did fill me up and make me feel a little ill after (not the fault of the pizza, just the fact that I ate so much of it).
We parted ways and I headed home while Madeleine and Joah went to their show. I spent the rest of the night watching YouTube videos, since despite wanting to work on these posts and maybe on some projects, I found myself way too tired and ended up falling asleep around 9:30pm.
