I'm back in South Dakota now and am back at work on the SDSU Festival of Cultures. It's a funny thing ... I was only away from home for about 12 days, but it feels as though I've been gone longer. It doesn't matter, though. This latest trip to Canada to visit Dolly and to see the Madonna show was awesome, just as all my visits to Canada are.
My original plan had been to leave to see Dolly on Wednesday, October 15 and then arrive at Dolly's place the next day. I was so anxious to see my sweetheart again, though, that I left the evening of Tuesday, October 14 and arrived in Wiky Wednesday night. I would have left earlier in the day on Tuesday if it hadn't been for a homeowner's association meeting at 4. The week before I had called our treasurer in the hopes of rescheduling the meeting, but doing so wasn't possible. Leaving in the afternoon worked out well, though. I felt awake and alert as I headed east into the darkening evening and made it as far as Shawano, Wisconsin. Near the end of my drive that day I considered going as far as Menominee, Michigan, but decided to stop in Shawano.
The following day I was able to get on the road fairly early and reached the U.S. - Canada border in the early afternoon. Thankfully getting through the border was no sweat; the border agent asked to see my identification, asked me a few questions, and sent me on my way. It was early enough in the day were I could get to Dolly's before dark, so I stopped and gambled and ate a bit at the Casino Sault Ste. Marie before continuing. I really didn't stop between the casino and Dolly's place and I arrived about four hours later. It's always wonderful to see Dolly, to see the smile on her face, and the happiness and laughter in her eyes. But seeing Dolly was especially sweet after such a long day of driving. And I was blessed to be able to spend another 12 days or so with her.
On Thursday I gave Dolly a lift to work at the W.H.O. and then returned to her place to catch up on some sleep before meeting her for lunch and hanging out with her at work for the remainder of the workday. I don't know what it is ... it may be the fact that the house didn't crawl with teenagers like it had in the past, but Dolly's house felt so good and so peaceful. The feelings I experienced in Dolly's house this time around, whether I was by myself or sharing time with her, reminded me a lot of those I have here at my house here in Brookings.
Dolly took Friday off, and we spent the day sleeping in, hanging out around the house, and doing some visiting. Dolly and I also took care of some errands and prepared for the trip to Toronto the following day.
Saturday's weather was rather nice and it took Dolly, Sarah, Ashley, and me about six hours to get from Wiky to Toronto. The only real stop we made between Wiky and Toronto was at a Tim Horton's in Nobel near Parry Sound. That place was farther than the halfway point to Toronto, and it was good to be able to get out and have some coffee and refreshments. A few hours later, we left the normal highway traffic of Highway 69, pulled into the high-speed traffic on the 400 and 401 and arrived at our hotel without incident. It always amazes me how well so-called "underpowered" cars like the Mazda5 are able to handle traffic moving at speeds of up to 150 km/h. My 5 had no trouble keeping up with traffic on the expressway, and the car felt good and solid. It performed equally well as we navigated the busy streets of downtown Toronto on the way to our hotel.
Over the following few hours Dolly and I checked into our hotel room. Soon after we were joined by Sarah, Ashley, and our friend Glenna. We hung out in the room for a bit and rested before walking around downtown. We tried in vain for about an hour to find a reasonable place to eat. Ultimately we ended up eating at a Chipotle Mexican Grill on Yonge Street. I was unaware there were any Chipotle restaurants in Canada.
The following morning Dolly and I slept in until close to noon and then set out about downtown again. Meanwhile Glenna had to work and Sarah and Ashley checked out the Royal Museum. In the scope of Toronto as a whole Dolly and I didn't travel that far from the hotel. But we were on foot for a good three hours and probably covered at least five miles on foot. Around 6 that evening we returned to the hotel room to rest for a bit and then get ready to see Madonna.
Our tickets showed the concert was set to begin at 8 p.m. Dolly and I took a taxi cab to the Air Canada Centre and arrived a little before 7 p.m. The gates opened around 7 and throngs of people began filing into the facility. Before looking for our seats, Dolly and I took a few minutes to pick up some Madonna merchandise. Dolly initially bought a t-shirt; after the concert she picked up a hoodie sweatshirt and a couple of posters.
Once we took our seats, we waited about an hour for the show to begin. Our tickets indicated the show would start at 8, but Madonna took the stage a little after 8:30. Neither of us minded waiting, but Dolly and I were curious why the show began a half-hour later than expected.
Both of us were excited for the show to start, but Dolly was definitely the more excited of the two of us. I was happy to be there to share such an experience as seeing Madonna in concert with Dolly. But deep down I was happiest knowing that seeing Madonna was a dream Dolly has had for nearly 25 years, and I helped to make her dream come true. I'm always happy to see Dolly happy, and the show is one I'm sure we'll remember for years to come.
Madonna ended up performing for about two hours, and most of the songs she and her band performed were from her new album, Hard Candy She did perform some older material, too, and it was cool to see how she re-interpreted some of her older music. For example, the song "Like a Prayer" almost had kind of a hard-rock feel and sound to it. I enjoyed hearing all of the songs, but truth be told I paid more attention to Madonna's band and to the immense video displays behind her than I did Madonna herself. The Madonna performance wasn't just a musical concert ... the show put me more in the mind of performance art. And it was an awesome show.
After the concert Dolly and I headed back to the hotel room for a bit, changed into more-comfortable clothes, and then walked to the nearby Fran's diner. Dolly has always talked about eating at Fran's, but our visit that night was my first. Fran's is open 24 hours a day, I guess, and breakfast is available all day. And breakfast is what Dolly and I shared. We finished our meals, went back to the room, and prepared to bed down for a good night's slumber. My ears, particularly my right ear, rang a bit from the loud sounds that made it past my earplugs. But the ringing was gone by the following morning.
Speaking of the following morning, Dolly and I met Sarah, Ashely, and Glenna at Fran's for breakfast. It was good for all of us to be together again for a while, and it was fun to share videos and photos of the concert the night before. We hung out at Fran's for about an hour before we returned to the hotel, collected our luggage, bid Glenna adieu, and headed back to Wiky. It rained all the way between Toronto and Wiky and it was dark when we arrived. After spending a long day on the road, Dolly and I returned to her place, relaxed for the rest of the evening, and then hit the sack.
The following few days were each subtly different but played out essentially the same. I would give Dolly lifts to work in the mornings, and I would then return to her house to hang out, work on projects, sleep, and do things like that. I then would meet Dolly for lunch and then would spend the afternoon with her at the W.H.O. It was fun to be able to hang out with Dolly, Dwayne, and the others in the office, and it was good I was able to get some work done in the meantime. For example, one of the major projects I worked on in the afternoon was to come up with an initial version of a flyer for the Festival of Cultures. I also received an answered some work e-mails, too.
Dolly and I spent some time outside of Wiky this past weekend. On Friday night after work Dolly and I headed to Sudbury and spent the night there. In the meantime, we spent some time with Dolly's daughter Angel, ate plenty of good food, and even enjoyed some fruitful gambling at the Racetrack Slots. My initial luck wasn't as good as Dolly's or Angel's, but I ended up coming out ahead in the end.
Before returning to Wiky on Saturday, Dolly and I got our hair trimmed, did lots of shopping, and checked out the Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E. I knew the movie was going to be good, but I didn't realize how good it was until we saw it together. The visuals are stunning, and the story is fun and heartwarming ... it's a tale of robot love. Dolly and I left the theater in good spirits, and I was happy we were able to share the experience of seeing the movie together. It sounds as though the movie will come out on DVD on November 18, and I definitely plan to pick up a copy.
Monday morning came way too soon, and it was time to head back to South Dakota. It's always wonderful to travel to Wiky and see Dolly and the family there and have many wonderful adventures. But it's also hard to leave her and them each time the time to come home arrives. What sustains me in the meantime, though, is all the awesome, wonderful times and adventures we share. And we both know we'll see each other again before too long. It may be about a month-and-a-half before we'll be able to be in each others' presences again. But in our hearts we know we'll see each other again soon.
