and then we were driving on shore drive seeing things we'd seen before

straight driving to halifax. sixteen hours. four hours on. four hours off. four hours on. four hours off. then rolling into home. laughing. and it felt strange. and there are no jobs yet. the van is for sale. thank-you.

montreal

after toronto was montreal. jamie campbell came with us. first was the three subway one bus ride to scarborough for the van. my aunt met us with a box lunch and muffins and cookies. incredible. we drove straight. jamie front seat. one gas station stop and then into montreal.

we stayed with john dempsey. first night beer and nachos and pizza and poutine. a strange bar filled with very young girls and boys. next morning met with claire and sarah at concordia. jamie and i went on a class gallery trip then a coffee shop. jamie fell in love with every local girl. that night we all went to a bar drank large beers and had more nachos. donald wore dempsey's big city bests for photos before bed.

next morning 6am departure for halifax with a dozen bagels.

whitecastle

we wanted whitecastle. through maine into massachusetts. in new york city. in sweaty south carolina. but we didn't find it until kentucky. we waited so long it seemed like the best idea ever to order the #4. twenty whitecastles. four crinkle fries. and a giant lemonade.

a white castle is a tiny burger. bun the size of a dinner roll. a slice of meat-- looks like spam. one pickle. slice of cheese (ten cents extra) and onion gravy wetness. not sure what it was. but it soaked out of the bun into the little cardboard package. they smelled bad and looked bad but tasted good. we enjoyed them plain and with dusseldorf mustard.

we are in toronto now. the van is in scarborough at my mom's sister's house. we have been eating a lot. sneeky dees twice. utopia for burgers. crepes. saving grace breakfast. maggie's breakfast. frans. ghandi's. eating and eating. donald and i both got high-tops. catching up. jamie. paul. amy. pat. fred. elisa. marika. cheryl. andrew.

tomorrow morning we are leaving for montreal.

pittsburgh

on the way to toronto we stopped in pittsburgh. it was a very clean city. very old in places with narrow and tall brick houses. the city is on a river. the pirates play in one large stadium and the steelers play in another both right along the river. there was a nice walkway sort of along the water.

donald looked around and had lunch and i went to the andy warhol museum. most interesting- andy warhol kept several hundred uniform cardboard boxes he called time capsules. he started one after another and filled them with whatever materials seemed to have importance. most were filled with correspondence. letters and envelopes. sometimes sheets of stamps and books and pamphlets. in others apparently clothing and shoes. anything really. the museum had maybe half of the boxes on display stacked neatly on shelves going up one wall. and in the middle of the room one of the boxes contents on display. the museum puts a new box on display each month. if lived there i would see every box.

there was also a bruce neuman show. with a bright green room.

mammoth cave national park

after ohio we headed back south to kentucky. in louisville we went to the louisville slugger factory. i swung in the batting cages with a ted williams original. we went on a tour of the factory floor. it takes 30 seconds to make a minor league bat. up to 1 minute 30 seconds for a major league bat. plus finishing. plus painting.

mammoth cave national park was incredible. we stayed the night in the park and went on a 2 mile tour of the caves. there are nearly 300 miles of cave. the americans mined salt peter in the caves during the war of 1812.

cincinnati bengals

after the mountains we headed to cincinnati ohio and saw the bengals play the steelers. it was a great game. cincinnati and pittsburgh are big rivals. football is huge in cincinnati. we didn't really know that. when we arrived the entire city was orange. the stadium was right downtown on the ohio river. we paid a lot for our tickets but had great seats. there was a man in front of us taking pictures of the the cheerleaders with a large camera lens. the steelers won 24 13.