Zach LarkinsVACATION (Part 7)
"My pappy said, "Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin',
If you stop drivin' that hot-rod Lincoln.........."
Commander Cody
So, here we are heading home. I don't have the cruise on as the roads are sort of twisty and I want complete control of the car. I mentioned before that there is not a road on the island where the speed limit is over 80 kph. The tunes are blaring, the air is on and I am one with my machine. It is a Zen moment. Then I glance in the rearview. The heat! With all the lights going. If you've ever been pulled over, you know all about that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. I knew I was going a bit fast. I didn't know a bit at that point was almost twice the limit. I glanced at the speedo and saw I was doing 140. Enough to probably get me cuffed and eventually admit to planning the 9/11 attacks under questioning. My second thought, after resigning myself to doing time as Bubba's roomie in the big house, is for TBH. She doesn't drive and so she will be stuck on the island until I get paroled. She is no help as she has her nose buried in a map and only notices something might be askew when she looks up to see my ashen face. "Cop", I say. Or words to that effect. I might have uttered an expletive before I said ‘cop'.
She oh so subtley whips her head around to stare this intruder upon our moment into the ground. The cop finds a straight stretch of road and pulls out to pass me. He pauses for a second when he is beside me and it is now he will signal me to pull over, I think. But he continues and pulls in front of, and then away from, me. I can't understand this but thank every God I can think of for letting me get away with speeding. He's now gone, but to err on the side of caution I slow down to 120. Not quick enough I guess, because now there is another cop behind me again, lights flashing. It becomes clear to me that the first cop will blockade the highway while the other cop does the take-down. I am royally screwed now. But he follows his partner and I see neither one of them again. I am truly blessed. I am sweating and not sure that I haven't soiled myself, but I consider myself very fortunate indeed. Without a word from TBH, I put the car on cruise at 100 and head into Mindemoya. As we drive, we wonder if it was donut time for the cops or they were late for their ‘nooners', and that's why I got off scot free. Either way, I did get off and vowed to really watch my speed in the future. Hey, the car was behaving through the twisties and it sure as hell didn't feel like 140. What's a guy supposed to do? The car and I were having fun and it wanted a workout, so I, unwittingly, gave it one. I will say that after all the carbon had been cleaned out of it, it ran much better.
We get into Mindemoya and stop at Mum's Bakery and Diner, but I can't eat anything heavy. I'm still shaking and afraid I'll drop a knife or fork. So we settle on getting a couple of snacks to take home with us. Have you ever had an apple fritter from the local donut shop? They're about 3 inches square, maybe an inch thick (if you're lucky) and cost about $1.50. Mum's makes apple fritters. Sells them for $1.50. Trouble is, they're huge. They won't fit into a brown paper bag. The girl drops it into a cake box. There is not a lot of room left. I get a cranberry muffin. Same thing. The top of this muffin measures at least 10 inches in diameter. She puts that into the box and has a hard time closing the lid. Three bucks later and we have food that we will nibble on for the next four days. And we did some serious nibbling, believe me. We tossed it on the fifth day as it was starting to go stale, but there was at least two more days of eating in that box.
The next day we head off to Bridal Veil Falls. We arrive in this sleepy little burg, park the car and walk down the steps to the bottom of the ravine. We make our way up to the falls and take a few pix and then carry on to get behind them. TBH wouldn't do this last year, but after seeing me do it and realizing it was safe, she screwed up her courage and followed me. The rocks are a bit slick and slippery and you have to watch where you put you feet, but actually standing underneath a waterfall is a pretty neat experience. We got a bit wet both going in and out, but the temp was about 87*F so we really didn't care too much. It felt good.
We walked back up the steps and headed for the Manitoulin Chocolate Works just down the street. Not having a local chocolate factory, we really enjoyed this spot last year and made sure we would re-visit it this year. Name it, and they make it. We spent about 20 minutes in here and walked out $50.00 poorer for it. Dark chocolates (which are for me), milk chocolates (which are for TBH), chocolate covered cherries, nougats, cream chocolates, truffles, we took some of just about everything they had on display. I guess I was wrong. We weren't poorer. Once we tucked into those suckers, we knew we were richer for the experience. We headed around the corner to the museum and sat on a bench outside, eating our spoils and enjoying the sun lit day. People came and went and everyone had a hearty "How do you do" on their lips. I'm not used to friendly people, but I imagine I could get used to it in a short time.
The museum is an old municipal office and looking through the old records, trying to imagine what the first settlers did or thought when they got here, was just fascinating to me. I love history. As thankful as I am for indoor plumbing, I'd still like to take a trip back through time to see first hand the goings on of the settlers that forged our country. TBH loves what she calls ‘living' museums. Those places you can visit where people are dressed in period costumes and take you step by step through their everyday life, but she wasn't complaining about any of the places we'd visited so far.
We headed back home and since we hadn't eaten anything (except chocolates) all day, we dropped into Mum's Bakery for dinner. The place was packed, as it always is and we found a table in the back. TBH knew exactly what she wanted, but I had to look at the menu. Big mistake. I narrowed my choices down to 4 dishes and had to ask the waitress for another drink while I whittled down the short list. I heard a big sigh of relief from TBH as I proclaimed my choice and she knew she could finally order. Of course, she had the hot roast beef. Myself? I had the lake trout. Now, I've had lake trout before and knew what to expect. A fish approximately 8 to 10 inches long, head and tail included, steamed (not shaken or stirred), lightly seasoned with potato and veg on the side. Boy was I wrong. They bring me two filets cut out of the side of a whale. Plus the potato and veg. These slabs are each 6 inches long by about 4 inches wide and at least an inch thick. It's enough to feed a family of two with two teenagers in tow. TBH's hot beef comes and takes up enough room on the plate that the veg has to be on a separate plate. She has her mashed spuds and her eyes light up as she begins to dig in.
Past experience has taught us that if you eat slowly, you can eat more. So slowly we eat. It is just not good enough. We sit over this meal for 45 minutes and I've eaten 3/4 of one filet with a bite or two of potato. TBH is about ˝ way through her beef and wants to undo her pants to make more room. I have to give her credit. She'd been dieting for about 6 weeks before we went away so she could fit into a bikini again. Although she's no longer 18 years old, she does look good in one, I must say. Anyway, she'd gotten down to her fighting weight of 98 lbs., but being on vacation, she said to hell with dieting and ate what she wanted, when she wanted it. (At the end of it all, she had gained the unseemly sum of 5 lbs and so is now back on her diet) We looked at each other and knew we couldn't go on. Wrap it up for us so we can take it home. While standing at the cash register, waiting to pay, she spins around and spies the pie carousel. What's in there but a lemon merangue pie, one of her favourites. So of course, she wants a slice. And she gets a slice. In truth, I think she got half the damn pie. It was huge. A total of five drinks, two meals and half a lemon merangue pie and the grand total adds up to $35.00. We stagger to the car, our knees buckling, carrying all this food. I wonder if I left the waitress a big enough tip?
We head for home, get into our bumming around clothes, and sit on the porch to finish digesting. A couple of hands of cribbage and we just veg, waiting for nightfall. Isaac and Eli show up but soon sense we aren't in the mood and soon leave to go fishing without us. We promise we will be there tomorrow.
(To be cont'd)
If you stop drivin' that hot-rod Lincoln.........."
Commander Cody
So, here we are heading home. I don't have the cruise on as the roads are sort of twisty and I want complete control of the car. I mentioned before that there is not a road on the island where the speed limit is over 80 kph. The tunes are blaring, the air is on and I am one with my machine. It is a Zen moment. Then I glance in the rearview. The heat! With all the lights going. If you've ever been pulled over, you know all about that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. I knew I was going a bit fast. I didn't know a bit at that point was almost twice the limit. I glanced at the speedo and saw I was doing 140. Enough to probably get me cuffed and eventually admit to planning the 9/11 attacks under questioning. My second thought, after resigning myself to doing time as Bubba's roomie in the big house, is for TBH. She doesn't drive and so she will be stuck on the island until I get paroled. She is no help as she has her nose buried in a map and only notices something might be askew when she looks up to see my ashen face. "Cop", I say. Or words to that effect. I might have uttered an expletive before I said ‘cop'.
She oh so subtley whips her head around to stare this intruder upon our moment into the ground. The cop finds a straight stretch of road and pulls out to pass me. He pauses for a second when he is beside me and it is now he will signal me to pull over, I think. But he continues and pulls in front of, and then away from, me. I can't understand this but thank every God I can think of for letting me get away with speeding. He's now gone, but to err on the side of caution I slow down to 120. Not quick enough I guess, because now there is another cop behind me again, lights flashing. It becomes clear to me that the first cop will blockade the highway while the other cop does the take-down. I am royally screwed now. But he follows his partner and I see neither one of them again. I am truly blessed. I am sweating and not sure that I haven't soiled myself, but I consider myself very fortunate indeed. Without a word from TBH, I put the car on cruise at 100 and head into Mindemoya. As we drive, we wonder if it was donut time for the cops or they were late for their ‘nooners', and that's why I got off scot free. Either way, I did get off and vowed to really watch my speed in the future. Hey, the car was behaving through the twisties and it sure as hell didn't feel like 140. What's a guy supposed to do? The car and I were having fun and it wanted a workout, so I, unwittingly, gave it one. I will say that after all the carbon had been cleaned out of it, it ran much better.
We get into Mindemoya and stop at Mum's Bakery and Diner, but I can't eat anything heavy. I'm still shaking and afraid I'll drop a knife or fork. So we settle on getting a couple of snacks to take home with us. Have you ever had an apple fritter from the local donut shop? They're about 3 inches square, maybe an inch thick (if you're lucky) and cost about $1.50. Mum's makes apple fritters. Sells them for $1.50. Trouble is, they're huge. They won't fit into a brown paper bag. The girl drops it into a cake box. There is not a lot of room left. I get a cranberry muffin. Same thing. The top of this muffin measures at least 10 inches in diameter. She puts that into the box and has a hard time closing the lid. Three bucks later and we have food that we will nibble on for the next four days. And we did some serious nibbling, believe me. We tossed it on the fifth day as it was starting to go stale, but there was at least two more days of eating in that box.
The next day we head off to Bridal Veil Falls. We arrive in this sleepy little burg, park the car and walk down the steps to the bottom of the ravine. We make our way up to the falls and take a few pix and then carry on to get behind them. TBH wouldn't do this last year, but after seeing me do it and realizing it was safe, she screwed up her courage and followed me. The rocks are a bit slick and slippery and you have to watch where you put you feet, but actually standing underneath a waterfall is a pretty neat experience. We got a bit wet both going in and out, but the temp was about 87*F so we really didn't care too much. It felt good.
We walked back up the steps and headed for the Manitoulin Chocolate Works just down the street. Not having a local chocolate factory, we really enjoyed this spot last year and made sure we would re-visit it this year. Name it, and they make it. We spent about 20 minutes in here and walked out $50.00 poorer for it. Dark chocolates (which are for me), milk chocolates (which are for TBH), chocolate covered cherries, nougats, cream chocolates, truffles, we took some of just about everything they had on display. I guess I was wrong. We weren't poorer. Once we tucked into those suckers, we knew we were richer for the experience. We headed around the corner to the museum and sat on a bench outside, eating our spoils and enjoying the sun lit day. People came and went and everyone had a hearty "How do you do" on their lips. I'm not used to friendly people, but I imagine I could get used to it in a short time.
The museum is an old municipal office and looking through the old records, trying to imagine what the first settlers did or thought when they got here, was just fascinating to me. I love history. As thankful as I am for indoor plumbing, I'd still like to take a trip back through time to see first hand the goings on of the settlers that forged our country. TBH loves what she calls ‘living' museums. Those places you can visit where people are dressed in period costumes and take you step by step through their everyday life, but she wasn't complaining about any of the places we'd visited so far.
We headed back home and since we hadn't eaten anything (except chocolates) all day, we dropped into Mum's Bakery for dinner. The place was packed, as it always is and we found a table in the back. TBH knew exactly what she wanted, but I had to look at the menu. Big mistake. I narrowed my choices down to 4 dishes and had to ask the waitress for another drink while I whittled down the short list. I heard a big sigh of relief from TBH as I proclaimed my choice and she knew she could finally order. Of course, she had the hot roast beef. Myself? I had the lake trout. Now, I've had lake trout before and knew what to expect. A fish approximately 8 to 10 inches long, head and tail included, steamed (not shaken or stirred), lightly seasoned with potato and veg on the side. Boy was I wrong. They bring me two filets cut out of the side of a whale. Plus the potato and veg. These slabs are each 6 inches long by about 4 inches wide and at least an inch thick. It's enough to feed a family of two with two teenagers in tow. TBH's hot beef comes and takes up enough room on the plate that the veg has to be on a separate plate. She has her mashed spuds and her eyes light up as she begins to dig in.
Past experience has taught us that if you eat slowly, you can eat more. So slowly we eat. It is just not good enough. We sit over this meal for 45 minutes and I've eaten 3/4 of one filet with a bite or two of potato. TBH is about ˝ way through her beef and wants to undo her pants to make more room. I have to give her credit. She'd been dieting for about 6 weeks before we went away so she could fit into a bikini again. Although she's no longer 18 years old, she does look good in one, I must say. Anyway, she'd gotten down to her fighting weight of 98 lbs., but being on vacation, she said to hell with dieting and ate what she wanted, when she wanted it. (At the end of it all, she had gained the unseemly sum of 5 lbs and so is now back on her diet) We looked at each other and knew we couldn't go on. Wrap it up for us so we can take it home. While standing at the cash register, waiting to pay, she spins around and spies the pie carousel. What's in there but a lemon merangue pie, one of her favourites. So of course, she wants a slice. And she gets a slice. In truth, I think she got half the damn pie. It was huge. A total of five drinks, two meals and half a lemon merangue pie and the grand total adds up to $35.00. We stagger to the car, our knees buckling, carrying all this food. I wonder if I left the waitress a big enough tip?
We head for home, get into our bumming around clothes, and sit on the porch to finish digesting. A couple of hands of cribbage and we just veg, waiting for nightfall. Isaac and Eli show up but soon sense we aren't in the mood and soon leave to go fishing without us. We promise we will be there tomorrow.
(To be cont'd)
now I'm a total foodwhore myself, so this blog was exacly what my kinda heaven would be like!
LOL
What a great time you two must have had! As for "the cop", I don't ever let them "copizers" upset me...
A ticket's a ticket and ya pay it and get over it...lol...you wouldn't have gotten busted unless he asked for YBH's piece of pie and she refused to give it to him!
Lmfao! Now THAT my friend probably would have landed both of you in a federal penitentiary!!
Great reead buddy!
Take care,
Nick
youranter
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opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
Oh, my God...ok, well...I wouldn't have given up my lemon meringue pie either, but that's just me!
LOL
Sorry buddy, but on this particular issue? I havta side with YBH...me and lemon meringue pie are like really really good friends!
*Snicker*
Oh, and yeah...you keep forgettin I know ALL about you canucks up there!
Heheheh!
Take care buddy and hug YBH for me!
Nick
youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
I don't think you know ALL about us Canucks. There are still some girlie-men around who drink Molson's. How's that for an ugly visual? The true hero's are those who drink Canadian Club whisky. It's what made Capone a powerful force. Salute!