Yesterday was a late start; today is an early start. After yesterday's difficulties, I asked Katherine to help me wake up earlier today, perhaps as early as 8:00 AM instead of my regular 10:00 AM. She was up by 7:30 AM, dutifully calling upon me to get up at 8:00 AM, whereupon I promptly refused to rise. With some coaxing, along with a nice cup of coffee, she managed to encourage me to dress by 8:45 AM, the previous 45 minutes being spent by me trying to convince my body to rise from its near deathlike sleep. I am up.
The advantage of this earlier rising is that I get to write without pressure to depart by 11:00 AM. It means there is less stress in the final moments of our hotel time, more time to pack, to leave with some pretense of leisure, both for me and for Katherine. It also means I might make it to Tim Horton's while they are still serving breakfast; I can have a breakfast bun, something I don't get very often thanks to my late arising.
Today will see us do another of our unplanned detours. Our original plan had been to visit Ottawa, perhaps staying an extra night here. As it happens, my brother Peter is in Toronto. I suggested to Katherine that we might detour there on our way west, to which she replied that we could also see her brother and sister, who just happen to live in Mississauga, very near to the hotel where Peter is staying. So that was it; we are headed to "the big smoke" today, even though the GTA did not appear anywhere on our plans right up until last night.
It is one of the freedoms of this kind of road trip. We get up late; we change directions; we go places unplanned. On the other hand, we are still very busy most days. With a departure at 11:00 AM from the hotel, we are usually on the highway at about 11:15 AM. I get tired after a couple of hours driving, so we usually stop at around 1:00 PM so I can have a nap. After resting, we usually have something to eat, either in-the-truck food such as proscuitto and swiss cheese, or perhaps a burger from a fast food joint. After that, we typically drive until around 5:30 PM or so.
Once our driving day is complete, we find ourselves a hotel or motel. The need for a wheelchair room means this often takes several tries. We use whatever online tools we can, along with the old routine of stopping at a likely place to ask if they have room in the inn. By the time we are in a hotel or motel, unpacked and ready for dinner, it's often well past 7:00 PM. It is the unpacking which takes all the time, what with not only luggage, but my M-rail, my shower seat, our computers, etc., etc., etc.
After we unpack, making the room ready for sleep, we will go to eat. This takes another hour or so, putting us back in our room usually around 8:30 or 9:00 PM. Then we post the photo blog, a process which can take upwards of an hour sometimes. With all that done, we have our showers, another process which can take upwards of an hour, depending on what the facilities are like and what difficulties I present. Sometimes the whole shower thing is late enough and difficult enough that I just leave it.
All of this evening activity means getting to bed by 11:00 PM is an unlikely event. We try, but on most occasions we see the midnight hour before sleep finally comes to us. As I said, it's a very busy day.
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