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Travelogue:
Stratford, July 2016
By Roger W.
Reini
July 7
I had a week of vacation from work the week of July 4. How would
I spend it? Half of it, I would spend by relaxing at home; the
rest of it, I would travel to Stratford, Ontario for the annual
Stratford Festival. The festival got its start by featuring
Shakespearean plays, and that’s still a main feature of the
festival today, although they do feature other works. This year,
some of the other works being performed include A Chorus Line
and All My Sons. I had fond memories of my one and only previous
visit to Stratford in 1984. It was my senior year at Michigan
State, and I was taking a course in Shakespeare; our class made
a trip to Stratford to see The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and
Juliet.
I would be seeing two plays on this trip; the first, Macbeth,
would begin at 2 PM. I could easily leave home in the morning
and travel there in time to have lunch and do some sightseeing
before curtain. I left home slightly after 7 o’clock and drove
eastward along Ford Road, stopping to fill up the tank along the
way. After slight jogs to Oakman and to Michigan Avenue, I got
on the Ford Freeway. Traffic had been lighter than usual, but
not so on the freeway; traffic slowed considerably until I
reached the exit for I-96. I headed “east” (really more
southeast) on I-96 until I reached the exit for the bridge to
Canada. The signs had Canadian flag on them to make sure that
drivers got the message. The last sign had the additional
statement “NO RE-ENTRY TO USA”; once you took that exit, you
were committed. The exit was fairly new, allowing for direct
access to the Ambassador Bridge without taking any surface
streets. I did not stop for gas, nor did I stop at the duty-free
shop. I did stop at the toll booth, though; there was no way
around that. After paying my $5, i took the ramp onto the
bridge. Traffic seemed light, and at the Canadian Customs
booths, the backups were shorter than on my previous visit a
month earlier.
Once I was officially in Canada, my first stop was the
McDonald’s on Huron Church almost immediately southeast of the
bridge. It was a familiar landmark, although it had been
completely rebuilt in recent years. I stopped for some
breakfast (a burrito combo meal) as well as to attempt to get my
iPhone’s data connection work in Canada; I was unsuccessful on
my previous visit. I was having difficulty on this visit, too,
but then I noticed a setting for allowing data roaming. It was
off, and I figured it needed to be turned on, which I did. I
still didn’t have a good connection, but the error messages had
changed. Eventually, I would get data service; more on that
later.
I drove southeast along Huron Church, past the strip malls,
hotels, drugstores, restaurants, the Tim Horton’s and the
closed-up tourist information center (that had moved to Tilbury)
until I reached the E. C. Row Expressway. Normally, I would turn
here to go to Devonshire Mall or the Indigo Books on the east
side of town, but today, I stayed on Huron Church, heading to
the 401. From previous trips, I thought I would have several
miles/kilometers to go before I reached the freeway, yet not
long after passing E. C. Row, there was a sign for the 401. It
turned out that the freeway had been extended westward in
anticipation of the new Gordie Howe Bridge that is to be built
between Windsor and Detroit, taking strain off of the current
Ambassador Bridge (the owner of which is unhappy about that).
The freeway was in very good shape, although the many overpasses
tended to interfere with my reception of satellite radio.
Traffic wasn’t too bad on the 401 as I drove eastward towards
the service plaza at Tilbury. It was a bit slower than rural
American freeway traffic, though; the speed limit was still 100
km per hour (62 MPH), unlike the 65 or 70 (or even higher) MPH
speed limits on most US freeways. At Tilbury, I stopped to use
the restroom, get a bottle of water, and pick up some tourist
literature. By this time, I noticed that my iPhone was receiving
data; I could finally take advantage of my T-Mobile data plan
that offered free roaming in Canada. I continued onward towards
London, then past London, and then to the first exit past
Ingersoll, listening to 60s on 6 most of the time. At that
exit past Ingersoll, I headed to the northwest, towards
Stratford. I drove through farmland that would have been
indistinguishable from Michigan or Ohio farmland, except that
the signs saying “MAXIMUM 80” didn’t mean 80 miles an hour.
Before long, I was in Stratford. I made the drive through town
on Highway 7 and headed to the east side. Here, I thought I
would stop at Kelsey’s for lunch. Unfortunately, when I stopped,
I saw a sign: Temporarily Closed. What would I do for lunch? My
options were self-limited due to my wanting something to drink
that was diet and caffeine-free and that wasn’t water. I ended
up having lunch at McDonald’s again; McDonald’s in Canada has
the Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers, which do offer diet,
caffeine-free options. I bought a Big Mac meal with the plastic
money (no, not credit card; the bills are now made of plastic)
and enjoyed it. Afterwards, I stopped at a nearby Scotiabank and
pulled some money for the remainder of the trip.
I had pre-paid parking at a lot near the river and the Festival
Theatre; I made my way there and parked. It was still well
before curtain, so I walked along the riverfront park for a bit.
There were scores of birds in evidence: geese, ducks, the
occasional swan and at least one gull. There were many
picture-taking opportunities, and with my iPhone, I took
advantage of them. At one point, I crossed the bridge to Tom
Patterson Island, named for the founder of the festival. I saw a
circle of trees that reminded me somewhat of the circles of
trees in the Holy Land, which I had seen during my pilgrimage
there. I visited that circle of trees and was moved to pray.
Later, I made my way to the theater, first enjoying the gardens
in front and paying a quick visit to the gift shop before
heading inside. I used the restroom (more commonly referred to
as the washroom) and found my way to my seat. My seat was to
stage left, but I had a good view of the stage.
The play began. I remembered reading MacBeth in high school; I
can’t remember if I saw a production of it back then. Today’s
production was very good. What can I say about it? I’m not a
drama critic. I certainly got my money’s worth from my ticket,
that’s for sure. During the intermission but after my washroom
break, I visit the gift-shop-on-a-cart in the lobby, where I
bought a notepad and noticed an outfit for a baby with the
slight misquote “Is this a doggie I see before me?”. After the
play ended, I visited the main gift shop again and bought a
biography of Shakespeare. Then it was back to the car and off to
my accommodations for the next two nights, the Traveller’s Motel
on Ontario Street. It was an older motor court, but the rooms
were modern, clean and air-conditioned.
The desk clerk suggested some places for me to have supper
downtown, but I had decided that I would eat at the Boston Pizza
on the west side of town. I’d passed it on the way in this
morning. Boston Pizza was a chain that was on the order of
Chili’s or Applebee’s; it had more than just pizza on the menu.
I had their spaghetti and meatballs, along with a Caesar salad;
It was a good and filling meal. I later learned from the hotel
desk clerk that Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez had a meal at
that restaurant when he was in town a few years back (big
whoop); they closed it down so they could eat in private.
As I ate, I was looking at either my iPhone or my iPad. I
suddenly started receiving scores of bounced e-mail messages.
What was bouncing was spam. Had my Mac been contaminated with
malware? Had my e-mail account been hacked? Inquiring minds
needed to know! There wasn’t much I could do right away except
to delete the bouncing messages. I vowed to examine the problem
more closely later. In the meantime, I went to the Zehrs Food
Plus on the east side of town to pick up some pop and some
cookies to snack on during my stay. The room had a refrigerator,
so I knew cold drinks were an option.
Back at the room, I was able to access my Macs at home and start
malware scans on them. While those proceeded, I turned on the TV
and was able to watch the Tigers play the Blue Jays. The air
conditioning in the room was very effective, so effective in
fact that I turned it off overnight.
Top
July 8
The hotel had muffins and coffee for breakfast; I brought a
muffin back to the room but passed on the coffee. The malware
scans on my Macs hadn’t turned up anything, so I changed the
password on my e-mail account. That dried up the flood of bounce
messages, so it would appear that my password had been grabbed
or guessed. I changed the password on my iOS devices right away,
but I didn’t so on my laptop at home, not right away.
The news this morning was depressing. Late yesterday in Dallas,
police guarding a protest march came under attack from a
deranged gunman, and it was the lead story on all of the news
channels. The news channels I had access to were a little bit
different than the ones at home; CNN was there, but no Fox News
or MSNBC; CBC and CTV News channels were there, though, as was
CityTV’s Breakfast Television.
I had several hours before I needed to leave for the matinee
performance of Shakespeare in Love, and I was in need of
toothpaste. The small travel-sized tube I had brought from home
was empty or effectively empty, and I needed some more. I found
it at the Shoppers Drug Mart downtown. I then drove to the
Walmart not too far from the hotel, but I didn’t get anything
there. Then it was back to the motel until it was time to leave
for the performance.
It was after 11 when I started walking downtown for the 2 PM
performance, as well as a pre-show lunch. It was around a mile
and a half to reach downtown. It brought back memories of a
previous walk downtown from the Festival Theatre, when I and two
classmates from that Shakespeare class went into town for lunch
or supper, I recall our stopping at a pub; perhaps it was the
Boar's Head Pub, which was still present. When I reached
downtown, I saw the signs for the public washrooms but had a
little difficulty finding them; I eventually did, to my relief.
Since it was sunny and warm, I sat on a shady park bench by the
river and cooled down for a bit. For lunch, I looked around for
a suitable establishment, ending up at Will's Bar and Grill, a
sports bar across from the Avon Theatre. I ordered their fish
and chips meal, which came with a good-sized filet of haddock.
It was quite good. By this time, the play would be starting in
around 30 minutes, so I paid a visit to the Theatre Store next
door (and connected to) the theater, where I browsed around for
a bit but didn't get anything.
My seat in the Avon Theatre, which had a more traditional layout
than the Festival Theatre, was close to the front, far stage
right on the aisle. Some of my view of the stage was blocked
(the stage-right balcony, mainly), but I could see the main
action very well. Then the show began. It had been many years
since I'd seen the Shakespeare In Love film upon which the play
is based, but to my recollection, it was very faithful to the
movie. How could it not be? And given the structure of the play,
you got to see significant extracts of Romeo and Juliet as well.
Again, another excellent performance by the cast.
After the show, I went back to the Theatre Store, but I didn't
get anything. I suppose the biography I'd bought yesterday was
enough. And so, I started walking back to the hotel. I was
carrying an umbrella because the forecast had called for rain in
the afternoon, but it didn't rain a drop as I walked back. I was
very glad to get back to the cool motel room, where I'd left the
air conditioning on. I didn't really feel like supper, not after
the filling meal of fish and chips; I contented myself with the
snacks I had in the room. Later in the evening, I wouldn't have
been able to go out anyway, as strong thunderstorms made their
way through town. Storms in the same weather pattern also went
through my home city as well, causing my lights to go out (as I
would learn tomorrow) and for a gas station awning to collapse
on several cars (no one was hurt).
I had been making occasional posts about the trip to Facebook.
One of these posts caught the attention of a friend and
classmate of mine, Stacie Bemis, who was now living in Michigan.
She noted that she and her husband would be cutting across
Ontario on a trip to Vermont and would be passing fairly close
to where I was. I contacted her and said we could attempt to
meet up tomorrow for a meal, snack, rest break or whatever.
Top
June 9
Now that it was Saturday morning, I felt like I needed a shower.
The shower in the room worked well, although there wasn't a soap
dish at a convenient height. Bending down to the level of the
tub is not as easy as it once was. I dried off, got dressed, had
some breakfast (more of the snacks that were in the room), and
finished packing. I left a tip, all in coins, for Housekeeping
(Canada has the loonie and the toonie, $1 and $2 coins
respectively, so that was a reasonable tip) and checked out at
9:10 AM.
On the way out of town, I stopped at a Shell gas station to fill
up for the trip home. The trip to Stratford had taken a little
under half a tank. Now that I had filled up, I could be sure of
making it home. I stayed on Highway 7 as I left town, traveling
once again through rural Ontario. I was listening to the
Underground Garage and the Ko Melina program, playing good music
as I drove through the countryside. At one point, I saw a sign
for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame; at this time of the
morning, it was not yet open. Any visit would have to wait for
another time.
At the intersection with Highway 4, I turned left onto that
highway, which would take me into London. Down the road, I could
have been excused for experiencing some confusion about where I
was, for there was a stretch of intersections with roads very
familiar to Detroit-area residents: 16 Mile, 15 Mile, etc., down
to 8 Mile). These intersections were all rural, though; there
was no way anyone would confuse this area with the Detroit
suburbs. The traffic started getting heavier, and the
surroundings became more built-up, as I approached the northern
suburbs of London.
I approached my first destination this morning, the Indigo Books
store in north London. The chain is one of Canada’s two
English-language bookstore chains; this store was larger than
the one in Windsor. It seemed to be about the same size as some
of the Barnes & Noble stores in the US. I browsed around for
a while, finally deciding to buy a book by Robert Sawyer, one of
Canada’s top science fiction writers. But I had to put the book
back when I discovered my iPhone wasn’t getting a connection
anymore. I had to step outside to see if I could get a good
signal. It turned out that I had connected to the store’s WiFi
network, which didn’t work for me in Windsor and wasn’t working
for me here. After shutting down WiFi, the cellular connection
resumed, and I had data again. This was important, because I was
communicating with Stacie via Facebook Messenger, trying to
determine where they were and where we should meet. They weren’t
as far along as I thought they might be; that meant I would be
staying in London longer than I anticipated. That wasn’t a big
problem for me, though. By the way, I did buy that Robert Sawyer
book.
I drove through downtown to the south side of town, figuring it
would be easier to arrange a meeting there. There was a festival
taking place downtown, TD Sun Fest; I didn’t stop for it. I
didn’t recognize anything from my last visit to London in 1986
(I may have visited some record stores then). As I drove, I
looked for possible meeting locations — a Crabby Joe’s at one
point, a Kelsey’s at another. I stopped at the Chapters
bookstore on Wellington to kill some more time. The inside front
doors were covered in “brick” with a sign saying PLATFORM 9 3/4;
this was in preparation for the release of the next Harry Potter
book at the end of the month. The store may have been a little
larger than the one in Windsor. I kept in touch with Stacie and
suggested meeting for lunch at the Earl’s Kitchen across the
parking lot; she and her husband agreed, being familiar with the
chain.
Due to delays crossing the border, it would be an hour or more
before Stacie and Scott could arrive in London. How would I
spend that time? I visited the Farm Boy Organics supermarket
next door to Chapters; it was a Canadian equivalent of Whole
Foods Market or Trader Joe’s. I got a bottle of mineral water
there and drank it. Around 1 o’clock, I went back to my car to
have a private observance of the Bahá’í holy day the Martyrdom
of the Báb. I visited the bookstore again to see if I wanted to
get anything else; it turned out I didn’t. I then got word that
they were 2 minutes away; time to head to the restaurant. It may
have been somewhat longer than two minutes, but soon, Stacie and
Scott walked up. There we were, Michigan residents meeting in
Canada. We had a good meal and good conversation
It was after 3 when our meal ended. They headed east towards
Niagara Falls and Vermont, while I headed southwest towards
Windsor, Detroit and home. There was some rain, and at one
point, it became heavy, but it didn’t last long. As I drove
onward, I debated whether or not to stop for supper in Windsor;
I decided not to. I drove back more or less the way I came up,
not stopping anywhere except service plazas. When I reached
Windsor, I headed straight for the bridge, but I did stop at the
duty-free store to look around for a while. I didn’t see
anything, but I was able to exchange my Canadian money for US
money. There was no backup on the bridge, but there certainly
was at the customs plaza. It took nearly half an hour for me to
reach the agent. When he asked where in Texas I was born and I
replied Houston, he mentioned having visited relatives in
Dickinson. I was waved on, and once I paid my toll for the
bridge, I got onto I-96 and headed home. I stopped at the Los
Amigos Mexican restaurant for supper first. In fact, I’d felt
like Mexican food on Friday night and would have gone to a
Mexican restaurant in Stratford if I’d known of one. But that
was not to be.
Top
THE END
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©2016 R.
W. Reini. All rights reserved.
Written by Roger
Reini
Revised
October 16, 2016
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