East? Southwest? what's the difference? – October 27th

We started our day with a nice hot continental breakfast, before going shopping in St. Jacob’s. Much of our shopping trip was about taking pictures of the quaint shops and hopefully to get a sighting of a horse and buggy, which is not so uncommon in this area.

We did manage, however, to make a few purchases along the way. At one point as we were sipping our Timmies coffee, sitting in the parking lot at the Outlet Mall, Shannon started getting really excited and saying “Oh! Oh! Oh!” while frantically reaching into the back seat. As I tried to figure out if she had burned her tongue on the coffee I glanced up to see a horse drawn carriage gently making its way down the street right in front of us, oblivious to the commotion he was causing in our motorized carriage. Turns out, Shannon was just trying to get her camera so she could take a photo or two, of this phenomenon which does not occur in the West (ironic don’t you think).

Well the vacation is winding down now and all our excitement is behind us, or so we thought. We determine that we have enough time for a leisurely drive to Hamilton, with a slight (very slight) possibility of stopping at one more store or two, so we head southeast towards the airport. Twenty minutes or so later we realize that somewhere along the way we managed to get on the wrong road and are actually heading west on Hwy 8, instead of south east. Oh my! We did not realize this until we had lost half an hour- now running late for airport check in and not sure of our bearings, we asked directions. The directions we received sounded good, but turned out to be only partially correct. Turn left at the “DELTA”, should have been, turn left at “DUNDAS”. So we went through the intersection at which we should have turned left, because we were looking for the Delta. We did realize fairly quickly that something was amiss, so we asked a taxi driver for directions. He shok his head, sucked in his breath and said “You have a flight to catch in Hamilton in 45 minutes……right….good luck.” But he gave us directions that were correct and we were on our way.

There were only 3 cars in the whole province going the speed limit at this moment, and they were all three right in front of us. Shannon’s expert Andretti personality kicked into gear and she made a beautiful multiple vehicle pass, quickly leaving the more faint of heart to hang back behind the law abiding trio. Bless the Hamilton airport for knowing we would need guidance. We must not have been the first to find ourselves in this predicament, for they found it prudent to post signage to navigate our land flight in from many miles away. We adjusted our luggage quickly, to accommodate our most recent purchases before entering the terminal. Picture packages strewn around the parking lot behind the car with the trunk and the doors open, suitcases and knapsacks open, and zippers being taxed to their limits. We held our breath that Shannon’s parcels would not split out of the largest black plastic shopping bag that she managed to finagle from a store clerk, as this was to be her carry on luggage. Shannon went to stand in the ticket line while Gloria-Rose went to turn in the rental plane,…..uh uh I mean car.

Shannon’s luggage was admittedly suspicious looking, resulting in her being physically searched from head to toe, chemically swabbed down for cocaine residue and patted down by a rather friendly security guard, causing Shannon , arms stretched out to accommodate the pat down, to call out to Gloria-Rose who was in the next line over, “ I think she likes me. Next she’s going to ask me out on a date.” Shannon then asked if the female security guard performing this pat down if she was married?…..to a man?
Her packages were taken out of the large black plastic carry on and checked over item by item.

Of course, Gloria- Rose did not have to suffer these indignities as it was apparently evident that she is angelic.

So we ended our journey with a little more excitement than we had thought we would get to enjoy.

Signing off now until our next adventure. We hope you enjoyed our travels.

The travel bugs.