Abandoned Bed and Breakfast Photo

This is one of my favourite photos from this place. I also took a lot of photos of pebbles and rocks with grass growing through the cracks. I love rocks, pebbles and stones. I thought I would try out one of those photos as a blog background.

Casselman Motel Fire on Sunday Night

On Sunday night, as we traveled back from Montreal, we stopped at a motel in the town of Casselman, Ontario. It was a pretty good rate and had fast food places attached to the motel. Very convenient for the morning coffee we thought. We went out into town for dinner. Then came back to watch the Olympics on TV and get to sleep. Sometime after midnight there was a lot of loud knocking on the door. When I answered it was the motel/ gas station night manager telling us, "Sorry to wake you but there is a fire in the building, everyone needs to get out".

We got out. I pulled together everything I could see or think of. Thought I had it all. Anyway, we got out and decided to wait in the car, in our nightgowns with pants pulled on underneath. We waited a long time to find out what was next. The night manager sent someone to find out if everyone could stay at the Bed and Breakfast in town but no one was answering the door there. My Mom and I ended up going to the Tim Hortons just over the highway and getting coffee. I was really tired but she said she was fine. We drove awhile but the first place we found was not very nice looking. As it ended up we stayed all the way back in Ottawa again, a very nice place. But did not get there until just before 3:00 am. Both of us worn out and still smoky then. The smoke is still in the car and on the clothes we were wearing.

Quite an adventure for our road trip.

We are still trying to get a hold of the motel owner, Dennis, to get the money returned on the credit card for that night. No luck today. We only got home really late last night so could not do much about it until this morning.

21st Century Bohemians

The Poverty Jet Set is another name for 21st Century bohemians. A rag tag group of artists, travelers, writers and filmmakers riding the bad-ass pirate ship of life with a parrot on our shoulders and a little “yaaarrr, matey” in our cheeks.

The Poverty Jet Set is a term coined by Douglas Coupland, one of my favorite writers of all time. In his ahead-of-its-time 1991 book, Generation X, he defined the term:

A group of people given to chronic traveling at the expense of long-term job stability or a permanent residence. Tend to have doomed and extremely expensive phone call relationships with people named Serge or Ilyana. Tend to discuss frequent-flyer programs at parties.

Vagablogging- Vagabond blogging.
World Hum- Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet.
BootsnAll- Resources for the independent traveller.
Lonely Planet
Traveler's Tales
Women traveling around the world.


Looks like the Thumbs Out site is not happening until 2008. Getting a really early start on the website though.

Hitch 50: Give the Boys a Ride!

Hitch 50 College boys hitchhiking 50 US state capitals in 50 days. If you can give them a ride to Hawaii they really need one to finish their quest on time.

I just heard them on CBC radio and went to look up their site right away.

I Could Be A Scooter Grrl

This one is a Honda Metropolitan/ Jazz, depending on which Honda site you are looking at. Maybe the pink flowers are too cute? It looks like I could expect to spend about $3,000 Canadian for any of the scooters I looked at. Some of them you have to add carriers for your groceries, backpack, luggage or whatever you want to haul around with you. That would be an important feature for me as I would want to take the scooter for errands like getting groceries - and road trips!

Yamaha has scooters too.

Vespa is the traditional scooter company but that doesn't mean they have the best machine or the best features. What would be interesting to know is which is most often stolen. That is something you could find out from the insurance company. I think I would get it insured too, mainly out of concern for replacing it if it were stolen. Being small and light they would be a good target.

At Fashion Monitor in Toronto they say scooters are mostly driven by women (which I can understand as men would prefer something bigger and noisier) and they say scooter prices range from $800 to $1000. So, I will have to do more looking around. I did see some on Toronto Craigslist.

The Toronto Moto Scooter Club On MeetUp which became a paying site so I don't know if I would join or not. I don't care for the pay-to-use sites. Kind of backwards to ask for traffic and a credit card at the same time.

Secrets of the Vespa Sisterhood, from Boston.

Women Traveling the Earth

I began a new Dmoz category for women who are making trips around the world. You can have a look, there aren't a ton of sites. But, the ones there are a lot of fun and very interesting to read. If you never see the world yourself at least you can read about it from another woman's point of view. Not that we all think the same but it gives you something to stash away in your mind. Some impressions of far away places and people. Also, I think women will look at the same type of things versus what men consider noteworthy.

Short Burst of Running Away

I ran away today, just drove awhile without a real destination (or reliable window wipers should it start to rain). I ended up in a tiny town called Hockley Valley. I only stopped cause there were three things in a row that perked my curiousity. An art gallery just re-opened by Laura Berry (I'm a Laura), a really cute/ country looking grocery store and lastly a huge winding hill dead ahead on the road.

I wanted to drive that hill, knowing the car would have its little protest. But, first I backtracked for the art and groceries. I ended up buying her calendars (2004 was being given away for a few bucks and I needed something for 2005). She turns out to be just a bit older than I am and from Scarborough originally, same as me. Kind of a strange co-incedence. I liked her art, the colours and watercolours of old houses. She really has a knack for drawing anything wooden, brick wasn't as good.

I read her bio. She has an ideal life which was kind of depressing. Married to a firefighter (usually strong, cheery, easy going kind of guys), living in a cutely renovated old house, 3 kids, making a career out of her art/ passion. I wasn't feeling a lot better when I left the gallery but it did seem that I was supposed to be there today. Too much of a co-incedence otherwise. It's not like I get a lot of days to just go driving around and today was her grand opening.

The grocery store was only cute on the outside. Inside it was pricey and one of those places you just know are grabbing tourist bucks and laughing to the bank. I bought a fancy jar of ginger & lime jam for my Mom. I got a coffee but it wasn't hot enough and seemed to be the end of the pot as my cup wasn't really full yet the coffee stopped pouring out. Have you ever had the pot do some kind of coffee fart into your cup? I wasn't amused. But I drank it, with too much cream even.

I drove home, not taking that big hill. Thinking too much. Now, I'm here. Back where I started cause no matter how fast you are, you can never run from yourself.