Back at Home
28 August 2007 - 15 אלול 5767 by Huw
Arrived home at 3AM after nearly 17 hours of driving (including down time, eating time, exercise time and talking-on-the-phone time). I left Hamilton at 10 or so, having dropped Brodie off at work and packed up and gassed up. (According to my best conversion skills, the current Canadian price is USD3.40/Gal = CAN.95/l.)
The crossing was easy…
Look, it may be US Border Official Unofficial Homophobia, but it’s damned funny.
Me (affecting a distinct, Beaver from “Leave it to Beaver” naive attitude): Hi!
Border Official: Country of Citizenship?
Me: U.S.
B.O.: Why were you in Canada?
Me: Because my boyfriend held a birthday party for me!
Momentary Pause…
B.O.: Waves me through…
Last time it was “I was up to Toronto for Gay pride…” Beat. Wave.
Seems that coming out to a Public Official in a Leave it to Beaver Voice short circuits the whole fear-of-power trip they’re on. It’s border crossing in more ways than one, I guess.
Drive was uneventful - I’m going to work on better timing: I think I can drive further in daylight. I was in the middle of West Virginia taking a rest break before the sun set. By the time I took a sleep break I was about 178 miles from home, parked in the Virginia Welcome Area, between the East River (WV) and Big Walker (VA)Mountain Tunnels.
This was the first time I’d driven “my route” southwards. Some things were very disorienting: I’d not expected, for example, that my connection with Route 19 through West Virginia would be an exit off of I79 (it appears to be a dead end into I79 north bound) or a dead end into the WV Turnpike (it appears to be a regular exit north bound). I don’t know if that’s a clear description… but taking the wrong exits resulted in about 20 miles of extra driving. Not so bad, I think, apart from missing Brodie.
I have some pictures to post, as soon as I’m more awake. I’m going to run some errands in the car and get some lunch, I think.
Technorati Tags:
tourists, road trip, driving, west virginia, I79, WV Turnpike, Gay, Border Crossing
