Living the Dream with Joyce: October 30

Some catchup needed here! While in Toronto, I went to see Peter Grimes at the Four Season Centre - great performance - especially the powerful rendition of the leading character by Ben Hefner. On Monday, October 28th, Julia and I had lunch with my niece Maria - I'm really bummed that I didn't take any pictures! It was fantastic to see her after so many years - she's an absolutely lovely person!

Tuesday the 29th, I drove to St. Thomas to visit Jim and Mary Lee Covil - Jim and I went to high school together and I visited them last year on my way to the border, too. Wonderful to see them again - what an awesome couple they are - so very, very generous and genuinely committed to making the world a better place! I had a telephone conversation with Jim Brown, another classmate from S.T.C.I. - next May, when I'm trekking back across Canada from Alberta, I'm going to try to stop in and see him in Waterloo. I left St. Thomas on Saturday morning, November 2nd and headed for the border at Windsor / Detroit. That was pretty funny, really. Last year, the border guards searched my RV while I stood, under strict surveillance, outside; this year, they asked me the standard questions (purpose of your visit - escaping winter; destination - Galveston) then interrupted my listing of food that I had with me to wave me on! The whole non-interrogation took exactly two minutes!

My first night in the States I spent in a Walmart parking lot in Terre Haute, Indiana, where I couldn't get my generator to work, even though it had been fixed in September. I need to figure out the exact relationship between my coach battery, propane tank, and generator. The emissions light came back on after I ran the motor for fifteen minutes in order to get the coach battery charged enough to run the furnace for long enough to get my RV warm.

The next day the emissions light stayed on for about half the day - after I stopped for lunch, it went off and hasn't come back on - whew! I made it to the Ozarks by 2:30 p.m. - what amazingly beautiful country - and hooked up all my connections in the Ozark Trail RV Park. Got in touch with Cindy and she and Wayne picked me up Monday morning - we went out for breakfast, then back to her house where we talked - and talked - and talked - and talked - like we hadn't seen each other for thirty-six years. Oh yeah - we hadn't seen each other for thirty-six years! We discovered that we are "rust friends" - no matter what colour our hair may be or how many years may pass, we are true friends at the core and we can pick up our relationship right where we left off! She has found herself a pretty awesome man, too - which she deserves!! A truly wonderful visit with my best friend from high school days and beyond!