Tales From the Milk Drinker

Well I'm posting today from my lovely townhouse/residence in lovely Waterloo Ontario. I had a great drive up on Thursday and Friday with a pleasant and peaceful stop in Quebec city. I think things here will be great. There are 3 other room mates and they're all winners. I'll do an introductory post sometime with photos. I want to dedicate this post to Neil Moore and an understanding of something called the false worry syndrome.

Often challenges in life are spoken about to us by other people who blow them WAY out of proportion. Neil is someone who realizes this and gives the naysayers no attention. One example of FWS is what I'ld heard about driving through Montreal. Many people told me things similar to:

"It's a terrible place to drive. You can't figure out which lane to go in and everyone is going like 130km/h. You have to drive though a tunnel and it's really scarey. You'll be lucky if you make it through."

Let's debunk this myth shall we:

"You can't figure out which lane to go in" - Oh contrare Mon Fraur. There are many signs with clear instruction and diagrams in case you can't read. My goal was to get through the city back onto the Trans Canada highway which leads to Toronto Ontario. Let's think about that for a minute. I was on my way to the biggest destination in central Canada. Common sense would say then that you just stay straight on the road and don't take any obscure off ramps. Common sense prevailed. A shout out for this also goes to my cottage neighbor Donny MacLeod. He gave me one piece of advice everyone should hear - Concerning road signs ONLY look at the one overhead of the lane you are in. The others only matter to cars in the other lanes. The main road you want to get on is highway 40. Everywhere you look you'll see signs with highway 40 and arrows pointing every which way. These are for people in other lanes to try to get them into the lane you are in, so just ignore them.

"Everyone is going like 130 km/h" No. They aren't. The posted limit is 70 km/h and most people were going 80 as was I. I saw one single speed demon who blew by everyone and weaved in and out of the traffic dangerously. Two minutes later I saw him at the side of the road having a chat with a police officer who looked pretty pissed off at the guy.

"You have to drive though a tunnel and it's really scarey" Oh grow a set would ya. In case you didn't realize we're always driving in tunnels - it's just that usually the walls are made of trees ditches and guard rails instead of cement. Trust me, if you veer off the highway along any other part of the trans canada the results will be equally tragic as if you go off the road in the Fontain Tunnel in Montreal.

"You'll be lucky if you make it through" Well than I must have a horse shoe up my ass. It turned out that staying on the main road you came into the city on and driving the speed limit (+/- 10km/h) is the perfect recipie to get you through.

In conclusion I'm glad I had such a great drive up. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I pulled into Waterloo at 6:30 on Friday night. Unfortunately it took me two hours to find my townhouse but that's because I was pretty tired and being a bit of an idiot.