The Lady

The Trip from Toronto to Thunder Bay:

...was AWESOME!

The Lady is a 1982 Chevy Ventura Van, tan and brown on the outside, with butterscotch shag on the inside, and those long skinny windows along the side, shaded with little orange curtains held back by little swags, giving the impression of a really tiny house. There are two cushioned benches along the sides, and another set of cusions on the floor, making space for three to sprawl comfortably in the back while one drives and one navigates up front. It is virtually impossible not to fall asleep in the back. Which during Day One of the trip was not a bad thing. As it turns out, NONE of us had had any sleep at all. But the gentle rocking of the van on the highway, the tunes breezing out of the boombox, a cool wind through the tiny screened windows, and the beautiful passing scenery of Northen Ontario, made everything feel just perfect. Everything was right in the world. No worries.

Now that was when you were riding in the back. Up front might be a different story. We all took shifts driving. As it happened, my shift coincided with a massive black thunderstorm and high winds buffeting us from Sudbury past Sault St. Marie. From this position, the rolling of the van was less fun, and if I was a little nervous at the wheel, I think I hid it well. As usual I thought it was my fault - something that I was doing - that made the van pitch back and forth across the road like that. "Wow, I'm not a very good driver," I thought, trying my best to ride the Lady like I was breaking in a new horse. Jackie took the reins after me, and she wasn't on the road for too long before she pulled over. "Nicole, do you mind driving? The wind is so strong out here, I don't feel confortable on these winding roads..." So I took the wheel again. Hey, the handling was still tricky, but now the rain had died down so that we could actually see the road. This was better already. The next day I took a shift during bright and dry part of the day, and did I ever notice the difference. Guess it wasn't my driving or the handling on the van, after all.

We made it all the way to Wawa before stopping for the night. Camping had been the original plan, but the ground was too wet, and it was too cold. We settled on three of us sharing a motel room, while two more camped out in the van. I balked a little at first - after all, we were trying to save money here - but in the end, a really good night's sleep on the advertised "quality mattresses" was a blessing. We ate that night at a local "steak house" (truck stop) that for some reason had black light tingeing the flourescents, making my Campbell's chicken noodle soup dinner glow a weird blue. We were all struck by the artwork on the walls, the best example being a painting I dubbed, "Starry Starry Cone" which depicted a Dairy Queen-style soft ice cream cone against an imitation of Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night sky. Apparently this is a popular picture up north, since we saw it several times at other stops along the way.

The next day we rolled into Thunder Bay, immediately spotting other fringe performers already starting to poster along the main avenue, Court Street. Dalton, who was running things up in the office, took us back to his place for a cup of tea while we waited to straighten out the billet situation. The gals dropped me off at my place - a guy named Wesley, who lived walking distance from the fringe site, and they were on their way to their 2 billets, both on the South End of town. Thunder Bay had originally been 2 different cities, and so now they were merged into a North End and a South End. Seems most of the billets were in the South End, which was actually quite a hike from the site. One needed a car, or had to take the bus. I was happy that I had a short 10 minute walk down to the site. Little did I know what the trade-off would be at the time...