Red Sox and Records, Part 3 (The Toronto Edition)

ROADTRIP!!! We hit the highway at 3:00 in the morning for our 10 hour drive to Toronto. Rob thought that it would be funny to eat baked beans just before our trip. While the end result of stinking up the car worked as planned, Paul and I did get a good laugh that he had to hit the bathroom stall to unload at each stop. We stopped in Springfield, MA for breakfast, and ended up in the town's armpit eating at Dunkin Donuts across the street from the adult video store. Next stop was Buffalo, NY, which was kind of depressing as well...seemed like the town had nothing but car dealerships and muffler shops. We finally crossed the border and headed to Niagara Falls to catch the sights. It was my second time at the falls, but it is still so impressive...such a massive sight.

Next stop was Toronto. We hit some traffic trying to get into the city, so we got in a little later than we had expected, and got to the hotel around 6:30. We stayed at a place on The Esplande, near the bottom of Younge Street. We could always tell that we were getting close to our hotel from the smell of piss and sewage that covered the neighborhood. It seemed like a good section of town, but it certainly had a stench to it! A couple of things that I learned about Toronto...that city loves it's water fountains, Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The drivers also love to use their car horns, as there was always someone honking at a pedestrian or another car that they didn't think was moving fast enough.

Saturday was a fun day. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, trying to find the Noise Annoys record store. I don't know how we missed it, but we never found it. We even stopped into a comic book store that sent us down the street one way, and then asked for directions in another store that sent us in another direction. It was disappointing to not find it, but truth be told, I was okay with it because I had already spent a bit of money and not finding the store helped me not blow even more money. I did find one small record store that had a lot of old R&B and early rock records, and I was able to pick up a copy of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality LP. I really had to pick it up because it was a Canadian pressing and the back cover had a small maple leaf in the upper corner. It was a cool souvenir of our trip. After checking out the city, we went to the Red Sox / Blue Jays game. Once again the Sox lost...I've never been to a game that they won!

Sunday morning we headed back to the States, and got hassled by the border patrol. I'm not sure what the red-flag was, but we got pulled out of line for questioning. We had to park and then go inside and wait. I seemed to draw the shortest straw as the officer called my name. Two officers took me outside to search the car. I knew that there was nothing they would find, but I did get weak in the knees when they asked me if I had "ever been arrested before". Before? You mean like I'm going to be arrested now?!?! Everything was fine and after searching the car, we could go, but that was a little nerve wracking. The three of us were pretty spent at this point and the ride home was long and uneventful. Good to be home.