Big City Livin'

Toby and I cruised down County Road 10 into Toronto, leaving the bushes, wilderness, and our tents behind us for a week of city living. It felt amazing to finally be dressed in clean clothes and find my person free of the bloody corpses of dozens of mosquitoes. Ahhh, the simple pleasure of a hot shower and washing machine :) We spent over a week bumming around, chilling out over beers and pistachio nuts with the Sheldon family round the picnic table in Toby's sister Tess's backyard. A bunch of Toby's siblings all live within the same four block area near Little Italy, so there was always something going on. The Sheldons are a pretty rad family of interesting, hilarious, and highly educated individuals. Plus, they like bikes :) So I was happy to get to know them and learn all about the "double rainbow" meme.

On the weekend that we arrived, Toby and his family had a wedding to attend and so I was left with the keys to his brother Jay's 17th floor bachelor pad for the night. Spending 24 hours alone, without the company of familiar faces, was a pretty strange experience for me. It did strike me as kind of funny that I set out on this adventure alone, but haven't had more than 15 minutes to myself since Canada Day. So I cooked us instant noodles, watched sitcoms, and tried to maintain a normal body temperature by standing naked directly in front of the fan. I was sure that the heat and humitidy of Toronto would be the end of me!

Wandering around the shops and stores of Kensington Market, between the high rises of downtown, and amongst the shady trees of High Park were some of my highlights of exploring T dot. I was stoked to see so many folks ride around on bikes; girls in skirts and heels on the way to the office and men with briefcases pedaling around on old junkers. After traveling around the city for a few days I could definitely see why the bike is a preferred transportation method for many. You can park anywhere (for free), you don't have to wait in traffic, and you can scoot through parks and narrow alleyways, no problemo. Admittedly, I nearly peed my pants the first time I rode out on my bike; riding in the city is a whole other world compared to the open road. Competing with the street cars, avoiding motor vehicles, and dodging pedestrians proved to be test of my safe biking skills. But you get used to it. And better at it.

Hmmm...what else? I was totally digging all the wild graffiti and street art. We hit up the art gallery on free night and it was all pretty awesome. While slurping up the last pearls of my bubble tea in Chinatown, I was struck with a pang of homesickness (but that passed pretty quickly). While listening to Jay and Toby discuss the possible consequences of a Godzilla attack on the city I was struck with a fit of giggles. During most of my stay here I was sweatier than when I was riding my bike. Stupid humidity. I blew $250 to have my drive train totally overhauled; the teeth on my front chain ring were starting to look more like they belonged in the mouth of a man eating shark than on a wheeled transportation device. I guess that's about all.

Oh, Toby's friend Dave from Edmonton joined us, so now there's going to be three of us making our way towards Ottawa. Onward, to the nation's capital!