I guess its time I posted in here. Wish i was in a more poignant mood, I feel like i let people down. Then I remember its MY journal and I make myself shut up. If I really wanted to entertain an audience, Id do something like.. oh, i dont know.. start a web site. Ha ha.

So this weekend was the big Montreal trip. much, much fun.

We left about 4:30 and prompty got stuck in traffic on 93 all the way into NH. what should have taken 30 minutes took 2 hours. We had good music though, and each other, though we didnt talk much.. George gets peeved by traffic really easily.

Once in NH things cleard up. I played some CDs for him and was delighted to find he didnt hate them. If you know George, this is a feat :) we jammed to Fishbone, then A3, then Space Ghost, then.. hmm, what was next... forget. We stopped only briefly at a McDs, other than that it was straight through. No toruble at the border. our spirits lifted as we got closer.

The Hotel was right off of St Catherines, small room but it was enough, we were only sleeping there. it was clean and only on the second floor, and cheap too. when i find out what it was calle, youll hear about it.

Got a call from Tim as soon as we got in town, he and Chris were out and about so we met up and went to Peel Pub.

If you dont know what Peel is, heres a hint: the average exchange rate in Montreal is 60%, but at Peel its 50%: they clearly want to attract Americans. more specifically: young, loud, boorish Americans who want to get drunk really cheap. Did you know you could buy Long Island Iced Teas by the pitcher? witha straw? Yeah, thats Peel Pub.

So the waitress approaches, and Chris thinks hes going to be cool. "Bring us two Cokes for my friend George here, and 2.. 3.. no, make it 6 shots, of whatever your favorite is, babe". Well I guess her favorite was really cheap whiskey. It went down like a bucket of razor blades. rusty ones. that tasted like cheap whiskey. For the rest of the weekend we punished Chris by ordering him the cheapest whiskey they had wherever we went. The shots were followed by a pitcher of beer for Tim and I, and a pitcher of Sangria which we all shared. Tim dared me to ask the lovely ladies at the table next to us what they were drinking (Sangria), after we had decided to order some as well. Then Tim dared Chris to ask the lovely ladies at another table what THEY were drinking (Sangrai), after we got ours and it was sitting prominently on our table., that got a puzzled look.

We stumble dout of there and went to a.. hmmm.. purveoyor of scantily attired female entertainers. hung out, drank more. I was delighted to find that old school G'N'R is still alive and well in Canada. I must have heard Paradise City, Sweet Child O Mine and Welcome to the Jungle 9 or 10 times all told that weekend. Off to another club, then Pizza. theres nothing like pizza at 4AM, drunk. very, very good stuff. Plus, the guy who ran the palce was from NYC, so It probably WAS good pizza.

Tim & Chris went abck to their place, George & myself went to ours and crashed. Up at 11 Saturday, we et up with Tim and Chris againa nd did some window shopping. i was looking for the fabled Le Pacte Du Loupes that Tony had mentioned but it wasnt out yet. We went to an arcade and i introduced the guys to the joy and pain that is DDR Max. George could only cope by putting his hands behind his back and dancing Lord of the Dance style: "the way of my people" he said. Chris and time were.. well.. hopeless ;) but so was i when i started. Im sure some would say I still am. but i got a lot of Bs which are better than Cs so im imporoving. and im remembering some of the songs i like rather than picking at random. must take crystal someitme.

We showered at the hotel, then got in the Worlds Smallest Cab and went to the Expos game. good seats, 2nd and 5th rows, 3rd base line. Some bad calls led us to harass the 3rd base ump to no end. Hey, he had a nice ass, what can i say. the crowd seems to love our heckling, it was as if theyd never heard someone make noise at a baseball game before. they should come to Fenway. The security guards were doubled up around us, but they were largely amused as well.

Untill the bag..

See, George was heckling the Red's relief pitcher Joey Hamilton, just for the hell of it. He was a good sport. Well around the 7th Joey gave a brown paper bag to one of the security guards and pointed up the aisle. The security guard came up and gave the bag to george. george was...confused. He was about to open it when the security guard realized he was a retard and tried to take it back. he was good natured about it thoguh. well george tried palying a good natured game of keep away. the guard didnt like that. the crowd did. the guard didnt. he gave it back adn the guard brought it fgarther up the aisle toa couple of really attractive blonde girls. for the rest of the game, we (and soon the entire section) was whining "whats in the baaaaag?". it was chocolate. we didnt find out for a couple more innings though. It was funny to us far longer than it was funny to the girls, unfortunately.

The expos won 6-0. Good but uneventful game, other than Guerrero hitting a ball that bounced off of the top of the wall, should have beena home run, he would have had the 40-40 record. but it was called a ground rule double. the fans were less than thrilled.

Back to the hotel, change, back out. Peel was way too crowded, so we skipped dinner and went straight to the drinkin and skantily attired female entertainers. good night. more pizza. then we passed out at the hotel. it was good to be able to split the cost with tim and chris on night 2. though tim snores like a chainsaw with a cleft pallette. judicious application of airborne grapes remedied that.

Sunday was less eventful. we got upo and showered, tim and chris left at 11, george and i went to the Expos. another shitty call put the final nail in the coffin for guererros record, and the fans rioted, showering the field with bottles, almost cost the expos the game, but they won 7-2.

We hopped in the car and made a beeline for home, we managed to listen to the Pats game the for most of the trip, alternating between four stations as reception went in and out between the mountains. that helped kill some time. we got back in 5 hours, not bad. and.. thats it.

Miles driven: 3,394
Hours: 148
Mileage: 25.0

Cities:

• Boston * $
  
• Syracuse
  
• Rochester
  
• Buffalo * $
  
• Niagra *
  
• Cleveland *
  
• Columbus * $
  
• Cincinnati
  
• Frankfort
  
• Louisville *
  
• Nashville *
  
• Jackson * $
  
• Memphis *
  
• Lynchburg * $
  
• Chatanooga
  
• Charlotte * $
  
• Asheville
  
• Winston-Salem
  
• Durham
  
• Richmond
  
• Washington D.C.
  
• Baltimore
  
• Philadelphia
  
• Atlantic City *
  
• Red Bank * $
  
• Boston * $
  

*= stopped
$= Stayed over

Points of interest:

• Niagra falls
  
• Rock N Roll hall of fame
  
• Corvette museum
  
• Grand Ole Opry
  
• Graceland
  
• Jack Daniels distillery
  
• Smack
  
• Caesars & Trump plaza
  

Fine eating establishments explored for the first time, first in a long time, and/or last time:

• Waffle House
  
• Sonic
  
• White Castle
  
• Shoney's
  
• Rallys
  
• Crystal
  

Sadly missed:

• Red Lobster
  
• Steak & Shake
  
• Papa Johns