Road trip you say

OK so last weekend there was heaps happening in Toronto with the Indy cars, The Orangeman march (Still not sure I agree with it but it’s the oldest outside Ireland) & Salsa on St Clair. But I have no idea how they were (Apart from Scott Dixon who came 4^th - Go Kiwis) as I went on a last minute roadie.

Last Friday, I had just walked in from work & was trying to work out what to drink when Mojo wandered in to pick up Lex. “We’re heading to Ottawa for the  Blues fest. You in?“ 10 minutes later I was packed & we were on our way to the beer  store to “fill up”

The normal 3 hour trip to Kingston was slowed down substantially due to ½ of Toronto heading to their cabins for the weekend, but due to the Beer store pit stop I was happy, as long as I kept an eye out for the fuzz, due to some open vessel in a vehicle rule they have over here (I think it’s too silly to be called a law).

So about 10ish we roll into Kingston for an “In depth” tour & to pick up Matt, as it was his cottage we were staying at. 20 minutes out of Kingston Matt noticed this funny orange light on the dash in the shape of a petrol pump. Since we  were only about 60-70 clicks out of Perth we decided to push on, assuming a town of 6000 people would have a 24 hour gas station since even dinky little Ngatea back in NZ has one & at last count they only have 30 people, 20 almost people & a shed load of cows. So after 4 guys dredging up every urban myth they had ever heard about fuel economy we coasted into Perth 5 min after the last station had closed for the night. We stopped at the local Tim Horton’s (of course THAT’S 24 hour) to weigh up our options & once again be impressed by the kindness of strangers. A cool elderly couple offered us their car to siphon gas out of if we could find a hose, so I went across the road to wander around an industrial  estate in search. Predictably a solo person snooping around empty car parks in the middle of the night attracts the lads in blue, now the trick was to explain what I was doing without getting too close so he could smell the alcohol on my breath. After I did, he opened up a petrol pump (This seems to happen fairly often) & we were on our way to Catabogie for a few more pints & a very comfortable sleep.

The next morning I was woken by the smell of bacon, so popped upstairs to meet Matt’s lovely parents Mike & Leslie. Now I’ve been away from home for a while now (6 year anniversary on the 4^th of July) so I’d forgotten how great mum’s are at feeding boys, thanks Leslie for a great breakfast & lunch. After waiting the mandatory hour after eating we headed to the lake for a spot of wake boarding. Now this  being my first time, I’d love to be able to tell you that I was able to get up (&  let’s be honest in a year or so this story will have morphed into me being able to do summersaults) but after about 15 attempts & some great instruction from Mike & Matt I was very close but also very sore & knew as my muscles cooled down they were just going to get tighter. On the plus side swimming to a massive body of water & not tasting salt was very novel.

After a siesta (We were travelling with a Brazilian after all) we said goodbye & thank you to Mr & Mrs Brehmer and headed off for a night of debauchery in Ottawa. Once again we were too late by 10 minutes for Ontario’s stupid liquor law that states beer stores close at 9pm. Luckily Ottawa is a twin city with Hull on the other side of the river which is in Quebec with sensible alcohol regulations. i.e. 24 hour from a convenience  store. After pre drinks at Steve’s we headed out for a night of reasonable bars & phenomenal kebabs in the very funky market district.

The next day was Mojo’s birthday & the Ottawa Blues Fest at the War Museum, a weeklong event figuring legends like Ben Harper, The Yard Birds, CAKE, Kiss, Joe Cocker, STYX, Gym Class Heroes, Ice Cube, LIVE, The Black Keys, Papa San, Ludacris, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Stone Temple Pilots. Next year I’m taking the week off & playing properly in Ottawa. Unfortunately we only caught the end of “The Rebel Year’s” set since they had a wicked Pearl Jam sound. Next was “The Balconies” on the Black Baa Baa stage with the super hot Ms Jacquie Neville (Assuming/hoping Ms not Mrs). The Punch Brothers with Chris Thile made Bluegrass sound funky. “Land of Talk” was good even with the huge sound issues they were having. As King Kahn started playing the skies open so we pulled a statistic retreat to the Museum café for a coffee. We came out to see part of Estelle’s set (Great to hear a South London accent again...Didn’t think I’d miss that) including American Boy but had to leave early to get in place for Girl Talk. I had never heard of this guy until the drive up so had no idea what to expect…I mentioned before I had sore muscles from wake boarding…Not for that hour & a bit.

Regrettably we had to leave before Joe Cocker played at 9 as we still had to head back to Steve’s to pick up Erika, drop off Matt & Pat in Kingston & book back to Toronto. Wait a minute, 6 people including luggage plus 2 guitars in 1  car….Hmmm. Luckily Matt didn’t need to be in Kingston until Monday afternoon so he caught the bus back to Kingston the next day, cheers big man.

Great weekend people let’s do it again real soon!