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Perfect, Mossfoot! Now, don't move, I'm watching Survivor...

June 21- Day 45

The first day of Summer. Sure doesn't feel like it. Right now it's not raining, in fact it's quite nice out! But that will change. Hopefully I'll be set up in the Sault before then.

At last I'm back in my home and native land. The bridge over the Soo was quite long, but I handled it easily enough, despite the traffic.

Perhaps it's just the law of averages. Perhaps it's Fate thinking I've been treated too roughly as of late. Perhaps my Karma has finally leveled out. But this is what happened when I got to the Soo.

Though I was unable to access the internet at the tourist office (they were nice enough to let me try on their phones, but the lines out didn't work with my system), they told the library might be able to help. They also told me where the local hostel was. I went there straight away, only to find to my horror that it the price was higher than I was told to expect, and there was tax on top of it! Tax? These are non-profit hostels, why should they be taxed? They aren't out west!

Anyways, after pleading my case, he asks the manager, and gives me a room at membership price! So I paid less than I expected! What's more, I don't share the room with anyone! It's a single bedroom , with a bathroom and shower (that part is shared). So tonight I have my own bed, desk to type on, and everything!

At the hostel, I find out where to possibly find pole replacements. When I get there, I see another guy on a recumbent, a Lightning like mine, but a different (better and more expensive) model. Man was it sleek. Definitely better than mine. Anyways, at first I thought they couldn't help me. They don't sell poles, and they told me my only other hope, Canadian Tire, didn't sell them any more either. But, the guy in back let me use all his used pole parts to see if I could jury rig something together.

Guess what? I've got a tent again! WOO-HOO! The poles I found aren't perfect, but they will do the job nicely. Plus, he gave them for me for free!

So after buying some aluminum tent pegs (the poles are fiberglass and weigh more than the old ones, so I didn't want the extra weight of steel pegs as well), I returned all my gear to the hostel and biked out for the local shopping mall. I'm thinking I'll see a matinee today... a perfect end to a weird and wonderful couple of days.

It feels so good to be in Canada again. America was nice, and the people there, well, they helped me make it here, what can I say? But you really did feel like you were somewhere foreign at times. Mostly it's because of the currency exchange, everything feels off limits as a result. Partly it's because I didn't stay in any big cities along the way with familiar stores and buildings. But it's strangely reassuring to see a Bank of Montreal again.

Hey, I just realized, I'm spending two nights in motel quality rooms for only 20 bucks! That's not bad, huh?

Back at the hostel (more like a cut rate hotel), having just seen Titan A.E, supping on cold ravioli. My review follows:

Titan A.E. is a creature of good intentions, and the victim of compromise. My personal belief is that someone at Fox studios has heard the cry from people like myself who wanted to see an animated film that didn't have any stupid musical sections! Who saw the impact Japanese Animation is having on the youth of today and wanted to something a little more adult.

Sadly, this movie is one full of compromises.

It is aimed squarely at the young-teen market, which is fine. And in order to keep the PG rating (and it's just BARELY PG in my opinion, closer to G except for one or two scenes), they have to pull back from what a more ambitious animation team would have really wanted to do. When earth is destroyed in the first five minutes, I felt nothing. The ships that exploded desperately trying to fell might as well have been empty, since we never see a single scared passenger on them (the exception of course being the one our hero gets away on, which even looks different than all the others).

The plot is okay, and that is all. It has holes galore if you bother to scrutinize (the reason the computer generated Drej fear the Titan project doesn't make sense to me), and most of its twists and turns are predictable (and also don't always make sense). In many cases, the film appears to be an excuse for some great looking computer animated chase sequences.

Something about this film reminds me of the old Heavy Metal animated feature. Actually it reminds me more of a Canadian animated film called Rock and Rule. The aliens are drawn EXTREMELY cartoony, and while it tries to be "cool" in its action, it usually fails. This is all due to the compromising Fox must have had to do in order to get the film made. Some moron out there doesn't think we're ready for an AA or even R rated dramatic animation feature, or more likely that there is no market for it.

Now I will give it this much: if I was a kid I would have liked this film quite a bit. But it's not one that has lasting replay value.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Time spent cycling: 1:32:51

Distance traveled: 28.51 km (including riding around the Soo)

Total distance: 3393 km

Average Speed: 18.4 kph

Maximum speed: 44.2 kph

Current Location: Algonquin Hotel (actually a hostel), Room 37

Resting heart rate: 59bpm (assuming I'm doing it right)

I'm in my hostel room still. Now that I got all my work done, and enjoyed a movie, I don't see a reason to stay out of the heat. I called around, and found from Tracy that the internet access probably won't be up until next month. So it won't be until Windsor that I might get access via James' access.

I found out from the camping guy that the Japanese guy I wrote about when I left Manitoba wasn't too far ahead of me. He's taking his time, so I might run into him. Apparently he didn't speak a word of english when he arrived in Banff to begin his trip! Everything he knows he learned on the way!

Erin and Linda are almost home, I got an email from Linda today. Rats. I had hoped to catch up with them. Oh well.

Having no internet means no more book to download, so I borrowed one here, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Figured it might give me a different perspective... assuming I bother reading it.

Gillian was supposed to be home tonight. I tried calling her, and Wyatt, until 11pm. Oh well.

Time for bed.



Onto Day 46...