Monday Moanings - June 10, 2019

A Saturday road trip down through Niagara wine country for a much-anticipated celebration of all things family - Mother's Day (late), son and daughter-in-law's wedding anniversary (recent), and Father's Day (early) - was blessed by bright sunshine and perfect temperatures for strolling. We enjoyed our time together in Jordan Village. Getting there and home again? Not so much.

In my memory bank, this drive was always a delight with glimpses of Lake Ontario, forests and farmland, before the stacks of the steel factory in Hamilton announced the entrance to Niagara region where the best apples, peaches, pears, and plums grew, where now grapes have joined the bounty on offer and wineries flourish. But now the route is hemmed in by condo's, business parks, mega-malls, and the roadway is clogged with traffic. True, there is the express toll road that one can use to avoid much of the congestion. It is fast and efficient but mind-numbingly boring. This drive is just not fun anymore!

Image by Jarosław Igras from Pixabay

It's enough to make me want to stay home - almost. It is enough to make me want to find alternate routes, to explore roads less traveled at a more leisurely pace, a way that allows for glimpses of grand landscapes along routes that offer passage through small villages and towns dotted with roadside markets. I want the travel to a destination to be half the fun. Something akin to a dodgems gauntlet is not it!

Image by Siggy Nowak from Pixabay

All of which has me pining for a paper roadmap, the ones that gas stations always had for sale behind the counter and reeked of gasoline and oil. The ones that could always be found in the car glove compartment underneath the flashlight (aka receptacle for dead batteries), the first aid kit and the tissue box. The ones that required serious effort to refold properly. These maps were direction finders, adventure guides and marvelous visual textbooks of geography. My smartphone or tablet just doesn't cut it. Not even the widescreen of my laptop can unfold the wonder of those paper roadmaps.
I found this one (1996?) stuffed in a side pocket of the driver door of our car. For $2.95 the whole of Ontario could be at my fingertips.

Then there is this Cadillac version which laid out the roads in grand detail for $19.95. Also stuck in the side door pocket.

Fewer trucks, fewer cars. The open road and the possibility of a surprise around every corner!
Those were the days.



©2019 April Hoeller