Toronto Drive (Dimmu Borgir!!!)

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(This is back-dated, I'm writing January 14, 2009.)

Left Winnipeg October 17, 2008 at 5:30 in the morning, or some such sick time when normal people are NOT getting up. Stopped at Walmart to buy some thingy to make the ipod play on my car stereo, then on the road.

Stopped in Kenora, took a few pics, crazy fog (never seen anything like that!)

Stopped in Thunder Bay around 4 pm, visited my Gramma, then went to Bruce's place, visited with him and Laurie and Tony, almost stole his puppies, and left with a pizza from Bruce, Roast Beef Sandwichs from Gramma, and 2 meals in our stomaches.

Adriano drove straight through almost all night, I slept, ate cookies, and slept some more.

Adriano woke me up sometime in the middle of the night to tell me we were low on gas, and he hadn't seen a gas station in a few hours. 2 hours or so later, in the middle of nowhere along the edge of the lake the guage was on empty, and still no gas station. We ran out of gas on the top of a big hill with nothing in sight. Coast to the bottom of the hill, around a slight bend and right into a gas station! Sweetest luck ever. Gas station didn't open for another 30 minutes or so, sat in the car freezing and laughed our asses off. I seriously don't remember the last time I've felt that relieved.

Crashed twice more, once behind a motel in some town, once in a Timmie's parking lot for about 2 hours shortly after the sun rose. I froze so bad with the car off behind the motel I just sat there shivering and trying not to cry. Cranky when I'm tired, and sucky when I'm cranky. And I really, really don't like being cold!

Adriano drove all the way into Toronto, we got into town around 2 pm and drove straight to my Dad's, then to our hotel to shower and change for dinner.

Hotel 1st night was alright (2 beds though....hmmm, is daddy protecting my innocence or something?), we actually somehow got enough energy to go meet my dad and Marion at some fancy restraunt, ate, dad decided he'd buy my ticket to Paraguay, then back to hotel. We both pretty much died the second we got in the door, Adriano looked like a corpse before I even had the lights off.

Hunted down Timmie's then changed hotels in the morning. 2nd hotel was fucking sweet! Right downtown, valet parking, I'm thinking 2 broke metalheads likely looked a bit out of place. Oh well, when aren't we out of place? Sweetest bed ever, I have never seen a bed this big. Orgy room? Had to love the directions Adriano wrote down "turn left, walk to blocks, prepare to arrive at your destination" fucking GPS is retarded! Beginning to hate that voice lol

Walked down Queen Street to the CN Tour. I was trying so hard to not show I was terrified to go up that damn glass elevator (Adri's idea), but I think he's more scared of heights than I am of elevators. The glass floor was trippy! I actually did manage to look out the window on the way down, pretty cool actually. Walked from there to the harbour, back to Timmie's, then back to hotel.

Cabbed it from the hotel to Dimmu Borgir, and realized on the way out the door in a huge rush that my holey sock was hurting my new blister more than helping it (yay for only bringing 2 socks, not matching, 1 with hole). So, took sock off in the elevator and carried it. Stuck the sock in my pocket in the cab, and got in line. Turns out they search you about 3 times before you even get in the door. Which meant I got to explain 3 times why the hell I had a sock in my pocket. After the 1st few security checks adriano stole said sock and tossed it (probably a good thing).

Skeletonwitch = awesomeness!!! Had to go upfront to worship the witch (Adriano actually came up with me), then stayed up for Moonspell. We went back a bit for Dimmu, watched 5 people get KOed in the stupidest excuse for a mosh pit I've ever seen, managed to avoid getting dragged in. Checked out the 1st 2 songs Danzig did, admired his bald spot, looked at each other and got the hell out of there. Back to hotel, with a quick stop for Wendy's on the way, limped back up to our room, and stayed up most of the night watching movies.

We somehow got messed up in traffic/construction/GPS insanity on the way to the airport, got there late. I then listened (again) to the cursed GPS and left Toronto in the wrong direction, heading towards the border. I drove about an hour and a half before realizing, and turning back around.

Drove straight through with one stop (Sioux st marie?) for an oil change and to buy 'learn to speak german' CDs at chapters. From there, drove straight until the last gas station before the gas-less stretch that almost got us on the way there. Filled up at the card-lock thing, and prayed it would make it. NO gas stations open at night on that route, but about 10 zillion overpriced shitty motels. Nice little scam. I spent half that stretch cursing the slimy bastards that conspired to try to make me spend the night by keeping motels open but not gas stations. By this point it started blizzarding, that creepy screensaver type that flies directly at you until you start feeling like you're in a trance. Stopped part way and slept in the car, engine off so I wouldn't stay asleep. I was damn near frozen when i woke up, even wearing 3 pairs of sweats and a few sweaters. I couldn't get warm for hours, until I managed to get to a town. Nasty.

Was supposed to stop in Thunder Bay and sleep (promised Adriano), but by then the sun was coming up, and I could feel home. Grabbed a few hashbrowns and some coffee at Timmie's and left.

Made it back to Florian's in the late morning, took a bath while I waited for him to get back from the store. Crawled out onto the deck naked and wrapped in a blanket while they BBQed, and tried to sleep (without success). SOOO happy to be home and back with Florian!

Made it to 3 Inches of Blood!!!! Yay!

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