The Gasworks
Such a sleepless night, and so chilly in the morning that we stayed in bed too long. Just as I arose, a KOA woman came over. We were going to pay before leaving, weren’t we? Our excuse: no Canadian dollars on us. She was very nice about it, and in fact charged for only two people instead of five.
We drove into Toronto for a look around. Cold and very windy. Lots of trendy shops - clothes, Army and Navy clobber, furniture, and “head shops” selling pot-smoking equipment, incense, strobe lights etc. Went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant from the guide. Joe and I went downstairs for unlimited spaghetti; the others went for fish and chips upstairs with free seconds. Got a plate of spaghetti in tomato sauce, a basket of bread and two big dishes of butter. Joe had five plates altogether - I managed six. Also drank several cups of coffee. Good value for around $2. It was only when I got up that my insides began to protest at the volume I had just consumed. I’m sure I strained whatever it is that holds up the stomach.
When we got back to the car, the meter had expired and we had a ticket under the windshield wiper. $5. Occurred to us that there was little point in putting money in the meters in future. With less than a week to go we could collect parking tickets by the score.
John and DB were both tired out which was unbelievable considering they had been up about four hours. They were the ones who had insisted on coming up to Toronto in the first place, and now all we wanted to do was sleep. The rest of us had other ideas so we drove to the CN Tower - “the tallest free-standing structure in the world”. Didn’t look excessively high to me, but it was supposed to be twice the height of the Post Office Tower in London. As we got closer it did seem quite impressive.
We ventured inside. Very space-age design. One wall was taken up with an electronic display. About 50 TV screens monitored the stations broadcasting from the top of the tower. (That doesn’t mean 50 stations because each one had several monitors.) There was also a weather display giving humidity, wind speed (top and bottom of the tower), temperature, etc. One screen showed the movement of the top due to wind. Surprisingly, it moved round in a circle all the time.
We went for a coffee at the bottom after deciding we couldn’t afford the $2.75 charge to go up. They were doing clever computer portraits where the image was typed out in rows of X’s, Q’s and full-stops in one part of the tower. From the buffet place we could see the base of the tower surrounded by a moat of very choppy water. Visitors crossed over a bridge/tunnel to the lobby of the tower, from where lifts shot up the outside to the restaurant two-thirds of the way up.
Back at the car it was decided to dump the two dormouses at a campsite and come back for the evening. When we finally got there and pitched the tent John had changed his mind and wanted to come with us. We could have clobbered him for messing us about. DB stayed, more to make the journey seem worthwhile than anything else. Left him in the cold and dark and went back downtown.
The Moneywise said that the Gasworks was the place to go for rock music, and that’s where we went. Inside it was dim and smoky and loud. The band on stage was leaping around in the multi-coloured floodlights and generally putting out a lot of energy. The crowd in the pub was all seated (Canada law) and scruffy looking. The roughneck section of Toronto, obviously. Leather jackets and long hair. A lot different from the jazz audience yesterday. Sat down and ordered a pitcher of beer (the cheapest way of buying it) and watched the group for the rest of the evening. They were quite good for an unknown band - called Wail. A girl beckoned to Shôn to come and sit with them which he did. Parted company with her at the end of the evening, however.
Back at the campsite I slept in the car for warmth and to avoid the rustling of the tent in the wind.
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