One of my favorite things about this adventure were the thunderstorms. I would lie in the tent reading and listening, sometimes just listening, observing rain drops tumble down the tent cover and inevitably disappear from sight. I had nothing to do but be there, right there, watching it pour. It was refreshing. One night the thunder woke me and I just listened for a while to the rain make love to the trees before drifting back to sleep.
In Toronto we get some thunderstorms, but not too many and they don’t really last that long. I was really excited to share the long, rolling thunderbellies of the midwest clouds with Tom and Mirkal (do these mashup names ever really work?). It rained a couple of times while we were there, so we planned excursions into the city during those times. We found crazy delicious pies, the best damn dairy-free matcha ice cream I’ve ever tasted, and even a local bookstore to restock our dwindling reading supply. On one such outing we found a very small arcade tucked in the industrial area of downtown, hidden in a repurposed and gutted old garage. Graffiti retro video game art. No air conditioning, just fans cooling you down. The clap and thunder of ski ball, roaring laughter, and mechanical blips and beeps sung from arcade machines. $5 unlimited play all day.
