Birds and Rocks - Things seen on the road North

Hi folks. I am currently transmitting from the lovely library of Laurentian University in sunny Sudbury. I am here for the second conference of my summer - the Archives Association of Ontario Conference. The theme is "Building Community Archives" or something like that. The program looks ok but, more importantly, the menu looks very good. I will have some free time so might be here frequently.

The drive went quite well. I made very good time, arriving here in about 5.5 hrs from Belle-vegas after stupid Expedia had the stupid wrong address for the stupid car rental place. Bah. The car, a two door Accent is pretty damn awesome, although it has a lame colour - I think it is called "glacier blue". It is tiny but very zippy. After renting two cars in a relatively short period of time I am becoming quite a fan. They are brand spanking new (smell and all), super clean, and, if you get the absolutely everything covered-type insurance you can drive the shit out of it.

The drive was really good, with clear skies all the way, and Sudbury and the campus seems nice (although I think I might have a very different opinion if I were here in February). It is very tree-filled and rocky. I am staying the University of Sudbury's residence (affiliated with Laurentian) and it is pretty weird to be in a spartan student room again - cinderblock construction and all.

Any way, I saw two pretty cool things on the way up. The first was Canada's glory in the skies - the Snowbirds. I saw them flying in formation, doing loop-de-loops and filling the sky with smoke while driving through Oshawa (apparently in town for the Canadian Aviation Expo). It was pretty cool to see them although I didn't get the best of looks as I figured I should pay attention to the road more that the sky.

The other cool thing that I saw was what seem to have been a whole army of Inukshuks. Starting just after Barrie on Highway 400 (later 69) I began to notice little piles of rocks on the larger outcrops. The first one I noticed was about five rocks stacked on top of each other. Later I saw more - some simple piles, some more complex humanoid piles. None of them seemed too big and sometimes they were alone and others were in small groups. They were placed all along the highway - for at least 200km - and I think they are pretty damn cool. Unfortunately I don't have my camera or I would have stopped to take a picture or two.

That's all for the moment. I am going to get ready for the opening reception.
rgsc