August 25, 2006.  20°

I picked up Jay today at about 6:40 p.m. at work.  Traffic was medium getting out of the city.  Sky was clear and bright the sunset was a bit distracting since we were headed west.  The volume of traffic improved outside of Milton we found very clean restrooms at Woodstock and a quick stop coffee Tims was terrific even had sanitizers in the washrooms.

The road is down to one lane near London but it is not much delay.  We started to get some rain about 40 minutes outside of Windsor.  We weren’t sure if we wanted to go all the way to Windsor as the hotels along Huron Church are quite pricey, so we decided to look for something after Tilbury.  No luck.  No choice.  We headed into Windsor along Dougal and found Comfort Inn .  Great room, great price.

August 27.

We left the hotel at 9:17 a.m., got over the bridge, through the border patrol and turned around on the highway to go in the proper direction all by 9:34 a.m. not bad.  It was the first trip across the border for the new Corolla so I wasn’t sure if there would be more questions.

This road is very bumpy. We’re on the I 75 at Rockwood south of Detroit. Once we move into Ohio the roads seem much smoother.  Boy, this land in Ohio is very flat lots of agricultural land but I can see some forest areas.  Nice smooth roads.  It’s surprising that given the amount of traffic on the roads around Detroit, you’d think they’d be in better shape.  The hardest thing about traveling in the US for me is where to eat, on the road.  Lunch choices are McDonald’s and Wendy’s, Burger King, Subway but mostly fried food or sit down meals.  So I find a Waffle House it’s a good choice.  You can get it in and out in half an hour.

So what’s with our luck?  It seems that every trip there is one product that throws us.  Every place we have tried to have decaf today, has had no milk. Sorry, just cream, even a Tim Horton’s in Monroe Ohio.  Our server was extremely pleasant and apologetic when we told her our story.  We all had a good laugh over it.  Oh yeah, it’s 33°.  It was 20° in Windsor when we arrived last night.

We checked into the hotel at 4 p.m. 90°. The AC was on in the room full blast but it really stinks of carpet fresh.  There seems to be a mildew issue at the hotel.  It was an older hotel that has been upgraded to add conferences facilities.  It has a fairly large outdoor pool with patio area but Lexington has rules about swimming alone so I’ll have to wait for Jay to finish a nap before I get into the pool.  Did I mention it’s 33° in the shade.  The hotel also has an indoor pool.  We picked up our registration kits and headed to the pool about 5.30.  We had a laugh when a family arrived with two boys who were so excited that there was an indoor pool and headed inside.  I’m willing to bet it was more than 90° poolside there.

After a brief glance at some tourist info we decided to go downtown for dinner.  The banquet would keep us at the hotel on Saturday, so now was the time to see the city.  We wandered a bit before settling on da Shea’s  in Victoria Square.

This is a spectacular shopping ‘center’ with old-fashioned black and white floor tiles that is over a century old.  The food and service were great.  We both had fish and chips.  A huge pile of haddock with a few  chips.  Jay enjoyed a ” Kentucky ale”.  Jay says ” it’s not the best I’ve had but it’s enjoyable nonetheless”.

We strolled across the triangular park after dinner for some late-night photos of the 100 fountains at Lexington Center.  Many of the park benches were enjoyed by couples relaxing on a hot summer evening.  It must be 90°.  Back at the hotel, we had to open the window to let scent out.  The crickets and cicadas chirped all night long.  It cooled off to about 72° but rose quickly again on Saturday.  We were inside most of the day.  Judging started promptly with a breakfast at 630.  Judging was to go until noon and the local press announced the show would be open at 10, so we had to hurry.  We didn’t have enough copies to work with, so it was pretty hard to follow, but I managed.

The AC went at it in the lecture room and it got hot in a hurry.  There were 120 delegates from three countries. Lecture number one was a tour of Panama by Woodland Orchids in Maryland . Number two with Harry Phillips. It was on mounting by Andy’s orchids and lecture number three was Weyman Bussey of California talking on Mexican species. It turned into a bit of a comedy event.

The auction was hot, lots of donations, $4500, this set dinner back to 8/15 and it was difficult to enjoy because we were so late and hot.  There were lots of items from an orchid growers estate. There was a handmade comforter, handpainted cushions, jewelry. There was even a handknit Catts and cat sweater. It brought $300.  Mark Van der Voed modeled the bathrobe as well,  Barry Jones was ‘wrapped’ in bolts of fabric.  We shared a table with a group from Bluegrass Society.  Enjoyable meal of stuffed sole, huge potato and a flaming Bourbon dessert.  Bourbon balls were served at every turn.  This is bluegrass, horsey and Bourbon country.

While Jay was showering for breakfast I turned on the TV to find that there had been a very early morning commuter plane crash, here in Lexington. That put a damper on the meeting as some of our delegates had left early to the airport. So early in the investigation we had no idea of the details. The affiliated societies breakfast was also in a room that was too small, but another good meal.

I had to check out the ‘Hot brown” meal,  the local treat. Turned out to be Turkey with brown sauce with cheese then broiled. Mmmm, tasty.  Back to the show.  Judges forum for Jay had only about 20 participants.  I snuck in after checking out.

33° August 28.

We headed out to about one or so and found the bookstore, CD store and Dillards quite easily.  As we attempted to enter I 75 I noted the traffic was stopped solid, so we kept on the local road and found a ‘back road’ north. This was the aftermath of the plane crash.  Windy, hilly terrain through horse country.  Black fences, black barns well manicured and stately mansions on the horse farms.  We stopped for a quiet bite at McDonald’s around 5 p.m. and kept on going.  It’s still 33° at about 6:30 p.m. we decided to head back to the Interstate.  We entered it Williamston.  We drove to Findlay Ohio.  We stopped at 7 p.m. at the Ohio welcome center just past 7 p.m. so of course it was closed.  We were able to pick up hotel coupons and decided to try the Econo  lodge at a I 57. We checked in around 9 p.m. the beds or clean, the room was bright, the staff is friendly but there were no amenities.  The TV was not good either.

August 29 21° and rain as we leave.  We will stop at Lowe’s after the Waffle House.   Jay has some special remedies he likes to pick up that we can’t get back home. Wonder why? At 11:30 a.m. were back on the I 75.  Jay and I talked extensively about Soos rejoining the MAOC There are some benefits.  Most importantly is  the network for speakers.  It is hard to attract speakers that want to sell plants because of the regulations surrounding CITES.  At 130 we crossed the border back into Canada . After topping up our tank with gas at $.72 a liter, duty free shop at I75.  If the gas is always this cheap it may be worth our while to make a little jog around from 96 to I75 when we return from Ann Arbor to get duty-free gas at Lafayette.  Home by 6 p.m. 24°.

 

See the crash story here   https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/the-fallible-mind-the-crash-of-comair-flight-5191-cb80e005f73e