The Road Begins! Well, not quite ...

OK: So this is where I am now - well, not exactly right now, but I am in Toronto... not exactly according to plan, but then I guess that is quite Kerouacian - for plans to be made that then fall flat on their face. Turns out that shipping the car to Toronto wasn't such a great idea after all - it's not here. And what is more I've arrived here to find that it is still in BC ... on the train but still in BC ... not likely to be here until at least January 19 when Sean and I are due to be leaving NY. So I've spent the past few hours trying to figure out what to do. Still not sure.

But one spin-off benefit of this upset to plans is that I've had the reason, necessity, opportunity to get in touch with Susan Snow and Wade Howie who used to attend St. Francis with their daughter, Olivia. They included their contact details in a Christmas card that came late that I somehow just thought I should bring with me.... So, I phoned them from the airport with no notice and asked if I could stay over. Without hesitation they said, "Yes," and picked me up down town, brought me home, fed me and made me really welcome as we tried to work out where to go from here. I'm trying to take the attitude with this "On the Road" thing that whatever happens it's going to be OK. Be in the moment and see what the moment has to say. Not just, "It's a lousy idea to ship your car from Vancouver in winter if you actually want to get it by a certain date," but that life continues, and where the road leads can never be determined - at least not with any certainty. There is no certainty. We all know that; but sometimes we have to learn it all over again. Transform the frustration into bounty.

So what happens next? I think sleep happens next. Then probably get a rental car from Toronto airport and carry on, with the aim of returning to Toronto when my car finally arrives - sometime next week. Probably means we're not going to able to follow Kerouac's exact route or schedule - actually never intended to follow the schedule too closely as they didn't stop at all and made NY to New Orleans in about 42 hours and then about 5 days to SF when the journey resumed - but perhaps we'll follow him in the spirit of having to adapt and overcome the obstacles along the way - like the run-in with the law they had when Al Hinkle/Ed Dunkel got a speeding ticket in Virginia....