Motorcycling: Sidetracked Again.

I just realized that I kind of forgot to write about the ride yesterday, and got sidetracked onto the subject of speeding tickets. Well, that's actually how many rides themselves end up: sidetracked. When you are not on a coast-to-coast run with a deadline looming to get back and go to work, when you are retired, you actually don't worry too much about getting sidetracked. Now back to the ride that I forgot about yesterday.

Many rides we go on involve a Tim Horton's at some point. Usually at every point. Yesterday, for example, we met at one Tim Horton's, rode to another for lunch, then stopped at a last one before splitting off and going our own ways. Tim Horton's is a coffee shop chain. You may find them in the USA, but nothing like what they are in Canada. On one main street in Kitchener, near where live, there is a Tim Horton's at every traffic light. I believe you can look that up on Google maps.

Although Tim Horton's is now sadly, American owned, it is still the brand Canadians associate most with Canada. We don't care who owns it, as long as it has a parking lot, a toilet, coffee and doughnuts in that order. Actually I should write that as donuts, as there is no "dough" in the donuts any more.

I want to stop for a second to defend Tim Horton's against an insidious rumour probably started by Krispy Kreme. About 5 years ago, Tim Horton's opened up a coffee shop for the Canadian forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, just to make them feel at home. A rumour went around that Tim Horton's was taking advantage of the Canadian military to line their greedy corporate pockets. So when I was talking to my nephew recently about his tour in Kandahar, I asked him about the Tim Horton's. Apparently the prices were the same as in Canada. So here's the thing. How do you make money if you fly a donut and coffee from Canada to Afghanistan and sell it for $1.80? Plus you have to convince your Tim Horton's staff to take combat training (not as severe as the military, but still some training) and go to Kandahar for a year. Somebody would have to pretty stupid to think you can make money off that. Yes, I said "stupid" so hopefully none of you readers got sucked in by that piece of propaganda put out by the spawns of the devil at Krispy Kreme. And by the way, Krispy Kreme's invasion of Canada is now officially over as they are closing all non-essential outlets and heading home to the USA.

Now where was I? Oh yes, sitting in the Tim Horton's in Port Dover. Everything that happens in Canada, happens in Tim Horton's. During the Bosnian conflict, Tim Horton's were divided up between Serbs and Croatians, so that they didn't have to speak to each other. I have it on good authority that Serbian and Croatian, although they are different languages officially, can be understood by each other if they want to.

Right beside us in Tim Horton's at Port Dover is a group of about 7 Chinese teenagers chatting among themselves in Chinese (which I don't understand at all, but it sounds like Chinese I think). But in the parking lot sitting on the trunk of a car alone is one of the Chinese girls, and the car has the bumper sticker "Free Tibet". So now I'm thinking, these kids have to be Tibetans, not Chinese. I was going to ask her what was the story with the Tibetan bumper sticker, but Bob and Barry were more interested in talking to the guy with the old red Harley and an aluminum sidecar, and his friend who looked like an outlaw with ape hangers on his bike. So instead I went over for a discussion about how high ape hanger handlebars have to be before you are hassled by the fuzz.

When we go to Port Dover, we rarely even bother to take a look at the lake or the palm trees. When I go with Mary Ann, we always have to look at all the normal stuff, but not with Barry or Bob. Just go to Tim Horton's, sit around and talk, then head home - or more likely to another Tim Horton's on the way home. That's just the way we like it.

And finally, on the way home we were treated to an aerial display by some kind of fighter jet. It actually looked like a Korean war vintage Saber jet, doing loops in the sky and passing low over the road. It was a little bit dangerous looking up to see the plane, and then realizing maybe all the car drivers were doing the same and going all over the road. (which they didn't, so maybe in a car you don't notice overhead things)

These trips to Port Dover may not seem like much, but there's always interesting stuff going on while we're going for rides on our bikes.

P.S. The picture is not mine, it's Port Dover Friday 13th from the look of it. But if I were to take a picture of my own, instead of stealing it off the Internet, it would look about the same.