Anne Shier's Travel Blog: August 2014

Thursday, 21 August 2014

My Vacation in the "Soo" - Part D - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

August 17 – 25, 2014

Thursday August 21, 2014 – Day 5:

Today does not look like a very sunny morning. However, the weather forecast indicates that it will be sunny with cloudy periods this afternoon and this evening. I guess that’s better than rain and cloud only. As it turns out, it’s fairly warm out, though humid, so even if it’s not that sunny, it’s not unpleasant being outside today.

Today, I am planning on doing three things: continuing with my research and writing using Alexandra Orlando’s book, working on completing the rest of my postcards, and going to the drugstore to buy some more Tylenol (Ultra) pills that I now need. Too bad I didn’t think of getting them yesterday while I was there.

While at the Station Mall Drug Mart’s post office, I also mailed the postcards that I had completed yesterday – the ones I planned to use for advertising my second book in the United States. I should be able to complete all of them this week in order to hit all of the mid-western and mid-eastern states. These are states that I have never yet approached. Hopefully, there will be a positive response from those Barnes and Noble book store owners.

I also visited the Coles book store in the Station Mall because I found a very interesting book to buy called “I am Malala”. It’s about a young girl who lives in the very patriarchal society of the Taliban, and because she believed so much in female education and was supported in her beliefs by her parents, she was shot in the head by the Taliban as she was riding a school bus home. Fortunately, she survived and was able to tell her very touching story with the help of a reporter. I am really looking forward to reading this story.

My Vacation in the "Soo" - Part C - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

August 17 – 25, 2014

Tuesday August 19, 2014 – Day 3 &

Wednesday August 20, 2014 – Day 4:

Today, I called the front desk at my hotel and asked them if I could extend my vacation to next Monday August 25^th. They said that was fine and asked me to provide my credit card again so that they could re-swipe it and charge me for the additional three nights. So, I have now paid for all eight nights here already and that will make my checkout very fast and easy next Monday morning.

Today (Wednesday), I am going to call the Greyhound bus terminal to ask them how much my one-way fare back to Toronto is. I had already paid for my full bus fare (as an advance purchase), but now that the date of my return has changed, I’ll probably have to buy another ticket, unless by some miracle, they can just change the date of my current ticket. I’m also hoping to get the seniors’ discount because I am now 62 making me eligible for it, I believe.

First, I looked on the Greyhound web site and it told me that I could pay for my new ticket by phone using my credit card and then pick up my ticket the day I want to travel home. However, it seemed like a much better idea to me to just take a cab over to the bus terminal this morning and pay for my new ticket in person. That way, I would be able to board the bus next Monday morning right away and not have to worry about standing in line to get my ticket first. After all, there could be a lineup for tickets and I do not want to take the chance of not being able to get a seat on that bus.

So, now I have my new ticket, which cost me $84.30, instead of the full price of $124.30, which means I got the seniors’ discount – thank God! Also, there is a good possibility that I will get a partial refund of my old ticket. To get the refund, I had to mail the old ticket into the Greyhound corporate head office today and they should be able to refund me about $74.00, I think - at least, that’s the amount I would want back.

I was also hoping to be able to get one of my prescriptions re-filled at the Station Mall Drug Mart store here in the “Soo”, due to the fact that I was unexpectedly running low on it. They first had to call my Shoppers Drug Mart store in Ajax to confirm that I have an existing prescription there and then they were able to fill it right away for me – thank God!

Finally, I had to purchase a new backpack for the journey home. The original one that I’d brought with me is pretty much garbage now and should not be re-used. The price I paid at Sears was about $48.00 – a little pricey for me – but, it was a discounted price, so I was still ahead of the game in this respect. One more thing to be thankful for today!

I started preparing several postcards to advertise my second book in the United States in a different way. I’ve never used these postcards before in this way. They were part of my original marketing kit from Authorhouse and I finally figured out a good way to use them for marketing purposes. I just hope that the Barnes and Noble book store owners start noticing my book this year, or as soon as possible. This time, I am aiming for book store owners that I have not yet approached before.

I’ve been watching several of my favourite full-length feature DVD movies – ones that I haven’t seen in quite a while. For example, I’ve seen “Black Widow”, “Employee of the Month”, “The American President”, “Green Card”, and “Fatal Attraction”, so far. I brought enough DVD movies to watch for the entire nine days, which is a good thing considering I was only going to stay in the “Soo” for six days in total.

Hopefully, tomorrow and/or the weekend days are going to be better, weather-wise. It’s been kind of rainy and cloudy out this week – not very sunny. However, if it’s sunnier tomorrow, I am going to spend more time out on the boardwalk again; that’s a really nice place to be when the sun is out.

My Vacation in the "Soo" - Part B - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

August 17 – 25, 2014

Monday August 18, 2014 – Day 2:

Today, I concentrated on settling into my hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. This hotel, which used to be called the Days Inn, has been my chosen hotel for the last 7 or 8 years. I love vacationing in the “Soo” – so far, I haven’t found a better place to vacation at in Canada. Of course, in the future, I’ll probably be doing more vacationing outside of Ontario, especially once I’ve retired from teaching. My retirement date is planned for June 30, 2017. At that point, I’ll have to see how I feel about coming to the “Soo” in the summertime because there are a lot of other places I still need to visit in Canada and elsewhere.

I started doing some writing. It’s based on an excerpt (chapter) from a book I borrowed from my school library called “Breaking Through My Limits: An Olympian Uncovered”, by Alexandra Orlando, a top-level Canadian rhythmic gymnast. She has competed in several international competitions, but this book concentrates mainly on her struggle to finally make it as an Olympic rhythmic gymnast – not an easy task when the best gymnasts in the world are from Eastern Europe. Her book has everything to do with the topics I am currently interested in researching and writing about.

I’ve been writing a book of my own called “Acrobatic & Artistic Sports & Dance”, which was begun earlier this year. However, it won’t be published until early-to-mid 2016. I will have to save the money first to cover the publishing and publicizing costs. This book will cover sports like artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, diving, figure skating, aerial and mogul skiing, the snowboarding sports (slopestyle and halfpipe), as well as various Extreme sports, among others. I want to make this book as comprehensive as possible and cover as much relevant material as possible. So, it is a work in progress at this moment.

Today, I went over to the Station Mall across the street from the hotel and got something to eat for lunch (or brunch, if you like). Then, I went over to the boardwalk by the shore of the St. Mary’s River (which connects Lakes Huron and Superior). This boardwalk is right behind the mall where the river is. It is a beautiful and sunny day today, so I stayed there a while and read my book. This boardwalk has lots of benches to sit on or you can just walk for miles. I know this because I’ve done a lot of walking on it in the past. However, today, I just read my book and didn’t do any real walking.

I also went to get some personal photos taken of myself in one of the mall’s photo kiosks. You would not believe how nice these photos turn out. For just $5.00, you can get two photos, each 2 inches by 2 inches approximately. They can be done in colour or black and white, but I usually get them done in colour. I plan to get two sets of photos done – one set today and the other set tomorrow. This first set turned out really nice. They are good for using as my author photo on my book cover.

Later, I had a takeout dinner (from KFC) which I took back to my hotel and ate. Then, I watched some TV-DVDs – first “Private Practice”, then “Desperate Housewives”. I’m sure that, by now, I’m completely addicted to both TV-DVD series – all seasons. I also watched another TV-DVD (season 2) called “Law and Order – Special Victims Unit”, but I only saw the first disk of three from this season.

I went to sleep after midnight, but this time, I did not play any DVDs overnight. I am trying to get some quality sleep this week for a change without any background sound. Tomorrow and the rest of my stay, I plan to eat breakfast in the hotel’s breakfast room, available between 6:30 am and 10:00 am. Tomorrow will be my first experience with having breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express, although I did eat breakfast here when this place was still known as the Days Inn. It’s free for guests, so I really should be taking advantage of it.

Tomorrow, I am planning on doing more writing from Alexandra Orlando’s book (only from chapter 4, so far). Her writing, though not expert, is insightful and it gives me a chance to compare my own experiences in sports and life with hers.

My Vacation in the "Soo" - Part A - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

August 17 – 25, 2014

Sunday August 17, 2014 – Day 1:

Today, I have to travel about 900 km (about 409 miles) north and then west all day to get to the “Soo” (as Sault Ste. Marie is popularly known to the natives of that region). It is not one of my better days though – mostly because of ongoing headaches and a very sore neck. I’ve had arthritis in my neck for years now and sometimes it acts up. Today, it’s really acting up and so are the pains in my head.

I left my home in Ajax around 8:45 am with Dave so that he could take me to TD Canada Trust where I could get some money out of my account for him and me to get us both through the week. Then, he took me to Tim Horton’s so that I could grab a bit of breakfast on-the-go and finally, he dropped me off at the GO Bus stop at Salem Road and Hwy. 2. The GO bus picked me up there at about 9:25 am and took me over to Yorkdale Shopping Centre where I was to board a Greyhound bus bound for Sudbury and then the “Soo” at about 12:45 pm. I had packed up my laptop computer, speakers and DVDs (as usual), as well as my clothes, toiletries and all the other stuff that people normally pack to go away. I was really looking forward to this vacation.

The headaches started just before the Greyhound bus arrived at Yorkdale, so I downed three Tylenol (Ultra) pills made especially for bad headaches and hoped like hell I would soon feel better. I didn’t, so I attempted to sleep on the bus with my small pillow propped up against the window beside my seat and tried hard to relax. After a while, it seemed to help and I woke up as we were going up Hwy. 400 toward Barrie. Then, the headaches returned and I downed a Tylenol 3 pill. This pill should only be taken as a last resort, not as a normal painkiller. So, here I was struggling to get rid of the pain in my head and neck; it was extremely uncomfortable for a time. The thing that carried me through to Barrie and beyond was listening to soft rock music on my mp3 player. I listened to my favourite artist, Celine Dion, until my headaches began to diminish in strength.

Eventually, as we sped north through Barrie towards Sudbury, I tried shifting my position in my seat, which, all by itself was uncomfortable. We stopped briefly in Parry Sound, two hours south of Sudbury, for 20 minutes or so. I only hoped that by the time we arrived in Sudbury (around 5:30 pm), I would be feeling fairly close to normal because my long-time friend, Dale, and her daughter, Kaija, were planning to meet me at the bus terminal in Sudbury and then we would all go for a quick dinner before I had to re-board the bus at 7:00 pm. Fortunately, I was starting to feel better by that time and we enjoyed each other’s company for the hour and a half I was able to spend with them.

At 7:00 pm, we took off for the “Soo” from Sudbury and that was going to take another four to four and half hours. I hoped my headaches would not return in full force, and this time, I was lucky – they weren’t nearly as painful. I was still a little uncomfortable in my seat, but that could not be helped. I played with my pillow a little to achieve the maximum comfort possible and was determined to make the most of the rest of my day. Again, I listened to my music – this time, Madonna, and, being able to focus on my music was very beneficial.

There was one more scheduled stop in Blind River, almost two hours east of the “Soo”, where we were allowed another 20-minute break to get a drink and/or go to the washroom. After that, the rest of the drive was relatively easy and we arrived in the “Soo” on time at about 11:20 pm. It had been a very long day for me and I was really tired. From now on, I may break up this journey into two days. It’s getting to be too long for me to do it all in one.

The hotel I am staying at, the Holiday Inn Express, had been newly renovated from stem to stern. It used to be called the Days Inn, but it got sold to another hotel chain in the U.S. a couple of years ago. However, that didn’t matter to me – it still looks great and it feels great just to be here. First thing I did upon arriving at the hotel by taxi was to take a hot, much-needed shower, unpack some of my stuff and relax. If I sleep well tonight, I know that it will be a terrific vacation overall regardless of my difficult journey to get here today. The “Soo” is, and always will be, my chosen vacation spot in Canada in the summertime.