Despite the title - this blog begins in North Bay again. I headed West to Sudbury 2 nights ago, dragging Allison with me for car company. Allison's been substitute teaching up in North Bay for a month or two - she's a drama teacher, but has so far also taught welding, mechanics, and a bizarre assortment of topics.

I babble on about the yellow trees (Irene says I sound like Agent Cooper talking to Diane about pie in Twin Peaks), which Allison informs me are called Tamarack trees. They're deciduous like the pines, but their needles change colour. Not that I had one before, but they're now my favourite tree. Allison points out the Sturgeon straight (I think that's what it's called) - a section of highway that's completely straight and apparently boring, but it's bordered by Tamaracks and I'm happy.

I've played in Sudbury before, so assumed I knew where I was going (ha ha ha), but we found the Chapters where I was playing relatively easily ("I think it's in a mall like that one... oh, wait, it's in THAT mall!").

Since I've played there before I knew what to expect, but it doesn't make it any less strange. You can either play in the middle of the Chapters with no amplification, which makes you look like you just wandered in off the street and are busking, or you can play in the Starbucks, which looks somewhat better, but not much... On the other hand, in Chapters, I find people are more inclined to buy a $15 CD on top of their $20-30 book purchase, whereas in Starbucks, people are nursing their $12 latte and have no intention of coming anywhere near you or your CD pile. Anyway, there was a book signing in Chapters, so I got Starbucks.

As I was setting up a nice woman asked, "I have to leave - will you play me something right now?" So I sat down next to her and played South Dakota. Turns out we're both from out West - she liked the song and bought a CD.

The rest of the gig went well. Since the crowd turns over completely every half hour, you can play songs over again. It keeps me entertainend to pick which songs will make which customers interested (South Dakota for older couples, Fighter for the young 'uns). Allison (my Sudbury/North Bay manager) gave excellent suggestions.

Afterwards, we got free double-chocolate chip milkshake drinks (exceeding my calorie count for the whole tour...), which I guess is the true perk of playing in Starbucks.

Then, with a bit of time on our hands before we headed back to North Bay to sleep, we decided to look for the giant Nickel. Which you'd think would be easy to find... first of all, it's a GIANT NICKEL. Second of all, you'd think Sudbury would be proud of it and put up a sign or something. But no. We saw the smoke stack and mines and the rock walls on the highway - all beautiful in the darkness - but no giant change. Finally after consulting a guy outside of a Kwik-way (the "7-11 of the North" according to Allison) we found our way there. Hours of operation for the mining museum were well past, but you can cruise past the teenagers making out up onto the sidewalk and practically drive up to the Nickel, which is nicely lit at night. This is the first of many "giant things" that I think I'll see on this tour. I know Wawa has a goose and Medicine Hat has a teepee...

Driving back, the road seems much more dangerous in the dark - I haven't done any night driving yet and the rock walls that seemed so pretty in the light seem claustrophobic. At one point I almost drive into oncoming traffic, but don't thanks to Allison who wisely suggests otherwise.

Arriving back we hit a grocery store, stop at Gail's to eat pizza and humus. Well fed, I crawl into my sleeping bag and pass out.