elzee or elzie? I'm confused.: Attitude check #2745

You'd think a person would eventually learn to quit thinking bad things about others, cuz it'll always come back and bite ya.

Eight days and 4500 km and we really hadn't experienced big-city traffic because we took the bypass routes through Regina and Winnipeg. Gatineau was our first big city. Now there's a challenge. Let's go into a city at 120km/hr at 5:30pm not having a clue where we are going and not understanding a single thing on the signage with one of us on a 2-wheeler and the other in a large truck pulling a large trailer. The 2-wheeler was in the lead and could far more easily make last minute lane changes.

I am certain this sentence was heard often that evening in Gatineau, "Le touriste stupide. rentre Colombie Britannique." (Go back to British Columbia, you stupid tourist!)

We followed the large question mark signs and wangled our way to the tourist information centre. The attendants stifled a laugh when we asked for nearby camping. "Oh, everything will be booked up now." he said, and turned to ask his colleague something in French. She rattles off a long French sentence which ended with the word "Wal-mart."

We then got directions to two different parking lots where we could park for the night. One was near the arena the other near Lac Leamy. Something got lost in translation and we got the tourist's accidental tour of Gatineau.

I must say that I rather enjoyed the tour. Being the backseat passenger on the bike I had absolutely no responsibility. I didn't have to drive. I was unable to be the map navigator. I can't read French signage. Not a care in the world. For some reason the others weren't so thrilled with my chipper attitude when we arrived at a Reno Depot parking lot which was next to the Lac Leamy parking lot which apparently our info centre guides didn't know was blocked off and closed for the next 3 weeks.

And so Reno Depot was our campground for Monday July 23 because we had no where else to go and stress was running high so our day needed to end.

As we sat in our lawn chairs chillin' for the rest of the evening, I couldn't help but consider the number of times I have driven past Wal-mart and thought "Get a campsite, you cheap bugger. You look like idiots parked in a parking lot pretending you are camping." Yes, I will once again be rethinking my attitude in that regard.