Four Hundred and One

According to Blogger, this is post 401 of ntgr8. For those of you not from Toronto, the 401 is also an expressway that goes from Windsor to Montreal. I lose track of how wide it really is - there are places in the north of Toronto where the 401 includes at least 16 lanes of traffic. It is, I will freely admit, not my favourite route to drive.

The 401 seems to have two speeds: too fast and too slow. When it is going too fast, it is easy to find oneself on the wrong side of the exit you did or didn't really want. Suddenly, you're heading north instead of west, and the world is a different place. This happens to me occasionally when I am not on the 401.

On the other hand, the 401 is the route we take for holidays. Whether we are heading to Prince Edward County, for wine and sand dunes or to Prince Edward Island (for lobster and wine and sand dunes), we head east for vacations and we take the 401 to drive through Toronto and onwards. Often, we leave early in the morning, when the lanes are less densely populated. The 401 outside Toronto is quite a good route, dotted at regular intervals by rest stops with relatively clean bathrooms and decent coffee. If you know where to stop, you are never far from views of the Lake or lovely home-style baking.

I wonder whether you clicked on this entry expecting to move more quickly to your destination or to move forward with time to think as the trees pass the windows and you sip your Tim Hortons coffee. Maybe you know now.

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