Back home...

05.01.2008

Lisa and I get up as early as we can (which is about 9 a.m.). We have some breakfast and say our goodbyes. We pack Burrito and Dave into the car and begin the long drive back to O-town.

Lisa needs new glasses so we decide that it would be best if I drive at night (lucky me!).

We stop for a minute at the magnetic hill near Moncton, but it is closed.

We drive and drive and drive and stop for gas a couple of times. Each time, we find ourselves at a backwoods grocery store/gas station/restaurant and Lisa is terrified to go inside alone. She's seen too many road trip horror movies, I guess. Other than that, I kick back, read some Absalom, Absalom! and repeatedly try and justify my existence to Dave.

So, eventually it gets dark and it's my turn to drive, just as we are entering Quebec. Ten minutes into the journey, I'm cruising along at a pretty fast clip, listening to one of my many CBC podcasts, when out of the blue, in a split second I briefly catch a glimpse of a giant CARCASS on the road. Maybe it was a moose, maybe it was deer, I honestly couldn't tell you, but I'm pretty sure I drove straight over its head, and the left half of our Yaris leapt into the air.

Dave was playing tennis on his cellphone and Lisa was sleeping in the back, so there is no way to verify exactly what kind of animal it was. Dave said that in that very instant, he had accepted his impending death and was already embracing the afterlife. Lisa was laughing her head off, and speculating on what kind of lifeform that could have possibly been. I still can't get the memory of the blood-stained highway out of my head. We briefly contemplate turning around and inspecting the scene, but decide that this would be just too much of a horror movie cliche to take the risk.

The rest of the way was also uneventful, the road was foggy and there was a little bit of rain, but we got back safely, early in the morning on Monday.

Join me next time for another Lisa and Louise road trip to Columbus, Ohio.

Road