In the beginning, Part 2

Canadian Company of Pilgrim meeting - November 7th
I discovered on the internet that there were groups in Waterloo and Toronto for the Camino. There was a contact person so I wrote him, and told him my story. I asked if there would be room for me to attend the meeting and if there would be a cost. He didn’t reply to my e-mail. Maybe I should have not mentioned that I was not religious? Maybe I should have not mentioned that I was 300 lbs? Maybe they are all tree huggers and for sure, I am not.
But then, about two weeks later, he replied. He apologized for the late reply – he was out of the country – hiking through the Grand Canyon with his daughter. He said that there were no costs to attend these meetings and that although there was a good turnout for the previous spring meeting, there always was room. So I planned on attending.
The meeting was held at Trinity Church, which is on St Clair Ave in Downtown Toronto. It was a very nice fall day, sunny and 18 degrees. The meeting was set to run from 1 until 4 pm. Normally it takes about two hours from Stevensville to Toronto, but I wanted to give myself some extra time so I left at 10 a.m. I tried half heartily to get my wife to come with me, for a companion for the drive and so that she could see what this was all about. She chose to stay behind to tend her flowerbeds. On the way to Toronto on the QEW highway, at about Oakville, there was a back-up of traffic as far as one could see. I was not in a rush since I left a good hour early but just the same, one never knows how long these back-ups might last. If there was a serious accident, it could be an hour. If there was a death, it could be for half a day. So at the first opportunity, I veered off on the exit ramp to the right. A lot of other cars were doing the same. I thought if I followed the cars in front of me, they would know where they were going and in no time, I would be on the highway. What a mistake! A group of about six vehicles, with me in the middle, wound up in one of those subdivisions created in the 70’s – lots of turns, lots of long circular streets, lots of dead end culverts. It was a very nice drive, as all of the mature maples were in full display of their fall colours, and the houses were all in the $750,000 to $1,000,000 price range. These are very beautiful, magnificent houses but because of where they are hidden, they do not get the exposure that they deserve. I am sure their owners prefer it that way. It had to be more than a half hour of driving through these subdivisions before we made it back to the highway. The good news is that the traffic jam was gone. The funny news is that all eight of us were still in the pack – we lost no one, even through all of the turns, twists, and dead-end streets. The bad news is that had I stayed on the highway, it would have been much quicker in the long run.

So back on the highway and back travelling at 110 kph. I was not late but I wanted to get there a bit early. I was told that parking was very limited. The QEW turns into the Gardiner and then I had to make a left onto Spadina. It should only be about 10-15 more minutes. No worries – it was now 12:15 so I would get there 30 minutes before it was scheduled to start. I only got a couple of miles up on Spadina and then the traffic was frozen. Not moving. Looked like it might have been backed up for a while. After the QEW detour incident, I decided I was just going to wait it out. Five minutes go by, then ten, then fifteen! I moved forward about a block, maybe two, in this time. I only had 15 minutes to spare now. I decided to turn off into the subdivision. Another car follows me so I was not the only one thinking this. I turned left, turned right, left again and again, hit a dead in street, had to turn around, the car behind me had to turn around too and was now in front of me. We turned a right, then a left, and a right again. I have no idea what these street names were, I was just trying to find my way out, hopefully onto St Clair Ave. We both wound up re-joining Spadina and actually made some progress. However, upon entry onto Spadina, there was a big cop with his hand up, stopping the car that got in front of me. Now I could see what the issue was. There was road construction going on and the entire intersection of Spadina and St Clair was ripped up. They were allowing the east-west traffic (one land only) to travel on St Clair but nothing was allowed to travel in the north/south directions. No wonder the back-up was so long. My buddy who got in front of me was trapped, being litterley right next to the police officer. However, with my time running out, I became much bolder in my driving decisions. I made a left, cut through a MacDonald’s parking lot, much to the angry stare of the cop, and then proceeded down St Clair Ave.

St Clair Ave is a very busy two lane street, with lots of shops and businesses. The church wound up being quite a way down St Clair Ave. There was parking on the street. As I was watching the addresses get closer to the one that I needed, I was also watching my watch tick down. I was not sure if I should just pick an opening on the street parking, grab it, and run the rest of the way – or if I should try my luck and park closer. I proceed. Then suddenly, the church was there, and there was no parking. But, just a block beyond the church, a person was getting into their car. I waited behind them, tying up traffic behind me. But hey, this is Toronto, and from what I have seen so far today, they must be very used to it. I do a very terrible job under pressure of parallel parking, then check my watch. It is 1.02 pm. I walked quickly to the Church. I saw others walking towards it as well. It appears that they were staring at me – thinking that this fat man must be at the wrong place. There was good signage outside –directing people to the basement of the church.
In the basement, there were many chairs set up, tables set up at the back with people sitting behind them, and a long line-up at the tables. I wasn’t sure what to do so I did what every good Canadian would do – I got into line. It turns out that they were taking membership applications and fees for annual membership in the Canadian Pilgrim Association, and selling crests. I signed up for a membership and bought a crest – I can get my wife to sew it on my backpack (which I did not have) and this way, although I do not look like a pilgrim, I will have a crest saying that I am one. And crests don’t lie!
They had several speakers tell about their tales about walking the camino, including Sue Kenney. There was then a panel discussion with folks who had recently walked it, talking about their pros and cons experienced on their recent trips. The wife of a husband/wife duo said that she had no problem carrying her luggage as her husband carried most of the load. He seemed to enjoy this macholistic description of him. Several people stated that they packed too much stuff and had to lighten their load after a day or two of walking. A minister said that the first thing he threw out was the bible, which had the entire crowd in stitches. There was also about five authors of various books from people who had walked the camino. I bought two of these books. The first one was Robert Ward’s All the Good Pilgrims – Tales of the Camino de Santiago and the second one was by Paul Boers and titled The Way is Made by Walking. I had them both signed by the authors. The first book cost $10 and the second one was $20. They were both paperbacks and about the same thickness. Only time will tell if the content in the one is worth double the content in the second one. I gave the books to my wife so that she could wrap them up for me for Christmas.
They also had one table set up selling travel, and another one with all the various hiking equipment one would need.
The meeting ended at about 4:05 and the traffic was light on the way home. I was glad that I had attended the meeting. The people were nice, very informative, and I felt that I had at least half of a foot in this new club.