I forgot to mention yesterday ...

... that I had had a run-in with the law ("you've left it a bit late haven't you, Eric? Usually it's the first day, not the second!" - ed).

There's this whacking great bridge that goes between Windsor and Detroit - the Ambassador Bridge - and so I took a few photos of it.

And while I was doing it, I was accosted by the long arm of the law -
"You're not allowed to take photos of the bridge!"
"Why not?"
"The Department of Home Security doesn't like people doing it"
"Isn't the Department of Home Security in the USA?"
"That's right"
"And aren't we in Canada?"
"Yes, sir, we are"
"Well tell the Department of Home Security to p155 off"
They have heard of the death ray concealed in my camera that will melt the very structure of the bridge the moment I touch the button, haven't they?

So while I was out and about this morning, I mentioned this encounter to someone I met.
"Well, you're lucky" he said. "They've been confiscating the film of people who have photographed the bridge, you know. Totally paranoid, these Americans, and they have been leaning on the mayor of Windsor".

The Americans, already down at the bottom of the pile, have now sunk through the floor in my estimation and the Canadians, especially those in Southern Ontario, aren't too far off joining them if they aren't prepared to stand up for their rights.

So fully forewarned, I nipped off to a Walmart and burnt all my photos onto a couple of DVDs, and then posted the DVDs to myself in France. And I'll keep on doing that, I reckon.

The girl at Walmart asked me what I was doing and so I told her my story.
"Yes - they confiscated my film three years ago when I was taking a photo of the bridge for my technology class at school".

I didn't know what to say!

So today, having done a pile of shopping, including a cheap coffee machine (this is the 3rd motel I've been in where there has been no kettle and I can't keep on going like this), I spent all day driving around the shore of Lake St Clair as far as I could without actually crossing into Great Satan.

I don't think I've ever seen a country so flat as Southern Ontario between Lake Erie and Lake Superior. There's not a hill in sight. It's all rolling plain and filled with cornfields, the odd corn mill and the occasional oil well. The only break in the monotony is the clouds of dust rising up from where the combines are out harvesting it all.

The weather is beautiful, very windy but hardly a cloud in the sky. I've been lucky with the weather so far but the locals think that it might break in a few days. Tomorrow, depending on what time I wake up, I'll go for another wander around. I've seen a steam engine and that must be worth a photo. And tomorrow night Katherine and I are out a-dining. Doubtless His Nibs will want to come too.