The Drive Up, Pirate Style

There were 15 people in all, 9 of them driving up from Ottawa (including Mark Reaume, who actually drove up from Kitchener the day before). The easterners were coming mainly from Moncton, except for Jack, who drove in from Halifax. The drive is about 11 and a half hours from Ottawa, so it's a bit of a trek. The way the timing worked, and what with various people having to work or not even getting back until Friday evening, we left in the middle of the night, Saturday morning. 4am to be exact.

Somewhere along the way, the decision had been made to make the trip a pirate theme. I believe I mentioned in passing to Matt, who loved the idea, and somehow Rob got told, etc. etc.

Rob and Dave did a bunch of pirate shopping on Friday, and Matt got some stuff earlier in the week. I scrounged up a bandana, plus I have this white, East Indian-style short with brass knobs for buttons that's vaguely pirate-like. Matt and I managed to find an inflatable parrot at Party World, plus some awesome pirate flags (triangle-shaped, on a ribbon meant for decorations). And of course, I have lots of monkeys, so I took a black one.

The first big stop was at the Madrid (a.k.a. the monster truck and dinosaur place -- only mention I can find of it on the web is regarding monster truck pictures), where we took a few moments to get fully outfitted in pirate gear. Hats, vests, earrings, bandanas, hair, hook-hands, inflatable parrot...we even took the flags along.

Needless to say, the wait staff were a bit confused. I kept insisting that we be led to the "pirate section", whereas the waitress insisted that I choose between smoking and non-smoking (did I mention this was around 7am?). We settled on non-smoking and got seated right next to the Saturday buffet-brunch. We proceeded to hang the Jolly Roger, say "Arr!" a lot, and make comments like "Are we the first pirates to arrive today?" (thus putting the fear into the restaurant that there were more of us on the way...).

Turns out the buffet is a fantastic deal -- $6.25, including coffee, stuff yourself silly!