D-Mac and I started out on Friday at about noon, bound for Toronto. After stopping in Old Forge for their famous pizza (their not so secret ingredient: onions), we drove hard and fast for the border. Flew past Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Were allowed into Canada and then drove by Hamilton and toward Toronto, rolling into Canada’s largest city at around 9:30 p.m. Dropped our stuff off at the Comfort Inn and headed for the Players Ball. As soon as I walked in the door, I had people challenging me to money games of RPS. I walked out later that night $35 richer. The Players Club was just off of College street, and the women walking around were quite cute. After winning some money and having a few beers, I headed back to the hotel and crashed hard. Spent the next day walking around Toronto. The first thing I noticed was it’s cleanliness. We were sort of wandering aimlessly and found an area that was sort of a cross between 8th and Market and 22nd and Market: A few record stores, some adult bookstores, some regular used bookstores. And even this sort of sketchy area was clean. Impressive.
That night, I dressed to the nines and headed to a bar called the Steam Whistle for the RPS World Championships. D-Mac is doing a story on it for the Philadelphia Weekly, so I won’t give a whole lot of details about the RPS, but I did fall in the first round on the final throw. Very disappointing. Hung around, saw the first ever female RPS Champ get crowned (also, the most unexcited winner of $7,000 ever), got shot down by a few more Canadian women, then headed with the Philadelphia contingent to a bar called Goodtymez, which was a dive bar near our hotel.
Buffalo, Cooperstown, and lots of photos after the jump.
Went to Gretzky’s on Sunday to watch the Eagles game. I assure you, it was no more exciting to watch the Eagles offense in Canada than it was in Philly. We then hit the road. Got into Buffalo at around 6:30 and headed for the Pat’s of hot wings, the Anchor Bar. They claim to have invented the hot wing in 1964. They weren’t the best wings I’ve ever had, but they were plenty good, and the old bar was a great place to watch the end of the Pats-Cowboys game. 15 wings later, it was back in the car. We drove until we hit Syracuse, where we stayed at a Best Western with the smallest swimming pool I’ve ever seen.
Woke up Monday and headed off to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s a beautiful drive this time of year. The Hall of Fame was pretty great. I had hoped to run into Prime Minister Pete Nice, formerly of 3rd Bass. He currently works for the Hall of Fame. No kidding. But I didn’t see him. As the cold autumn afternoon turned darker, we hit the road, stopping again in Old Forge, this time for pasta instead of pizza. Went to the highly recommended Salerno’s, and the ravioli was delicious. Was really happy about the meal-until the check came. They charged us for refills of Coke. I hate it when restaurants charge you for refills and don’t tell you about it. However, I still recommend the food…just don’t get the soda. After that, we cruised through the mountains to Philly, listening to the Indians-Red Sox game on the radio. All told, a pretty damn good road trip.
RELATED: View Photos of the Trip.