The second person that I called from that Buffalo Library parking lot was Greg Rainville. This is a guy that I met on the first day of orientation and had made fast friends with. Greg finished before I did at Potsdam and moved to Toronto for grad school. These circumstances, combined with my own laziness, provided the perfect storm for us to lose touch. Greg cleared his rather busy weekend schedule and got approval for too aimless bikers to camp out in this new amazing house that he has just moved into. The details are endless, but let’s just say, our bikes had their first ever choice between a garage or a carport. We chose garage so that they could have that life experience but soon decided that the car port was a better option…it was right next to the treehouse! This is a treehouse straight out of the Bernstein Bears books. This thing was built to outlast a hurricane and had ladder steps on the tree, a cargo net to ascend and a slide to exit. Wow, all that and we’re not even inside yet!

Following 2AM street football, we headed into the city for a baseball game the next day. I had never been to the skydome (Rodger’s Centre) but had heard stories from my dad of the dome closing. We got tickets for the 500 level seating which put us just a few rows beneath the dome. About halfway through the game, the weather turned and they closed the dome! I was hoping that it would be this monstrous sounding leviathan, bearing down on us. Rather, it ended up being the quietest gargantuan structure possible. The only downside of this was that it created the illusion of night in the stadium and slowly but surely…Greg, Brendan, Ronny and Scott all started to doze off. Awakened by pizza and beer, we closed out the 9-4 loss to the Yankees with some photos and headed back to Northern Toronto.

Seeing Greg was a great surprise for the trip and hanging out with his friends was that much more enjoyable. Thanks to Madeline for distilling men down into 4 easy categories, explanation of tempered perfect pitch and the furry world of cat scratching. Thanks to Ronny for sharing his knowledge of the local vegetation, politics, CS, and a hell of an arm. Thanks to Elaine for a great sense of humor, that killer sarong, and chauffeuring the two of us around town. A thank you also goes out to Greg’s roommate Lily and her parents. The house we stayed in was the picture of comfort. Again, all these people threw aside their normal plans and put on an amazing time.