Gor Blimey! London!!

Amazing sin't it?  The technology we take for granted nowadays. 10 years ago the concept of being able to chat to someone with live video from their bedroom in the UK while you're in Chicago USA would be just amazing.

All that research, all that expence, the equipment, the man hours all employed to make this miracle possible, this amazing, amazing miracle of modern communications.  We're trying to eat our bran flakes in Dan and Angies front room in Chicago whilst watching our dear friend Ian scratch his testicles in Denmead on a small laptop PC.  Just what the founders of the web had in mind I'm sure.

It's lovely to chat with Jenny mind (she's too good for him!) We've packed a bunch of parcels to mail home to the UK, the postage costs about 10 times the value of the stuff but what the hell.

We're up and on the road again, driving all day to Ann Arbor.  This is a really lively college town and the kids are all just coming back to school.  Course all their bloody parents are bringing them which means finding hotel rooms is like trying to find crispy crumb Dodo steaks in your local Iceland.

The place is really well set up with bars and restaurants mind and so once we get settled in Bates Motel we scrub round showers and head into town for a fantastic meal to cheer ourselves up.  We'd planned to stay a few days but such is the crowd here we decide to move on as it will give us a chance to explore Canada.

We rumble off on an old two lane from Ann Arbor straight into the heart of Detroit.  It's a tough looking place lots of folk sleeping in the streets in the desolate outskirts.  The City centre ityself is all Grey and steel monuments to Ford and GM.

We drive straight through and under a huge sign for Mcdonalds spot a tiny almost hand drawn arrow with  "Canada" written on it.  You can almost imagine Mounties popping round hanging 'em up....Down into a tunnel and 4 minutes later we're in Ontario being quizzed by the border police.

Forgot to mention that in Ann Arbor Kim had ordered "Pork Chop" only to be brought a plate that seemed to be holding an entire pig.  One of the "chops" is currently in a carry out box, in the cooler, in our boot..........the drug dogs are taking quite an interest in that boot right now..

"Carrying any firewood?" says our Mounty.

"No just a pork chop"

"Ok sir have a nice day"

The tunnel has taken us under the river and we sit on the opposite bank and have lunch looking back at Detroit and the US.  It's remnakable how different the City looks from this side.  The US polishes it's shop window very well, the place looks beautiful now you can't spot the derelicts sleeping in the gutters.

On to London Ontario. The weather is grey and drizzly, so is London and so are we. In the evening we find a cool old stylee restaurant/bar which serves Hungarian/Polish food.  We stuff on Goulash and saurkraut and sausage while the Hungarian vibe is reinforced by three Irish musicians playing fiddle, guitar and pipes.  Over the next few hours they're joined by more than a dozen other players.  They make an amazing noise and outnumber punters in the bar by about 3 to 1.

It's Kims birthday and we head out to lunch on Champers and seafood which is lovely.  In the evening we just go for a stroll and interupt a pair of skunks who are snuffling around a trash bin.   We're so amazed to see them we're harrassing the bloody things to try and get a picture before we remember what they're capable of.

London Ontario has nothing on the real deal, there's not a lot here so after resting up it's off with us to Niagara