Now that we'd finally had a chance to stop and look around, I was again struck by the subtle differences in the Canadian and American environment.

I'd first noticed things like this when I lived in Wisconsin. This time around, I was struck by the trees. They looked almost, but not quite, like Maple trees. These trees were like Maples, in the same way that Wisconsin was like Canada: You'd do a bit of a double take, then lean in for a closer look. When you got close enough, the tree would grab you and rip your face off with its pointy, jagged maple-leaf-like leaves, leaving you screaming for a merciful death.

Wisconsin was a lot like that.

Another example was where we stopped for lunch: Waffle House. These establishments can be found dotting the roadsides, in a manner that is not altogether unlike Tim Hortons stores in Canada. (Although, according to the Tim Hortons website, there are stores as far South as Kentucky.)

The interior layour of Waffle Houses are strikingly similar to older style Tims, with a long bar on one side, and several two and four person tables on the other.

At these tables, you are treaded to the finest frozen waffles the South can toast for you, as well as a fine selection of side meats, grits, eggs, burgers and "fun facts". (Did you know that your Waffle House burger can be prepared in 5 213 107 different ways? We tried to count for ourselves, but we only came up with 4 912 628 ways, and that was if you counted Dijon as a separate item from regular mustard.)

My point is, anyway, that the milieu of the Waffle House is both remarkably like, and at the same time nothing at all like a Tim Hortons shop.

Did I mention that grits are considered a delicacy in the South?

In fairly short order, we had finished our meal, and were back on the road again. The rest of Kentucky passed without incident, save for the occasional rain shower, and we were able to enjoy some very scenic countryside.

Kentucky and Tennessee are both very green, and mountainy. To call it rolling hills is a little akin to calling the prarrie dog mounds rolling hills in the prarries, although it's going the wrong way in misdescribing the place.

The mountains themselves were very green. Everything there was tree covered, and as we got further South, Kudzu covered.

We actually got to Chattanooga without further major incident, although we had a short layover just inside Tennessee, when we pulled in to the rest area there and discovered that again the car would not start. This time we didn't panic, however, and we simply put our feet up for a half hour. The car did start again, reinforcing the need to plan our stops on the way back, and we were on our way.

The weekend was fairly good. No bad weather that I can recall at the moment at the very least. Friday evening was mostly just a chance to say hi to everyone and relax a little after the long trip. The reunion headquarters if you will, was situated at Carmen's Aunt Kris and Uncle Barney's place. We did get to meet Maia, who seemed to be adjusting well to things.

Saturday was the big day. We all drove out to one of the nearby parks on a nearby mountain for a rather extravagant catered picnic. I think every male at the event, save for me had a video or digital camera of some sort. It's all part of the primal desire to play with shiny things with blinking lights.

That evening, us young folk, (that is to say, the generation of people that I include myself in) wandered off to Robin's house (one of two cousins of Carmen) (it was also Steve's house) to look at more cool toys, and their cats.

Robin's boyfriend Steve has eight cats. That's a lot of cats. To put this into purspective, that's four cats for every man, woman and child currently residing at our house.

The cool toy in question that evening was the TiVo, a digital equivalent of the VCR. It is a streaming video device that can record and play at the same time. You download listings over the phone line, and can tell it to record, for example, all episodes of the Simpsons this week in one go if you want. Pretty slick.

Sunday was a bit less structured. A friend who is going to school in Alabama came up and we wandered to a Barnes and Noble to do some browsing. Steve also took me to a comic book shop were we did some more browsing. There was a BBQ back at Kris and Barney's.

On Monday, we started the long trek home. Getting up a little too early for our own good, we headed out on the road. Thanks to our previous experience, we road vetrans stopped for food and gas at the same time, eating first, so that the car could cool down enough that we'd be able to start it again. When we just needed a rest room break, we left the car running and ran in (leaving one person behind to guard the car).

Our first stop was still in Tennessee, for breakfast. Having gotten up and out of our hotel room by 6.30, it went without saying that we were pretty tired. Thus when we were confronted by the most cheerful waitress in the South, at 7.30 in a Cracker Barrel just off the interstate, it was like a cheese grater rubbing against our very souls.

In fact, I think that's how they make grits.

Not that I'm dissappointed, but most of our trip back was relatively unexciting. We stopped somewhere in Ohio at a Denny's or some similar kind of "family" restaurant for lunch. The conversation there turned to one of the menu items which was dubiously recommended by our waiter, saying that it was "surprisingly good". It was some mutation of a grilled cheese sandwich containing among other things, a fried egg.

It was still a holiday weekend, and there was a bit of a wait crossing the border. There was a brief fear that we were going to be asked to pull over, and that we'd have to stop and turn off the engine, thus stranding us in Windsor for a while. Fortunately, we made it through fine, and we drove on to London where we ate some dinner at the Market Grill (which by the way, has some amazing roasted garlic and potato soup!) filled up the car's tanks and we were home before we knew it.

It was really good to see Carmen's extended family again. They're all zany and geeky in one way or another. (That's a good thing, by the way.) It was a very tiring trip though, and looking back (it was more than a month ago, by now) it was the start of a lot of busy weekends. This month (July) we don't have any free weekends to speak of. At some point, I'm just going to want to space out, lock my self in a closet somewhere and not see anyone. Nevertheless, it was a fun and educational trip. Educational, in at least that I learned if my Dad ever asks me if I want to borrow the truck to drive to some faraway place in the future, I should say yes.