This popped up in my head:

“The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.”
-Paul Cezanne

Of course, we cant always be seeking after holy grails in our work and business affairs. And sadly, unlike the master Cezanne, our work usually entails far longer time, than that required for its perusal/appreciation/dismissal…

Hope you have a good time with the good folk of Canada beyond your 20mins; and maybe, tread lightly ?
Just to reduce your footprint, C or otherwise.

Don

[Your post above on long drives upcountry and memories of loved ones struck a deep chord.

I am transported back into Dad's sedan as we drive north upcountry on our yearly pilgrimage back to his hometown in north Johor, Malaysia. Setting off at sleepy 4am to beat the traffic, playing silly 'scary' games with the dark shadows that looms towards and zooms away with each passing street-lamp...but finding security in the comforting silhouettes of Mum and Dad in the front seats. Then, rolling the windows down and hanging my head out to watch the creepy but so beautiful dark figures of trees in the rubber and oil-palm plantations whizzing by, and smelling that acrid but immensely clarifying scent that is found only in the woods -- of early-morning bracken, moss and dew. All these to the magical melody of Enya's Orinoco Flow playing on the stereo (I insisted, they acquiesced).

Apologies for my flight of fancy. But thank you.
]

City people use the term “Upstate New York” for any town north of The Bronx. However, to genuine Upstaters (such as myself), Upstate New York only begins at I-90. (We also tend to be Red Sox fans.)

The Last of the Mohicans is set at Fort William Henry — on the shores of Lake George….60 miles north of I-90. Definitely Upstate territory!

You ponder how did Upstaters survive before there was a McDonalds at every Thruway rest stop? The answer: Howard Johnsons.

Bringing all of these seemingly random thoughts together, it turns out that the Lake George Howard Johnson’s (at the nexis of Fenimore Cooper’s novel) is closing forever. see: http://www.hojoland.com/