A Cultural Imperialist - Me?

Perhaps as a WHAM, which for those of you not in the know stands for 'White Heterosexual Able-bodied Male' (maybe I should make it Quebec appropriate and add Anglophone in there - WHAAM!) I am a de-factor cultural imperialist but let's leave that little bit of hand wringing aside for now.

I was walking around downtown Burlington today and what did I see? A TD bank! Of course, down here it disguises itself as "TD North" but the fact remains that, I, as a Canadian can feel, in a very small way, like a capitalist and relegate the juggernaut of America to the status of a prole!

Now that I've dispensed with that particular flight of fancy I'll describe Burlington as promised last night. I've never seen so many houses painted bright, gaudy colours. I suppose it's due to the abnormally high hippie population here. There's all manner of local co-ops, green initiatives, placards urging courtesy to pedestrians and cyclists, and evidence of 'social awareness' in general. It's a very refreshing city to relax in for a day. Most of the city is up on a hill bordering the lake with a fairly well developed waterfront area, harbour, and beaches. The downtown area centers on Church Street which is a pedestrian only street which stretches about 4 blocks which is quite lively all day.

On the periphery of this area is found the "cool" local haunts - places like Radio Bean where I got my coffee this morning. Tuned to the local Indie Rock radio station run by the owner, staffed by beautiful women and hip dudes and frequented by what I take to be the Burlington "it" scene. I'll be returning to see some music there later tonight to which I was tipped off by some girls I met down on the beach today as we all fled the rain storm we could see fast approaching across the lake.

Other places of interest today was the 'Old Spokes Home' which is the main bike shop for the Burlington area. Run by an old 'gamester' it hosts an antique bike museum in it's attic - a sight to behold for bike geeks! He tipped me off about some routes heading out east towards Montpelier and to stop off in Richmond and ask about a particular dirt road that I can take to avoid the worst of the traffic snaking it's way up the hills.

On the subject of hills....my dream of making it to the ocean is rapidly fading. I think I'll be scaling back my ambitions slightly - it turns out that Google Maps is very good at giving you driving directions but not so great at showing topography. Who knew that creating a completely theoretical route based on a birds eye view of terrain could possibly be a bad idea? Instead, I will head as far East as possible before I have to scale the Green Mountain range to get into New Hampshire, then south and hop from State Park to State Park. I still only have the next two days planned out at this point so anything is liable to change.

That's it for now - I'm too lazy to upload pictures to accompany this post. Writing is an absolute pleasure (especially whilst I sample Kathleen's extensive Vinyl collection) - USB cables not so much. Oh yea...I have no idea when the next time I'll have Internet access will be.