Movie reviews here, which formed the bulk of the weekend, so this is pretty slim.
I left just after 6pm and the start of the drive was rough: rain, accidents, and traffic all slowed me down. By the time I hit the NH liquor store, I was ready for a bathroom stop, and I grabbed a very messy apple turnover for a snack. While I was trying not to spill apple filling all over myself, I admired the bright rainbow I could see from the parking area, a nice reward after the rain storm. I continued heading north and realised that the car was running low on gas - I'm not a fan of the rental agencies giving out cars less than full and expecting you to return it at the same fuel level. I pulled off the highway at one point and couldn't find an open gas station - note to self, look for the 24H marking under the "gas at this exit" signs. I did see a lovely shooting star at one point though. Finally found something open in St. Johnsbury. I tried to send a text message to Justin to update him on my progress, but had zero signal. After topping up the tank, I stopped in at a Price Chopper to get some food as I really hadn't had supper. I grabbed a peach, a chai smoothie, and a big pile of grapes. Despite driving a rental car and them spotting it at the border crossing point, they let me through with no delay (think I passed them my Nexus card along with my passport as well, and probably my green card to prove I could get back into the States). I was getting tired, but it was a fast trip up 55 to 10 and into downtown Montreal. I found a temporary parking spot across from the hotel and got a room key from Justin. I think he came with me to move the car to a free parking spot on St Antoine near Lucien Allier (I've been happy and possibly lucky to be able to leave cars there during trips to Montreal, no meters or lots necessary). We walked back toward the hotel and stopped for a slice of pizza from a tiny little hole in the wall near Ste Catherine. It was after 1am, I voted for sleep over trying to hit up the Darkwave night where Tony was spinning, and I'd already missed the starting time for the midnight movie anyway (and couldn't get tickets at that point anyway - I'd pre-purchased tickets with the intent of picking them up Saturday morning when the box office opened). The hotel was nice, a Novotel (fond memories from Glasgow), and conveniently located for Concordia. Pity that we were seeing so few movies there, the festival had moved mostly back to the Imperial theatre on Bleury, announcing it after hotel reservations were made. :-(
After seeing them off at a Metro station to head back to Laval, I went back to the Imperial to find people for Bushido Man. More of the Boston crew were ticketed for this movie, I think we found most everyone. After that, it was off to the tiny Quebec/French movie specific theatre to see Taloches. It was a longer walk than I'd expected, I really didn't plan out the logistics very well for this trip, assuming that all the theatres were in the same location as last year. They started a bit late, I think we ended up leaving before the last short film in the program to head back to the Imperial so that we could find people for Commando. We must have grabbed some food really quickly, as there was about an hour before heading back to the Imperial again for The Demon's Rook, our midnight movie. I should know what to expect by now of Fantasia midnight movies, next year I'm bringing a flask. :-) I'm always on my last dregs of energy if I manage to see a midnight movie, so it was straight back to the hotel afterward.
I hit up Timmies for tea, and stopped in at
the Pharmaprix for the shampoo I like (can't bring it across the border
when I'm flying only carry on as the bottle is > 3oz *sigh*), as well as
treating myself to some bath products at Lush. The car was still there,
and soon I was hitting the road again, south bound for home. I stopped in
at the duty free to offload the tea, and while browsing found a bottle of
Bombay Sapphire East that I couldn't resist. I also scarfed down half a
sub sandwich in the parking lot, yay road food. There was a line to get
past the border, but they opened a second lane and things sped up a bit.
It was a foggy drive, just a bit creepy all on my own as the light started
to go. The gas tank low light came on at White River Junction and somehow
after getting gas, I got mixed up and ended up continuing on 91 instead of
taking 89 over to 93 and into Boston. I got cocky, I'd made the drive so
many times before, I should have remembered that I *always* mix up
91/93/95, the north/south highways around here. When I finally realised my
mistake and pulled over to check my phone's map, I was already in
Massachusetts but far enough away from I90 that it seemed to make sense to
take highway 2 over. It was shorter, but slower, as it's a small local
road for most of the way into Boston, and there were speed traps all over
it, yay Sunday night. I think I saw a coyote slinking off into the foggy
woods at one point. By the time I made it home, at least two hours later
than planned, I was ready to fall over. I returned the rental car in the
morning and was able to get a ride back to my place, where I suited up to
ride my bike to work, happy to be back on two wheels. I think they gave me
a discount coupon as well, since the car defroster/rear window defogger
wasn't working all that well on the drive home.