The Answer Man Invades Canada!

By Sean Gallagher

Some notes from Day 1 (aka travel hell):

5:29 am - For some inexplicable reason, I wake up one minute before my alarm is to go off. As anyone who knows me will tell you, a random 5:29 wake-up is simply unheard of. This is a good sign.

5:36 - I get into the GT Official Vehicle and the first song that comes on the SIRIUS Punk channel is the Ramones. This is also a good sign. The day is shaping up just fine.

5:38 - First call from the Answer Man. He's clearly checking up on me. This Code thing might be a problem this weekend.

6:21 - At the airport we have our first prostitute joke of the trip: "Y'know, just three hours ago I was beating the shit out of a hooker."

7:58 - Somewhere over Illinois.

"I mean, hey, what's the deal with these airlines? Am I right? I mean, hey, could that bag of pretzels be any smaller? And I mean, hey, what happened to the entire meal?"

8:30 - Welcome to Detroit! Come for the urban blight, stay for the junkyards. Before embarking the plane in St. Louis I actually said, "I can't believe I'm excited to go to Detroit."

I no longer feel that way. Who farted, by the way? The whole city, I'm guessing.

11 - 5 pm - The road travel to Toronto was nearly unbearable. The trip in bullets:

• Lunch at Crackler Barrel. Highlight? Answer Man's story about watching two dolphins have sex when he was on vacation in Florida.


• Revisiting the last Skynyrd concert AM attended.


• State Trivia.