Pelee Island / Hwy 401
I’m
Walking
Well, what can I say? Some of our modern day systems are just not
working out. After a peaceful morning
spent on Pelee Island involving a class from the Gita, a breakfast and a swim,
the four of us from Toronto, like thousands of others, got stranded, not on the
island but on the mainland.
Stephen, the driver, took a turn eastbound
on the busiest highway in the country—the 401.
With road construction happening during the week, a narrow strip with
concrete barriers on either side can create a precarious situation when an
accident occurs. Traffic came to a
stand-still and no emergency vehicles could cross this lane. We were locked in. What does that mean for the poor folks who
are trapped in a narrow funnel?
A second accident doesn’t help. Motorists came out of their cars and started
talking to each other. Fathers were
taking their young ones over the barrier to have them play in the ditch. The fellow in front of us came out of his car,
opened his trunk and spent quite a while cleaning his golf clubs. All of us were left in a limbo as to what the
problem was ahead of us. Both east and
west lanes came to a halt. We were
frozen for five hours.
I told Stephen, “I’m walking. Pick me up when the traffic moves
again.” A helicopter came to a landing
to aid the injured from the accident. I
then had the entire 401 eastbound to myself.
Motorists were curious to see a monk emerge from a mess.
“I’m taking Bloomfield Road at the first
exit,” I told Stephen on the phone. That
landed me on the historic trail of the African slaves, “The Underground
Railway,” their trail to freedom in the 1800s.
Also, it landed me in Chatham, the city where I was born. It was memory lane for sure. You could not believe how many drivers
offered me rides and kind words, including the police, during the chaos. People do have a heart. https://instagram.com/p/BXNmgbwl39Q/
May the Source be with you!
13 km
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