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[mungam]

Or as it was really called:
The Wild Goose Chase…I mean Pigeon Chase.
This not loosely based on a true story, it is my actual personal true story.
I think it is entertaining and worth the time to read.

The History:

About 10 years ago my ex-girlfriend Tara and I went to Canada on vacation.
We stayed in Toronto in the heart of downtown.  One night she suggested Chinese food for dinner.  We were within walking distance to a few places.  We picked 1 at random and went upstairs to the restaurant located on the 2nd floor.
Once we were seated and had a chance to look at the menu we knew we picked the wrong place.  Notable items that were not standard fare in our area were things like PIGEON and SHARK.  Now other Chinese restaurants may be serving us pigeon, but to put it out there on the menu…..
There were 2 women that were seated behind us.  I remember one was telling the other how great the food was there and how it was made the way it was supposed to be.  We should have left without ordering, my night would have been much better.  But that is not what this story is about.
Anyway when we came back we told people about this but no one really believed us.

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A few years ago while traveling across Canada, I was just a few miles from the hotel but could not convince my traveling companions to indulge me in an hour or so side trip so I could get my credibility restored.  To have been that close and not go for it didn’t sit well with me and I had been contemplating a trip back ever since.

This summer I didn’t take my usual 2 week long motorcycle trip due to issues at the house.  I was considering taking off on the bike for a few days and was trying to come up with a destination.  I came up with 2 possible places: 1 I could ride to Kentucky so I could get at least 1 new state this year.  I was going to get 4 if I had done the original 2 week trip.
Or 2 I could go to Toronto looking for pigeon.
Well as fate would have it I was unable to do either on that vacation.
I asked Cindy (long time family friend) and occasional passenger on my bike if she had a passport.  Her response was where are you taking me?  I told her Toronto and why and she said she would get a passport.  As soon as she had the passport in hand we picked the next available weekend to go.

[mungam]

The Challenge:

Go to a foreign country to commit a crime.  
I had to have physical proof.  I needed a real menu with those items on it.  A paper take out menu just wasn’t going to cut it.
Why not just google it you ask?  Well I did after my last opportunity and found someone else looking for proof as well.  But as my brother will tell you, just because you read it on the internet doesn’t make it true. (unlike this story)

[mungam]

The Bonus:

I knew that I didn’t want to make this completely all about me.  I knew there was a strong possibility that I would not be able to locate the restaurant.  So I also was planning to go to the Hard Rock Cafe that is in the Rogers center.  It has windows that overlook the ball field that the Toronto Blue Jays play on.  Next door to that is the CN tower.  If you are not familiar with it, it kinda looks like the space needle.  I saw some pictures of it at night and with the city all lit up it would look really cool.  I also planned on a drive by of the falls at Niagara.

[mungam]

The Promise:

I was not promising pigeon, but the opportunity for an adventure.

The Players:

Myself
Cindy
Allen (mutual friend from the Moose lodge we all belong to)
Pam (not Cindy’s sister, but a friend of Allen’s)
Gary (Allen’s brother)
Janet (Gary’s wife)

[mungam]

The Ride There:

I planned to leave Cindy’s house on Sat 9/11/10 at 6AM.
We actually got on the road from Dunkin Donuts at 6AM so we were on track.
The GPS showed it was about 570 miles and I figured with gas/bathroom breaks and the border crossing it would take about 12 hours.  I wanted to get there as quickly as possible to leave as much daylight as possible to help me recognize landmarks in the attempt to locate the Chinese food restaurant.
 
I recently had an issue with my bike and the cruise control.  So I decided that even though it worked correctly the last couple of times I used it, I didn’t want to risk blowing fuses on the trip.  You can probably guess where this story is headed….

[mungam]

We were introduced to our friendly MA state trooper around the Springfield area.
I won’t tell you how fast we were going, just that it involved being over the limit by double digits.  While sitting on the side of the road swapping stories of how long it had been since either of us had last been pulled over.  For me with all the states (41) I had been through and all the miles I have racked up on bikes 75k or so I had never been pulled over.  If you add in the auto miles since I was last pulled over it is very close to 500,000 miles so I guess I couldn’t complain.

The longer we were sitting there, the more I was sure we were getting tickets.

[mungam]

Instead the Trooper handed Allen back his license and registration and said he didn’t have a violation since 1984, then he handed mine back to me and said I hadn’t since 1989.
He told us to slow down and have a nice day!!!!

So I decided to give the cruise control a chance.  It worked the whole remainder of the trip without issue.  I lost track of the number of speed traps we passed in NY.  Not sure if it was extra enforcement because it was 9/11 or not.  I have never seen that may cars in 1 bike trip before.  I have traveled entire states with out seeing any form of law for days.

So with our extra break and new relaxed pace, we made it to the hotel at 5:30PM.
582 miles.  This was Cindy’s longest single day ride and 1st time ever out of the country.
This was my longest ride with a passenger as almost all of my riding is done solo.

[mungam]

The Chase:

Turns out Allen has a brother that lives an hour north of Toronto that he had not seen in a few years.  So he made plans with him to meet us with a vehicle big enough for him, his wife and the 4 of us.

I was hoping to get a photo of a pigeon to send via text message with some sort of smart ass remark about getting a good inside tip on where to head.
But instead it was a sign of things to come…..

We found the hotel I stayed at 10 years ago.  That was as easy as I expected it would be.
I know that we would not have walked more than a block or 2 at most to get dinner that night 10 years ago.  So we drove around a bit in the area but nothing was jumping out at me, so we found a place to park the van.  I told everyone we would take no more than 1 hour.  If we didn’t find it we were moving on and there were the other things I wanted to see and do.

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So we started walking and checking out menus at several places.  I even asked a few people about what I was looking for.  Not 1 person thought it was odd or strange that I was doing this, not even the meter maid. Cindy got a picture of me with the maid.
We did find 1 place that was out of business that might have met the requirements, (location and 2nd floor) but guess I will never know for sure.
I called it search off 55 minutes in.  Disappointed yes, but knowing that I made a serious attempt gave me some satisfaction.

[mungam]

Next stop the Hard Rock.
We found the Rogers center and went looking for the Hard Rock.  We could not find it.
It didn’t show up on my GPS as being in the area we were at.  Not ready to give up, I found a directory by the elevator that showed the shops and restaurants around the stadium.   It was on there with a location.  So we went there and it was no longer there.
The old sign was still hanging outside, but it was not completely intact.
Damn I am 0 for 2 now.

[mungam]

The group already decided they didn’t want to take the outside elevator up the CN tower so I guess that made it 0 for 3 (but at least it was still there).

We found a place to eat (Baton Rouge-Front St) and had a great time.  The waitress was abusively funny.
She was pushing the ribs. (those that ordered them enjoyed them).  When she came by to take our order and Pam still hadn’t decided, she told her, I don’t know why you are still looking, I TOLD you to get the ribs.  After dinner I told her about my search and why I was in town and she made us a map to get to Chinatown.
We did try to go, but traffic was bad, (it was also the Toronto International Film Festival going on that weekend).  Do I know who to pick them or what?  We did find Chinatown, but nothing looked open.
We got back to the hotel close to midnight

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The Ride Home:

We planned to leave at 7AM but it was closer to 7:30.  It looked like we would be getting wet so everyone had their rain gear on all day.  When we got to Niagara Falls I said to Cindy that I was pretty sure that they would be there as I didn’t think they could move them like everything else the night before.
We spent a few hours checking out the area before crossing the border and heading home.

We got back to Cindy’s 39hours 38minutes after we left and completed 1164 miles.

That was the longest trip for her.  It was my longest trip with a passenger.  It was also my longest back to back days of riding this year.

So everyone enjoyed the adventure and there are even rumors of making it an annual pigeon run.

Steve

[martys]

Great story Steve  sometimes the quick trips are the most memorable    Too bad I didn't know you were in the area, I could have met up with you in Niagara Falls (20 min. from home) You will have to let me know if there is going to be a second anual "Pigeon Run" 

[RidinRuby]

I really enjoyed your story, thanks for sharing!!!