If there’s one thing which I will remember forever from my 2022 east coast road trip, it would be the journey from Toronto to Ottawa. It was memorable because it was on my birthday and I remember my birthdays.

My mom had caught something during our excursion to the Toronto islands. She started sneezing and coughing to the point when she looked like she would cough up an organ and, mind you, it was when COVID was still among us. It was a scary scene, watching her cough like that in a public place. Before leaving Toronto, she took some over-the-corner cold medicine that the pharmacist promised her that it wouldn’t make her drowsy.

A little over an hour of the 4 hour drive from Markham to Ottawa, my mom started to doze. “Let me drive,” I offered. It couldn’t be that hard, there’s hardly anyone on the road, and all I needed to know was I need to read the KM side of the speedometer to ensure I was driving the right speed.

Nope, my mom didn’t trust me enough to take the wheel. So, instead of reaching Ottawa early, she pulled into a parking lot, turned off the car, pocketed the keys, and slept, while I sat in the passenger seat, bored out of my mind. So, this is how I’ll spend my birthday, I thought, watching my mom sleep and cars speed along the highway.

After what seemed like an eternity, my mom woke and continued the journey to Ottawa. That night, our motel room consisted of a single queen-size bed. The moment we got into the motel room, my mom showered and it was lights out for her. I asked her beforehand that if I get hungry, I would go out for a bite. She said no and told me to stay in the room for the night. There goes my chance to explore Ottawa.

I did not sleep well at all that night because 1) sharing a bed with my mom wasn’t easy, 2) she snored, and 3) Youtube played continuously on her tablet, and 4) she was sick.

We spent most of the next morning exploring the Capitol of Canada. We didn’t get to see much, to be honest, not without a car, because my mom was still oozy from the medicine. We walked all the way across the Ottawa River into Quebec Province and back and back to the hotel. That was the end to our so-called adventure in Ottawa.

Theme: Places

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