Anyway, Mark, Charles and myself headed toward the Skydome to catch the first of a two game inaugural series between the Jays and the Expos. This game had quite a bunch of different twists than a game would have, say at either San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium (aka Qualcomm) or say, even Yankee Stadium.

The minute we hit our seats up in the nosebleed section, I think it was YYZ that started playing! Now that was cool. Rush at the Skydome. The game was good because Montreal had a no-hitter going for something like 7 innings. Oh-oh. But wait! Roger Clemens is being pulled....and....and....and...is that...Driven? Yes, it is! Driven in almost its entirety was played during the pitching change. I about fell out of the upper deck in shock!

About the beginning of the ninth inning, man, I thought the height was getting to me, but it wasn't that at all. It was a bright sunny day, and when we took our seats the sun was out and it was an open air stadium. Then all of a sudden it's like Independence Day (the movie) which it really was (the Canadian holiday), like, everything starts moving. The whole stadium! And 10 minutes later, we're all sitting in an enclosed state of the art dome. Watching Canada Day fireworks indoors, some of which were coreographed to, yup, you guessed it, Closer to the Heart. I thought hearing Signals played at the Orbit room was way cool after the first concert. This was just as surprising and just as good.

After the game Charles and I hooked up with Punani and Brooke, and headed back down to Ontario Place to catch some more fireworks down on the lake. Two things stand out about that part of the day. First, the traffic was unbelievable, and there was zero parking. I did manage to park somewhere, for only about $12 for a couple of hours. But it was almost worth it since we were all meeting just outside the box office of the Molson Amphitheatre - about exactly 24 hours after Monday night's show. It was nice being back there, and even better knowing that the next night was another prime Rush show in Toronto.

So our group sat at the water's edge near a park and checked out the fireworks. Nothing I hadn't seen before, but fun and relaxing. Punani was really funny that night. She had the giggles because me and Charles were getting a little crazy ourselves. See, it's all so funny, modern society.

Gone are the daze where you were a little kid and went to watch fireworks, and oooohed and aaaaaahed. Right? So here we are watching the show, and there's this hot dog stand stage right of us. Had this really obnoxious bald light bulb that lit up the area terribly. What was worse was seeing like 100 people in line for dogs when the fireworks were going off. I guess the hot dogs were more important! Secondly, one by one, these carpool city busses started pulling up right next to us at this feeder road. So now we had the bare, glaring light bulb, and four city busses rumbling next to us with their engines on. So basically we had a hard time both seeing and hearing the fireworks.

But that's not all. All of a sudden, this cellular telephone rings right behind us. A woman picks it up, and begins giving a commentary on what is happening...oooh, that was a green one. Why aren't you here? You ought to be here. Next year you are going to be here with me...blah-blah-blab. Running commentary for about 10 minutes. Okay, she's off the phone. Another bus pulls up. I'm so frustrated, I pulled my camera out and took a picture of the hot dog stand for memory's sake! Then, of all things, after hearing the person in back of us on a cell phone, the person in front of us takes out a cell phone and tries a couple of numbers but apparently, no one's home. I got a good picture of that one, too, with the flash no less. Both the hot dog stand and the cell phone pics came out great!

It was all soooooo.....disturbing, that it became hilarious. Seeing me take the pictures, Punani couldn't stop laughing, and her laugh became contageous. Brooke started laughing, her mom, Charles, me, Richard...man, now WE were disturbing everyone around us...nothing but a big laugh fest. It was quite hilarious, actually.

Then it was off to fight the traffic, which was completely insane. Some creative driving tactics, including the sport of Canadian Curb Jumping in an American Made Truck made for some interesting moments. Speaking of interesting moments, once back at the hotel, I was restless from all the excitement of hot dogs and cellular telephone calls, and decided to go out on the town looking for a little trouble. I ended up at a nude club just around the corner called the Brass Rail. Eh, okay I guess. The women wanted way too much money for lap dances ($20 per song), the drinks were watered down and expensive ($7 each) and it was just way too dark to see much of anything. I guess I'll leave that part of the night alone. Some material may be inappropriate, afterall, this is a family publication.

So Canada Day was a hit with me. Baseball game. Rush tunes. Fireworks indoors. Fireworks outdoors. Hot dog stands, cell phones and city busses, killer traffic, a boring adult club...what more could one ask for, eh? A?

UNFINISHED BUSINESS Today I put together a photo album...55 double sided magnetic pages of photos and scrapbook stuff. I guess that's 110 pages of stuff, including photos from both nights at the concerts. In the first diary, I forgot to mention what happened at the airport when I went and picked everyone up the first day. Charles and I went to our designated meeting place to get the others in our group, and one of the first things we noticed at the airport was a dry cleaning establishment. I remembered that today because I have a picture of it. Right when Charles and I got down to the second level for baggage claim, there loomed in front of us this...this...sign. It said, "YYZ Dry Cleaning." Could this or would this account for a SERIOUS Rush sighting? I think this is the mother of all Rush sightings!!! Believe it or not, it's true.

I mean, what more could you ask for in a Rush sighting but the call letters YYZ. I broke out the camera and snapped a few precious memories. YYZ Dry Cleaning. If you don't believe me, check it out. It's in Terminal Two, second level, right by the Hertz Rental Car desk. I kid you not! Just ask Charles! We got business cards, too. They promised to dry clean and press (medium starch) a business shirt in....4 minutes and, ah, 25 seconds! Or your money back! I shit you not!

I was looking forward to maybe getting a hold of some of those old paper/cardboard luggage tags that say, YYZ on them, but it was to no avail. Everything is now electronic, so if you don't check in some bags, you don't get the YYZ tag. Anyway, they don't have those old kind anyway. I asked at about 100 desks. The electronic ones are white adhesive, have YYZ in tiny, unsuspecting letters....bummer. I really wanted some of those old type of tags...

COMING NEXT, DAY FIVE:
*The third trip to the ticket window (first night, meeting for the fireworks, then this one) turnes out to be the CHARM! An EXCELLENT ticket story.

*The second show in Toronto on July 2nd was my last of the tour, and the last for many other travelers. It didn't disappoint. Making contact with Geddy Lee the entire concert was indeed a rare surprise. Hi Ged!

*Trying to find an ATM machine that would accept an ATM card was like looking for a drumstick at a Rush show.

*Man, the tour is OVER for me. I saw nine dates, four on the first leg and five on the second, and it sure was hard getting to sleep after the last show knowing that I was going home the next day...

*My trusty little camera....of COURSE they allow cameras, silly! I shot 30 rolls of film and got about 500 images from nine shows. Some of them came out, well, fantastic!