Institutionalized: 1940

Planning Our Trip to Toronto/ The Trip to Toronto

Greg and I have been married for over a year now. We have started planning our trip to Toronto in July. We have booked our train tickets three months in advance, so we are guaranteed a seat beside one another. We are excited to see Dario, Tony, Patrick, and Ashley again. Greg is excited to see the guys' race; I am too. I am curious about what the cars look like. I am looking forward to seeing Toronto instead of just the train station like when Greg and I first arrived in Toronto six years ago. We leave for Toronto on Monday, July 4. We arrive in Toronto Wednesday, July 6. When we arrive in Toronto, we will have a few days with the guys and Ashley before the race weekend July 8 to July 10. We will go to the track Friday, July 8 to watch the guys practise. Then the next day, watch them qualify for the race. On the Sunday, we watch them race. Greg and I are getting excited about the trip. The trip is in three months.

It is springtime. It is very rainy, but Greg tells me it is normal in British Columbia. I have lived here for six years. I am not used to the rainy spring weather. I am looking forward to the warmer weather in the summer.

Also I am looking forward to the trip. We are both excited. We keep mentioning the trip to one another. We tell each other to stop mentioning it.

Our trip is in two weeks. Now, we are getting really excited about our trip. We have to start packing our suitcases. We will be in Toronto for a week, a busy week at that.

Today we leave for Toronto. Ric has kindly offered to drive us to the train station. Once at the train station, Ric waited for our train with us. Once the train arrived, we boarded the train.

Once on the train, Ric waved us off and told us to have a great time in Toronto. We told him that we would.

On the train, we were getting really anxious going to Toronto. We were telling ourselves not to be nervous. Also to enjoy the ride there, we went passed the beautiful Rocky Mountains. The journey will be two days to Toronto. We have been on the train for one day. We have another day to go before we arrive in Toronto. We arrive in Toronto in a few hours. We are getting excited to see our friends again. We will arrive in Toronto in a few minutes. A train worker reminds us to take all our belongings before leaving the train. He also told us that there will be someone to assist us to the arrivals area of the station.

We have now arrived in Toronto. A man is waiting to assist us on the platform. He told us that e will take our luggage to the arrivals. We held hands while following the assistant. It felt a long time before we reached the arrivals section of the station. Once we reached the arrival, we thanked the assistant.

Once we turned around, standing in front of us were Dario, Tony, Patrick, and Ashley to greet to us Toronto. We were shocked to see them because we did not tell them because we did not tell them when we were arriving. It was a nice surprise. It was nice to have all of them there because the guys could carry our bags. We were brought to a house that Dario and Ashley are staying for the week. Patrick and Tony are staying at a nearby hotel. The guys start practise on Friday. We will spend all day together touring around Toronto.

Today is race practise. We wish the guys a safe practise. We sit with Ashley while they practise. She told us that tomorrow in the important day because the guys qualify for the position in the race. The fastest car is in the first position, which is on pole, as Ashley explained. We hope either Dario, Tony, or Patrick gets on pole. Secretly in my mind, I want Dario to be on pole for the race on Sunday. We will not find out until tomorrow. It will be exciting. After the guys came back from practise, they were discussing who will be faster tomorrow. Greg, Ashley, and I told them that they will all do great tomorrow. It did not matter who we wanted to be on pole position. We were proud of all of them.

Today is the big qualifying day. All three guys are are in their zone. In other words, the guys are concentrating to qualify in the best position they can. The qualifying has started. Patrick went out first to set a time to beat. After Patrick went out, it was Tony's turn, but he could not beat Patrick's time. Then a few more drivers went that we have not met, but Ashley told us the other driver's names. One driver that was on the track qualifying right now is Alex Tagliani. She told us that she and Dario met Tagliani in Montreal one night. After Tagliani's qualifying effort, there was another driver named Alex. The driver's last name is Zanardi. Ashley was telling us that Zanardi is from Italy. After Zanardi qualified, it was Dario's chance. He was whipping around the track so fast 1 am sure he would get on pole and he did. Other drivers qualified, but they could not beat Dario's time. After all the drivers qualified, Dario was on pole position for the race tomorrow. Ashley is really proud of him. I think we all are especially Greg.

Today is the big day. It is race day. Dario is on pole. Tony is in third and Patrick is in fifth. For the two Alex's, Tagliani is in sixth and Zanardi is behind Tony in fourth. The race has not started yet. We wished all five guys good luck in the race. Ashley gave Dario a good luck kiss.

The race is about to start, so Greg and I went with Ashley to sit to watch the race. The race has started the green flag has been flown. Dario is leading the race. He is about two car lengths from the driver in second position. Tony passed who was in second. Alex Zanardi is in third, Patrick is now in in forth, and Alex Tagliani is now in fifth. So out of 30 cars, our friends are all in the top five at this point in the race. The race is about two and a half hours long.

After 30 minutes, a lot of the cars have come in to get a new set of tires and fill up with fuel. Dario has a great enough lead that after the pit stops he is still in the lead. Tony, Patrick, and the two Alexes, on the other hand, are way behind Dario.

While watching the race, an English guy was sitting beside us. He started talking to us because he noticed my accent when I was talking to Greg about how the race was going. He asked me what part of England I was from. I told him I was from Coventry. Then he introduced himself to me, he said that his name was Craig Manning. He also told me that he was from London, but now lives right here in Toronto. I told him I live in Vancouver, British Columbia now. Then he recognized Ashley, he started talking to her about how great her husband was at driving.

While talking to Craig, the race was getting intense. There was a battle for second going on between Patrick and Tagliani. Both are from Quebec. Then Greg said something interesting, he said that there was a battle of Quebec going on. Both Ashley and I started laughing when Greg said this. Craig commented that both out them were great drivers, but Patrick was more skilled with position battles. The battle ended and Patrick was triumph to keep his second position behind Dario who was leading the race. Then Greg asked Craig who he wanted to in the race. Craig replied by saying Dario of course. Greg smiled when he heard Craig's answer. He told Craig that he and Dario were best friends. Then Craig asked Greg how he met Dario. Greg told him that he and Dario met on an Air Force base at the beginning of the war. Craig told him he was thankful for his service to the country. Greg just said he was just doing his job.

The last round of pit stops has ended. Dario is still leading the race. There are only ten laps to go in the race. Tony, Patrick, and the two Alex's are still in the race. Tony is now in second position. It looks as if Tony is helping Dario out by keeping the other drivers from passing him.

The last lap of the race. Dario is still two car lengths in front of Tony. It looks as if Dario is going to win the race. He just crossed the finish line with the checkered flag waving. We all stand up excited that Dario won the race. Ashley, Greg, and I go down to where the podium to congratulate Dario.

Dario is now talking to the media. He was telling them that he dedicated his win to his best friend Greg Moore who was at the race with him. Greg had tears in his eyes when he heard Dario say that. Then we went to congratulate the others, we went to Tony first because he was in second position. Patrick was in third position. Alex Tagliani was in fourth and Alex Zanardi as in fifth. Greg and I introduced ourselves to Tagliani and Zanardi. They both said it was nice to meet the best friend of the winner. They also said that they would have had fun racing against Greg if he did not get injured during the war.

When we were invited to the podium, we offered Craig to come with us. He had no hesitation because he was going to meet someone he enjoyed watching. During the celebration, Dario signed Craig's hat. Dario also signed another hat and gave it to Greg. Greg was touched.

That night after the race, Greg and I treated the guys and Ashley to dinner. We were celebrating Dario's win and thanking them for a nice time in Toronto. We are leaving in the morning for the train back to Vancouver.

This morning Greg and I are leaving Toronto and going back home. The guys and Ashley are accompanying us to the train station to say good bye and to have a safe trip home. Greg and I are now on the train. We can see our friends waving to us. We wave back to them. The train is now moving. We wave to our friends until they are out of sight. We are now on our way home.