Lunch at Mirasol's was good today. But it was more like the Lost Ark reward at the end of the adventure trek like Indiana Jones racing through catacombs and dodging poisonous darts, rolling boulders and giant spiders and snakes. Leave work for a late lunch at Mirasols on Beaverhill Road, drive three-quarters counter-clockwise around town instead of easy quarter clockwise trip two minutes away, stopped at train tracks since lights were flashing. Train was stopped 100 feet off the crossing beside A&W. But lights are flashing.
Stop. It's the law.
Drove behind VERY slow driver who thinks school zones are in effect when schools aren't. Found construction detour sign that was pointing at the ground beneath sign, that can't be right. Got on the right road, drove up towards RONA and the apartments. Slowed down to see just how perfectly aligned the road beside RONA is with the ATB intersection across the stupid tracks, kept rolling, bouncing over useless tracks that serve no purpose now we have a complete railyard downtown - but are still there because ... why?? Rolled past the cool, but defunct water tower, considered driving down dusty back road to Home Hardware, but got scared Jeep might get stuck. Continued to next intersection and had to decipher cryptic, spray-painted billboard plywood signs with arrows. Very professional. How much was the low bid?? Turn right and drive further away from restaurant that I can actually see to the left from the intersection, lose sight of restaurant, follow tiny sign with restaurant's name scribbled on it with little arrow taped to construction sign, drove through huge cloud of dust and dirt kicked up by huge machine carrying huge mound of dust and dirt along dusty and dirty ditch, made another left turn as the little white sign instructed. Drove past residential area, immediately into industrial zone. Watched three construction crew workers who were watching two construction workers. They got me. Damn I always fall for that 'what are they looking at?' ploy. I tried to look at what was happening in the big hole blocking the back entrance to the RCMP detachment. Damn. Nothing. Just a hole. blocking one of two exits to one of the most important emergency buildings in the region, Drove around a dump truck just sitting in the middle of the dusty road, veered through the Edcon parking lot, wondered why the guy in the giant earthmover seemed to be sleeping in the the vehicle that was idling across from the hole the workers were looking at, tried to figure out if it mattered which dusty dirt trail to drive over to get the side of Mirasol's. Left or right? Took right. Waited for guy in very bright construction reflective shirt wearing a hard hat, safety glasses and work pants to pull something wooden out of the back of his white company truck that was taking up half of the dusty trail on the right. Waved to bright shirt guy. He looked up and spat into the dirt. Turned the corner of the building and parked in front of Mirasol's, just to the right of the snazzy pink girls' port-a-potty in the parking lot. Classy. Not many people in there after lunch ... since it was now well after lunch that we actually got there. Philly cheese steak burger was great. It gave me the strength to venture out again into the driving test that is the Beaverhill Road construction area. Remember it's only going to be like this all summer and a bit of the fall, so head over to Home Hardware, OK Ford, CALA, Mirasol's, the police station or any Venture Industrial park businesses soon ... before the adventure is all gone.
