Bus Trip to Montreal

Pumpkin and Genki enjoy the early hours outside

It's about 7:45am. I didn't really get any sleep (as you might see by the last blog entry). Every time I'd lie down, I'd remember something I forgot to pack. This happened for a few hours and by the time I actually went to sleep is was about 6:00am.

About an hour and a half later I was woken up by scratching at the door. It was Genki. Genki usually is the cat to scratch at the door while pumpkin just watches and takes in the fruits of the other cats labour. That would be me getting up and letting him out. Genki still shy of the outdoors made a bit of progress today in that he stepped right to the edge of the doorwar before being scared back in by a passing car.


Genki stands in the doorway

I fed the cats and left the house to make the 9:20 GO bus. Pumpkin tried to make a break for it but couldn't navigate all my luggage before I swooped down on him and shoved him back inside. By 10:15am I was in Hamilton. By 10:30 I was at the Plucker. My timing couldn't have been better as I arrived so did the sandwiches and fruit.


Breakfast at the Plucker


Waiting for the bus at the Plucker


The team bus

The plan was to have breakfast at the Plucker, then get on the bus and leave at noon. We left at 12:30, which wasn't too bad considering all the gear we had to load on. Food, Skate gear, DVDs to watch during the trip, even anti-stink fluid for the on board bathroom.



Ivy holding a jar of anti-stink fluid for the bus bathroom


Roller girls on a bus

The trip started like any other. People get seated, bus pulls away heading to the destination (Montreal), people starting to fall asleep. Then the beer made it's way out. Beer and energy drinks. According to people at the front of the bus nothing much happened. Carla ripped the panties off of danger mouse but that was about it. In the back however that was another story.

From a ref getting his pants pulled down at least three times to be ass grabbed, to that same ref being boob slapped in the face, to riots with little bags of funyuns, beer spillage, wrestling, fighting, throwing bus head rests at one another, and clambering to see who could get to the bathroom first. It was not a good place to be (in the back of the bus) should you want to sleep. As for taking action photos that's another story.


Scotty stays true to the image on the badge


smoke break


Funyuns - evil and mischief defined


Roller Girls + crammed bus = fight.


The roller girls at the Harvey's in Kingston

In Kingston the bus stopped for a rest break. Across the street there was a Harvey's. I don't think they knew what hit them. All I remember was one of the girls working there almost jumped when she heard Ivy enter the restaurant with her colourful banter. "Whoa! That's not necessary.", she said. I looked around at the other older ladies that worked behind the counter. The harsh use of language could actually be peeling the paint of the walls if Harvey's actually had paint on the walls.

Being around derby girls the use of the words "fuck", "bitches", "lick my nut sack" (yes, this saying also coming from a girl) are so commonly used it's like white noise to me. I sometimes forget that other people still get shocked when they hear a small girl saying these things. It didn't help that half the girls were wearing death row dames jackets. The Harvey's workers probably thought we got off a bus heading to a jail or something.


Matt Jelly sings WKRP

"Baby, if you ever wondered,
Wondered whatever became of me...
I'm living on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP.

Got kind of tired of packing and unpacking,
town to town, up and down the dial.
Maybe you and me were never meant to be,
Just maybe think of me once in a while,
I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati."

I managed to change seats when we got back on the bus. I moved to the front, the more quiet part of the bus wanting to sleep. I think I got a few minutes in before being woken up by Adam blabbing on the bus speaker. Still tired I didn't quite make any of it out only the part where he was introducing Matt Jelly and WKRP. While I wasn't sure why Matt was singing WKRP he did a pretty good rendition. Before long we were staopping for another smoke break.

By 8:30pm we were in Montreal, in front of the Quality Inn on Avenue du Parc and Rue Sherbrook Ouest. It was nutty. The hotel lobby was filled with half drunk and some completely drunk roller girls and refs all wanting to get checked in.


Danger Mouse gets squished by the elevator door

After Leah, Craig and I got a room, we started unpacking. A few minutes later our door opened with the bus driver. Whoops. He was given our room number by mistake and all our card keys were not valid anymore.

Down at the front desk we found we weren't the only ones to be given the same room as someone else. This was the bus drivers second try. Eventually it was all sorted out and we made our way back to our room to get ready to go to the registration and film showing of "Hell on Wheels".

It was good seeing all the Montreal derby people who I've gotten to know only through other encounters in other cities and on facebook. Susan Moss, a photographer based in Montreal was selling a nifty hard cover book called Roller Girls for $25. I picked up a copy. To see more of the Montreal derby league (click here) and maybe even pick up a copy of Susan's great derby book from the online store (click here)


Alyssa Kwasny hands out wrist bands


Leah and I get food at a Thai place just east of St. Laurent on St. Catherines.