Camaros as far as the eye can see
My family and I just arrived home from Ontario yesterday. We’d gone to Oshawa, ON for the GM Camaro Homecoming & Camaro Nationals, hosted by the Ontario Camaro Club, and the Buyers & Builders Meet & Greet, organized by some of the people on the Camaro5.com forums. After the Camaro events, my family stuck around for a couple days to do some sightseeing. Here are a few things we learned:
- There are plenty of people who are way more crazy about Camaros than I am. I already knew this, but only now do my husband and daughter get it.
- The GM factory in Oshawa is amazing! Even though we’d seen it featured in an episode of Amazing Factories on the National Geographic channel, the show didn’t do the place justice. Very automated, very high-tech, yet more work still performed by people than we thought.
New Buick Regals are made on the same production line as Camaros – right in with the Camaros (about every tenth car or so).- People are really friendly in Ontario.
- Black, red, yellow, white, and silver are much more popular Camaro colors than green, dark blue, orange, dark metallic red, dark gray, and aqua. I also already knew this, but the car show and factory made it much more apparent. Aqua blue was discontinued early on, and green was a limited edition, but I was surprised at how few dark blue Camaros there were.
- Mountain Dew is hard to find in Canada. There are Pepsi machines all over the place – and none of them have Mountain Dew!
When you do find it (mostly in carry-outs), it’s caffeine-free. (WTF????)- Stores close really early, at least in Oshawa. Everything pretty much shut down after 5 on Saturday, except for bars and restaurants.
- Traffic on the highway around Toronto is horrendous, but on the surface streets, isn’t that bad.
- Southern Ontario is about 10 deg. F cooler than Ohio.
- The building on Rush’s Moving Pictures album is Toronto’s Old City Hall. I don’t know why I didn’t know this before, but I recognized it as soon as I saw it. It’s an amazingly beautiful building, with ornately carved trim and a huge clock tower, flanked by four gargoyles.
There are a lot of record stores in Toronto, particularly on Queen St, which is an eclectic area rife with street artists and musicians. Yes, I’m talking vinyl records, especially old collectible items and obscure indie pop (which my daughter loves).- There is a castle in Toronto. Casa Loma was built by Sir Henry Pellat, a turn-of-the-century entrepreneur and commander in the Queen’s Own Rifles. It’s absolutely amazing, and pictures don’t do it justice.