Some pics from the road.

1. Hula Dog... our vans mascot. I gave him a funky new sarong instead of the lame hula skirt he came with. Notice the dragon pattern. He jives all day as we add up the mileage.

2. Ice on the tires on the way from Toronto to North Bay. Nature meets machine.

3 & 4. The Mondragon Coffee Shop and Bookstore in Winnipeg. This place is run according to the mondragon principles of participatory economics. It is run and owned by its workers. I looked into this system a few years ago and I have future plans of building a mondragon film company. It's a very interesting concept and you can read more about the coffee shop at, http://www.a-zone.org/mondragon/about_us.html and you can read more about the origins of mondragon at, http://www.mcc.es/ing/index.asp I really like the idea of worker owned organizations.

5. This is a shot of Glen Murray's bridge. The story as I heard it from Glen Murray himself goes like this. Glen Murray became mayor of Winnipeg and had to build a new bridge. So all these developers brought him plans of new fancy bridges. One problem. All the bridges were designed for cars. Glen asked that they come back with a design for a bridge that involved people. The picture displays the design that obviously won. A nice bridge with a restaurant where people can walk, talk and eat. I heard about this bridge at a creative city conference and was really excited to see it in person. I must say though I am a little disappointed. The bridge is beautiful and I like the walking pedestrian aspect but the restaurant is a Salisbury House! Like what the %$#*! They build this amazing structure and incorporate people and then they throw down a chain restaurant. What makes it worse in my opinion is that this bridge is located right next to The Forks where the Assiniboine River meets the Red River.. this is historical site with amazing Aboriginal history. http://www.theforks.com/ Why not put a restaurant on the bridge that pays tribute to this location? Why not have a restaurant that educates people about traditional Native cuisine.. or even some cool fusion of Native and North American... but a Salisbury.. "home of the nip".. I don't get it.

Anyway that's my rant. I'm sure Glen Murray didn't have much to do with the restaurant choice... and I've heard that the mayor who followed Glen overturned many of his plans of public transit making Winnipeg a walkable, livable city. It's a shame that we seem to lack the ability to follow through with real vision without messing it up. It's a shame there aren't more visionaries like Glen Murray in politics. And it's a shame that in the end it seems the message remains CARS & Restaurant Franchises RULE!! and don't you ever forget it!! Ok, maybe I'm being a little dramatic... but I'm so disappointed.

peace,
d