It was raining lightly and a smidge chilly while we all waited outside for the bus. One of the elevators was shut down, so it took a while for everyone to get down to the lobby since we were all hauling luggage. But good spirits remained.

Once the bus arrived, the bags were loaded and everyone had boarded, we started our journey back to Toronto. Goodbye Days' Inn. Goodbye Timmins.

We stopped at a truck stop for breakfast after we'd been on the road for a couple hours (I think). Then it was back to the bus. Rene had created a couple of games to pass the time and passed those out for us to work on. One was to identify which videos the pictures on the game were from. Sounds very simple, but alas... the photos were all extreme close-ups of Shania's beautiful face. That made it much more challenging. I didn't do too bad on that one, though. I believe I got 29 right. The next one was nuts! It was again extreme close-ups, but it was of events - appearances, award shows, magazines, etc. The one I wanted to slap myself upside the head for was a close up of Shania's face from the cross-stitch that Debbie had done of Cody meets The Girl! Hello!!! It's on my living room wall, and I didn't get it until Rene gave the clue that it involved somebody on this bus. Well... actually, it involved several somebodies. Ha! Debbie created the incredible stitch, Cody was in the picture, Sam took the picture, and I had my fingertips on Cody's arm in the picture. Duh moment, Sher.

We were able to share a little tiny bit, too. Before we left for Timmins, Sam and I had some concerns about how Cody would handle the number of people, the noise, jet lag, etc. And we were also concerned about how everyone would react to him. Those bus rides from Toronto and back are long, and let's face it, autism can be intimidating and a challenge, even if you are familiar with it. In a small gesture of our gratitude for everyone's patience, tolerance, and as it turned out assistance, we wanted to give our friends a small momento from the folks from Hawaii. So we passed a bag of pins around the bus. It's a minute gesture, but we hope it brings a smile or a memory to the surface whenever those pins are come across.

We stopped in Huntsville (right?) for lunch, and then drove on to Toronto. Tracy invited anyone interested to dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. Once again, I knew it would probably be wiser to just rest up in the evening after the long bus ride and knowing the next day at the airport could be a mess, but we couldn't say no. We still were unable to let go of this group.

The Stay Inn in Toronto did not impress us much. I have a hunch they were simply unable to manage such a large group, but still, it was quite an inconvenience. Jack and Debbie Smith (and Linda and Rene) were not able to put their luggage in their room because it was not cleaned yet (we arrived in the evening). Our 2 German girls had no room at ALL in spite of their reservations. And again, we were dragging luggage up the stairs because they have no elevators. The Smith gang left their luggage in "the Hawaii room" until their room was ready. The bus waited until everyone was taken care of before we left, so once everyone HAD a room and the rooms were cleaned and ready, we headed into the city for dinner.

Wow... Toronto has huuuge buildings and beautiful architecture. FV had wanted to go to the CN Tower, but Linda said it was currently closed down. On to plan B. The Spaghetti Factory was wonderful. Another meal that Cody could just dig into - and he did. On his face, his hands, his shirt.... We sat in a booth with Tom and Sharon and enjoyed reminiscing about this convention and conventions past.

Once the crowded, noisy atmosphere got to be too much for Cody, Sam started to take him out. Sharon stood and said she'd be happy to go open up the bus for him to give him a nice break. People.... helping people.

She couldn't start up the bus yet, so we sat in the bus in the dark. It was very restful and quiet and gave us a chance to take a nice long look at Toronto's architecture. Just beautiful.

The drive back to the hotel was a bit more subdued. We'd just bid a fond aloha to Sheldon at the restaurant, and the final farewells were minutes away. Not good. I was already fighting back tears just waiting to get off the bus once we'd reached the Stay Inn. Way not good.

There were many, many hugs and LOTS of tears with each of those hugs. The friends we'd already known who are so precious to us and the new friends who were once only names and who are now treasures were just so difficult to let go of. And seeing Cody hugging some people did NOT help stop those tears. God bless.