The Docks

Wanting to take a break from the concert, we ventured outside and wandered the facilities. We found an outdoor beach-like gym area, with climbing walls and everything. There was also a large rock climbing wall nearby. Beach volleyball, Gladiator jousting, bungee rides, go-karting and a huge drive-in, all packed into one place. If I had a lot of money, I could spend days here!

Back inside, the MC held an amusing trivia contest. He gave the choice of answering an easy question or a hard question.

Jeff Healey Band

You would win a prize either way, but he said the hard questions yielded better prizes. The first few macho guys took the hard questions, weren't even close to the right answer, and left with nothing. The next couple of guys took brains over overconfidence, and asked for easy questions that even I knew the answers to. They left with 100th Anniversary jackets.

The Jeff Healey Band headlined the evening and was obviously much anticipated. The crowd was wild as they played through the hits. During "Stuck in the Middle With You,"

Balloon drop casualty.

there was a huge balloon drop, so balloons were flying and popping throughout the song. It was a great effect, and made a great movie! People kept it going for quite a long time.

After the band, we had some live big screen feeds with the Winnipeg party (the party for the Western branch of the Ride Home - the two legs were to meet the next day before continuing to Milwaukee). There were some corny speeches, some sappy singing of Happy Birthday, and there was a huge box sitting on the stage.

The CN Tower dominates the Toronto skyline as seen from the docks.

We all thought that the big surprise within was a 2004 Harley, to be previewed only by us. So it was a pretty big surprise when dancers came out and did a number to Born to Be Wild. There 's no doubt that they were good, but why dancers? Just another strange thing by Harley. I think that the entire audience still there enjoyed it, though, so all was well.

After scarfing as much free cake as we could, we headed out at around 8:00 p.m. for Babcia's house (Dad's mom - Babcia means grandmother). We had some food and then pretty much headed straight for bed. We would need the rest before doing the whole thing again in reverse - only this time, there weren't going to be any breaks. You can only guess how

Bikes in the parking lot ... and one ship.

much my butt hurt by the time we got back home to Ottawa.

So, from the music choices to the free massages, from the free food to the great facility at the end, it looks like Harley pulled this one off the way it should be. Is it because Harley of Canada was taking care of the Ride Home? Or did our neighbours down south finally realize that we do actually matter? Whatever the case, this was one trip that won't be filed under "disappointing."