Finding Talbot Road

Date: 7/23/2022

Driving lost with Dwayne E riding shotgun, we see the turbulent waters through tall, pastel buildings and I know it is Lake Erie so Talbot Road must be close. Talbot Road runs through all these ports. Dwayne leans out the window for a picture of the surf with his phone and I stop between buildings so he can get a good one. His first time. I should give him my phone for a picture for me, too, but I don't. We drive on, reading each sign, but no Talbot. We could ask someone. We stop at a University and ask some students who don't know. One starts pointing at the sky and says we have to go South and then come back West to find it. Sounds crazy. "Let's find a middle-aged man," I recommend, and we walk back outside. There is a tall stone wall we must climb to get to the side of the road, where a middle-aged man is waiting to cross. Have to put my fingers in the cracks between rocks to pull myself up to where I must balance on a rock ledge under an overhanging bridge. Very unnerving. "Colonel Talbot was a great man?" DE asks/says. "Bit of an asshole," I reply. DE approaches the man and asks where Talbot Road is. The man says, "Ah, more Talbot abusers..." and assure him we are not. He gives us the same directions as the kids, but points to a grove of trees on the cliffs. "Turn the car round up there and come back. You can only see it driving West." The directions make sense now but I just realize I must climb back down the wall blind this time because I'm on top and won't be able to see the cracks. DE is already down. I am afraid. I can just hang off the edge and drop. It is lunch time. I enter a Cajun cottage restaurant. There are only four tables, and three are taken. "Standing room only," I joke. The waitress seats me and hands me a menu. There is a large bun wrapped in tinfoil on my chair. A local man comes in and sees I am at his usual table. He sits at the side of the table by the newspapers and orders his coffee. I am glad I haven't usurped him.