The morning dawned bright and clear first thing in the morning I took Olivia back to the skate park which happened to be a short walk away.
After that was more homeschooling and lunch before we returned to the Walmart we had stayed at the night before last. Around the corner from that Walmart was a cheap second run movie theater that was showing Nomadland. We had heard a lot about this movie since it is about people living in their RV’s. We went to the movie theater which was in a run down shopping mall and entered through a non-descript door where we found a small counter run by a very old couple. Most of the lights were off and it was quite dark. They asked to see our proof of vaccination but let us slide when we pointed out that we were Americans and all American visitors must be vaccinated to enter Canada. The price was right though at CAD$2.50 a ticket and $1 for popcorn and $1 for a small soda. We even sprung for a medium soda for $1.50 LOL!
We entered the theater itself and it was completely empty lit only by the exit lights. Holly was totally creeped out by this and to be fair the entire setting was a bit like something out of the Twilight Zone. It was a relief a couple of minutes later the movie started and we literally had a private showing as no one else showed up. The screen wasn’t the largest but that was perfectly fine for a movie like Nomadland. As for the movie itself, it portrayed a completely different experience than ours. The nomads there are generally older people working itinerant temporary jobs at Amazon warehouses, RV Park camp hosts, or park guides. We are lucky enough not to have to work and just travel around enjoying life and checking out new things. We don’t have to worry about paying an unexpected bills, if something breaks we just pay to repair it and we have never had to pee in a bucket although we came really close a few times when our sewage tank was full.
After the movie we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner. Once again we were asked to show proof of vaccination and this time they didn’t let us slide so we had to go back to Rover to get our vaccine cards. It turns out that there is a new regulation that as of September 1 all restaurants, café’s and movie theaters had to verify proof of vaccination for all customers. This was somewhat annoying but it did make us feel safer since you can’t eat with a mask on and now we knew that all our fellow diners were vaccinated. I suspect it will also encourage the vaccine hesitant to go get their shot. There are some vaccine doubters in Canada but it seems to be less of an issue and Canada continues to be way ahead of the US in percentage of population vaccinated. Meanwhile cases, hospitalizations and deaths in parts of the US have surpassed the levels seen in the spring while a few state governors have banned mask mandates. Happy we are in Canada. The next day we left Montreal and drove to Quebec City. It was only a 3 hour drive but we left late, drove slow and arrived early at a Walmart on the outskirts of the city where we bedded down for the night so we could explore the city tomorrow