Tour Buses and Cellphones

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When touring your own country by bus or car, try and make visits
to coincide with local heritage, agricultural or music shows.

Cellphones have plus and minus. Plus, because calls, texts and chats have helped solve murders. Minus because, they make women who don’t work outside the home, very lonely. Husbands and kids come through the door looking at their phones. They’ll put them down when it’s time for bed. They don’t talk to the person who makes a home, a home.

Another minus is self-induced stupidity. Summer is here. Some people might decide to do Canada by taking a tour bus. Great idea. Driving is no fun if you have to keep your eyes on unfamiliar mountain roads. What mountains? They don’t see them because they are glued to cellphones.

The joy of tour buses is seeing a country unfold. I once took a bus from Winnipeg to British Columbia. We drove through Saskatchewan. We had a washroom break in Alberta and to change drivers. I thought that was neat. We were in safe and fresh hands. The problem was me. I thought we were entering British Columbia, because of the mountains and the up and down of the land.

We were still in Alberta. Such beauty! I then realized the power of marketing. British Columbia is a peacock province. It thinks it’s more beautiful than the other nine Canadian provinces and three territories. I expected British Columbia to be more beautiful than Alberta, because of car registration plates: Beautiful British Columbia. Now, that is what I call beating your own drum.

What’s the point of taking a tour bus across your country, but miss the nuances between provinces or states, because your phone has you under house arrest?

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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