15 Days To Go (August 23)

I leaped in the air and sailed across the finish line without touching the ground.

I grabbed my finisher medal, skipped the food and went looking for my family.

I never take for granted that they come down to the finish of every race and wait for me.

(Where did you get the beer?)

After they gave me my medal they offered me a beer. I LOVE CANADA!

The next morning, we packed the bike, packed our luggage and headed down the highway to the airport … with two important stops before our flight home.

First, we had to gas up the rental. I was not going to ensure a “refill“ charge on my rental.

(How did you find a gas station?)

The same way we found everything else, “Google, gas stations near me.”

We stopped at an Esso station.

(A what?)

Esso, the not American version of ExxonMobil.

(Why is it called “Esso”?)

It’s the initials of their company.

(I don’t understand)

Esso = S.O.

(S.O.?)

Standard Oil. John D. Rockefeller’s company. From 1882 until 1911, Standard Oil was Rockefeller’s petroleum monopoly. The company made so much money that Rockefeller deposits in Chase Manhattan Bank gave them controlling interest in the bank. In 1968, Robert Moses was the head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. He controlled all the toll revenue from New York City’s 22 bridges and tunnels. Moses used and abused that power at the head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority over his 30 years in power. So, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller tried to remove Moses, Moses threatened that his resignation would cause a panic with investors of the 300 million in bonds held by Chase Manhattan Bank. The governor’s response was that he had spoken to his brother David, who ran the bank for the family and the governor was happy to accept Moses’s resignation.

(So how did S.O … I mean Esso become ExxonMobil?)

Apparently, Esso didn’t market well in America, so in 1973 they changed the name from Standard Oil of New Jersey to Exxon. In 1999 Exxon became ExxonMobil.

After the fill up we needed lunch and I wanted authentic kosher Canadian food.

Growing up in a kosher home, in the 1970s and 1980s…

(Man, you are old.)

…we had lots of food commercials, not a lot of kosher versions of those foods.

(Just how old are you?)

I remember having to ask friends traveling to Israel to bring us back gum and M&Ms.

(There was a time when M&Ms weren’t kosher?)

No M&Ms, no Oreos, no Pepperidge Farms, no Entenmann’s…

(So, what is authentic kosher Canadian?)

Certainly, not Canadian bacon.

(Maple syrup?)

Poutine.

(What is that?)

French fries with cheese and gravy.

(You know that French fries aren’t French, right?)

They’re not? Are they Belgian?

(Potatoes are from Inca in modern day Peru/Chile. The Spanish first brought the vegetable back to Europe and fried it in the 1600s.)

Wait … what did Jews eat for kugel before the 1600s?

(As Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin says, a topic for another time.)

Anyway … back to Poutine.

My non-Jewish, triathlon friend John Young has mentioned this dish of his home country so many times, I had to try it before we left town.

(How was kosher poutine?)

I now get the fascination with the super-cheesy dish.

(Check that one off your list?)

Yup.

(What’s left to try?)

Whatever they make kosher in Nice, France when we get to the Ironman World Championships in two weeks. It was time to go home and enter the final stage of my training. There was one more “mountain” left to summit before I was sure that I was going to be ready…

David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6.

He can be reached at [email protected].