BC, CALIFORNIA, ALBERTA, B.C.
September 3, 2010


Our first “stepping out” was to Kamloops, BC to spend time with childhood friends and help in laying a new hardwood floor. Lots of work, lots of wine and lots of laughs made the time fly by. Then it was back to Canmore for two weeks where the owner of an apartment condo was away and we were to cat sit…one of our favourite things as we love cats. One slight problem though…we couldn’t get in. Slumped against the door after a long drive, jigging the key to “make” it work and whining while the cat on the other side of the door was curious as to what was happening and also whining. We decided to call a locksmith at a ridiculous price to get us in. Some time later, actually 90 minutes later, after much complaining that the locksmith wasn’t answering his phone even though the ad says “24 Hour Service”, I realized I was using the wrong key. Yes indeedy, correct key in hand, we got in, fed Angel the cat, and crashed for the night.

Still in Canmore we helped a friend move her stuff from her storage unit which we had moved once before for her while she was away. An absolutely useless moving item, a one meter long piece of 2x4 on which we had inscribed during the last move “Do you really need this!?” was found, photographed and…ditched.

Mid-July we headed south and found a place to rent for September and October near Penticton the day before we were crossing into the US…we cut it a touch short. Driving through Idaho and Oregon, we came across a national park which at one time was the site of the largest waterfall in the world. Having not been there 10’s of thousands of years ago when the waterfall was, it comes to mind as to how that is a certainty. In any case, it was apparently 400 feet (120 meters) high and 3.5 miles (6 kilometers) wide. Now a shadow of its former self, the gorge is nonetheless impressive.

Lakeview, Oregon, a really windy sparsely inhabited area, was our camping site for three nights. It was on Juniper Ranch, a small spread of 8000 acres. Here is where we experienced the most frivolous use of a cell phone ever. A man in a toilet stall calls a relative to tell them “all is well”. Not sure if he was referring to his travels or his bowel movements and we didn’t ask. The nearby town had a 50s style diner with 50¢ coffee with endless refills and a waitress who calls everybody “honey” and who has a second job…as the county tax collector. We asked her if she claimed her tips as taxable income. She didn’t answer…just smiled.

Then on to a superb KOA campground (with fresh straw tent sites) near Lassen National Park in northern California. We had a Swiss family camp near us at one point and were given Swiss chocolate, the last they had, because we were “funny”. No explanation needed. Hot sunny days made for amazing bike riding on the road up to a pass in the park near a 1914 explosion similar to Mount St. Helens. Steam vents, hot bubbling mud and 30 cm long pine cones makes for a magical place. There in mid-July, we weren’t able to use the picnic tables as the abnormally high snow fall last winter meant there was still one and a half meters of snow!! Most of the hiking trails were still closed with lakes still having over 30 cm of ice. Temperatures at 35C and clear skies topped it all off. Having problems with our camera, we drove into town to buy another. One thing led to another and we lost all the pictures we had taken till then. Luckily we were still at Lassen and simply took them again.

On to the coast of northern California. Route 299 winds through the Trinity Valley with rugged hills and a river made for rafting. A bit isolated in Weaverville we were sent to the post office when we asked where we could buy a newspaper. The town is an old mining center with preserved buildings and attitudes. Great place. Once on the coast we were welcomed with fog and 12C weather. Shorts became long pants; t-shirts became fleece jackets. Yuck!! At the KOA campground near Manchester some were lip-syncing to “Frosty the Snowman”. How fitting. Riding bike in July on the California coast with drenching fog and 13C is like going through a cold shower. We were warmed by the sighting just offshore of four whales, two females and their calves. To stay warmed we and many of the campers met in the evening at the large communal campfire. There we met Dillon, Chris and Travis…”The 3 Goofs”. They were lots of laughs to be around. They came to our site one day with a rented pedal car intent on giving us a ride. Having no life insurance, I declined while Dawn, not clear on what was about to happen, jumped on. The combination of fear and laughter was something to see. Dillon and Chris gave us rocks on which they painted bugs to remind us how they had “bugged” us. Just the opposite, we told them…they were amazing to be around and made us laugh. We miss them.

One of the towns near us was Mendocino, a touristy though not over the top old coastal town with a simple atmosphere, sincere people, smiles and a rugged coast. Refurbished watch/water towers makes this artsy place unique. This village is a must-see.

Our drive south along the coast continued in sometimes very dense fog. Considering the drop-offs into the ocean, extremely twisty narrow roads and barely able to see to your front bumper made this exciting and very tiring. As bad as we thought the weather was, the locals complained even more. Nothing, however, that breakfast in a restaurant built over an old dock in Bodega Bay where Alfred Hitchcock filmed part of his famous movie “The Birds” couldn’t fix. It wasn’t the food, although it was good. It was the sight of large seals going after their breakfast, “fish on the run”. The poor fish, once nabbed, were flung about by the seals just for fun. Attacked again, this time eaten, provided leftovers for the seagulls.

We arrived near Santa Rosa, a bit inland, to the Buddhist center we belong to and where we would be spending the next month in a retreat. This was Dawn’s third time here and my sixth. It was great to see friends such as Mark and Mike again. The intense practice period called Ango, meaning Peaceful Dwelling, is a very special time for us. It is demanding in all ways and we look forward to it. Leaving a month later is difficult, already having thoughts of returning. Dawn celebrated her birthday here with special raspberry/blackberry pies made in her honour. This time we needed to leave a few days early to attend a wedding back in Canmore. We had mentioned to the bride that we probably would not attend before we left Canada but she wouldn’t hear of it.

Four days after that we were in Kaledan, a small hamlet near Penticton in the southern Okanagan in southern British Columbia, where we had rented a place the day before entering the US seven weeks earlier. Sunny skies, warm temperatures, lakes, vineyards and cheap wine made it like home coming.

We’ll be here for six weeks before heading back to Canmore to house and cat sit.

Stay tuned.

By the way…a great poster we saw on the coast of California read,
“Too Few Richards…….…Too Many Dicks”.