Canada Rocks
Well it’s going, and fairly quickly. I headed back to B.E.A.U.tiful Bakersfield, and repacked my life possessions. Which I was dismayed to find has swollen to the size of 2 full subaru loads. 1.5 of these were stowed in Evil’s storage unit, and the other half load (which is about a quarter load more than I need) I couldn’t be bothered to sort through, and brought with me, just ’cause.
So 10pm I gassed up and hit the road for the 19h drive up to Victoria BC. 4.5h in and I made Sacramento, found the WalMart, and rolled out my sleeping bag in front of the Subie. 4h later the sun woke me up, so I moved around to the shaded side of the subie, and slept 3 more hours.
$160 on gas
$11 on food
10 minutes helping a homeless fellow change a bicycle chain in Chehalis WA
4h of e-bay packaging, shipping, and e-mail confirmations
Drive. check e-mail at best western. drive. pack 10 e-bay auctions and mail them out. e-mail confirm package shipment.
Finding out that you can buy items from box stores in tax free states (OR, AK, NH…) and if you return them in other states you can get a tax refund.
Profit $3.17
Joy at ’sticking it to the man’: Endless
This worked for WalMart, does Not work at REI.
Canada ROCKS.
The weather here in southern BC has been perfect. This is 5 of their 100 sunny days this year, and I am glad that I have been able to enjoy it. I was up in Tofino for Nic’s wedding. It is interesting to be at a wedding where you only know 2 people (niether being the bride or groom) but beach front, sunshine splendor.
Niki and I hiked the ’secret’ bomber trail. Which was muddy, and swampy. When it wasn’t that we were on
sphagnum moss, which is spongy, we sunk 30cm into the 2m deep fluff. The reward is a WW2 bomber which during the fog had flown directly into the hillside. It is very intact, and debris, motors announce that we are nearing the crash site. Pretty damn cool - worth the 90 minutes if you are ever up in that neck of the woods.
On the ferry ride back to the mainland I saw a pod of Orcas. Not Shamus, but real live, in the wild, breaching, jumping, flopping their fins. The most I ever saw on the surface was 10, so it couldn’t have been good for the local pescados.
In Victoria/ Vancouver BC, recycling bins are regular occurrences. One restaurant I went in (noodle box) has composting, glass and cardboard recycling instead of the ‘everything to the landfill’ of most places.
A ‘Malibu-Stlye’ girl blades by, and the strangers on the sidewalk join me in silicone mockery. Also very cool, I like this place.
Maybe I will start kayaking. After I take back the Faulkner Marathon record… and come back from the arctic with my Dad.
So you plan to take back the Faulkner marathon record? Which marathon do you plan to run? Justin is running one next weekend in Ottawa, but we are not expecting a very fast time because he hasn’t had time to train much. At the end of September he is signed up for a 50km trail run (www.runforthetoad.com) and maybe you should come and duke it out with him then.
Comment by Kelly soon to be sister-in-law — May 19, 2007 @ 9:24 pm
Glad you made it to Bomber trail it was one of my favourites in Tofino. Have a great trip with your dad and sorry I didn’t get to see you this time.
Comment by Sam — May 19, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
Re: the Faulkner marathon record
Despite my pessimism, I managed to drop your goal to 3:04 (www.runottawa.ca)
Comment by Toad — May 28, 2007 @ 9:07 pm
Techniclly, i don’t think this is a bomber. It is or, the TAIL (Empenage) section looks very much like a PBY Catalina. It was a twin engine sea plane (101 foot wingspan) primarily used by the USN for search and rescue of downed pilots at sea. It was also used to fly long night missions into Japanes territory, painted flat black, they were called the “Black Cats”. They were very slow (less than 140 miles/hour) but gained respect of Jap army when rescuing pilots close to action. Black cats would fly into target (harbor) and bomb ships at night etc. I met a WW2 pilot whom said he flew them. When he saw crashed fighters on barges he was glad he was a PBY pilot. This aircraft was obsoleted when WW2 started but was used throughout the war.
Comment by Jeff Perkins — April 22, 2008 @ 4:30 am