Tuesday, October 27, 2009

From North of the Border

I'm sitting in a Vancouver public library. I spent the past week in Bellingham and drove across the border into Canada for the first time last evening. First impression: Vancouver's very clean, but I guess that should be expected with the Olympics coming.

Bellingham was pleasant, and I'll be returning this weekend for Halloween I expect. Last Thursday I borrowed my friend's bike and took the ferry to Orcas Island, which turned out to be larger than I expected. I rode his mountain bike 22 miles to the top of Mt. Constitution, and then enjoyed a single track hiking trail down from the top, killer climb but worth it for the view and the ride. I hopped into a few intramural soccer games Sunday night in the rain on the Western University Campus, it felt great to be out there. Today I'll be heading up the Sea to Sky Highway, from Vancouver up to Whistler, and hoping to possibly land a job in Whistler or Squamish for the winter, we'll see.

People continue to be the reason for my most memorable experiences. After cramping up on the bike on my return trip to the ferry and resting on the side of the road, I was offered a ride from a nice gal in a pick up. Then again once my chain came off for the umpteenth time and this time was bent and was unrepairable, another guy stopped, held up traffic, and gave me a ride all the way back to the ferry, in the dark and far out of his way. Then staying in a town for an extended amount of time allows meeting so many more people. Meeting friends and hanging with friends of friends and so on, hearing their stories and what they've done and where they've been always gives energy to keep going and meet even more. That coupled with the beautiful surroundings of changing leaves and evergreen hills and water everywhere, makes this whole thing pretty fun.

1 comment:

Carol said...

Hi Trav! great to hear about your adventures! love you, mom