August 2008

roadtrip 2008

No i'net, so this will send when I return to civilization. This hippy surfer tourist town would look at me and say "what you need internet for?" We had a hundred dollar supper at a restaurant on the water front. it was perfect and tasty, but after the tip, cost a hundred bucks. Dan says that's about right. I says "oh my fucking god, I just ate a hundred dollar supper!"
It was good. The view was superb too. Such a pretty place with misty mountains stretching past the bay and otters in the sea below sneaking around the docks.
The surf on the beaches is so good it's a world class surfer destination. The forest is old growth rain forest with trees that stretch like skyscrapers in chicago. So green and still and deep and old that you just feel elevated.
The hotelier here, he's a german guy, around 50yrs old, beard, wooly hair, dirty harley shirt, jeans, and a kind of crazy way that's either a really good guy, or a really scary psycho, and since he's got keys to the place (and used 'em a couple times for our "benefit") I guess we'll know by morning which one, huh?
You can see the bay from here and everything smells of the sea. Salt water, seaweed, dead fish, you know. Kinda neat, kinda stinky, all over groovy.
The town is a weird mix. Hippies hitching with dreadlocks in their causian hair (which really means they don't have combs). Tourists with belly purses and grey hair pointing and smiling. (almost us) Foreign languages. drunken young adults laughing loudly as they spill out over streets that defy gravity. Locals acting bored and going about ordinary lives in the midst of these cash cows. Surfers. Oh you know them. They wear casually wealthy clothes with sandals and don't groom more than once a week. They have confidently sloppy postures and intense eyes.
Then there's the eagle that flies over your head so close you can define his white and brown feathers. As if he were a common seagull or crow instead of a noble bald eagle. Just hanging out, no big deal.... Deep telescope eyes in front of sharp yellow hooked beak.
Over the bay is the impossibly remote reservation. I wonder where the electrical lines run but I know they get in and out by boat across the bay. There's even a couple of haida canoes down by the dock. Cool.
Our room. Weird place. It was cheap at $110 for the night for 2 ppl and a dog, but it's gross, and yet it's huge. Almost as much space as our house! There's a front room with a filthy hideabed couch, some incredibly cheap furniture and the obligatory tv. A bathroom off it separates it from the bedroom out back. The bed is decent but the carpet is not. The dresser bureau is cheap. The furniture seems afloat in a sea of cheap renovations with cheap laminate flooring out front, stained carpet in back, and basic almost nice panelling and wall paper on the walls.

There are mountains and sea, mist and even snow peaks all around. So deeply touching that I just want to bow down and kiss the good earth. I tasted the salt water, just because, well, you know, I was drunk and it tasted salty.

Yesterday I was in a more civilized suburb of Victoria and there were smart car people got together in my honor. :) That was so cool. Bombing around crazy twisty roads with four other smart cars, our weird little cars all in a row!
Speaking of twisty roads, oh my freaking god. The road from Port Alberni to Tofino is just as crazy as I remember, but WAY more fun in our little luxury go-kart. Twisting, narrow, climbing and dropping with surprise views of lakes, waterfalls, and miles of mountains everywhere you least expect them. The road has been worn and torn and washed away and patched and repatched so even if you think you can handle the turns, the bumps are waiting to rip off your axles. In case you are made cautious, some mad local is bearing down on your bumper exhorting you to higher speeds...
We lost our camera on the ferry. I kinda mind losing it because I mind losing it, but it's a great opportunity to upgrade and really there's no pics we couldn't already find professionally shot online. It's just pics, you know? I do wish I had the one of our smart car in front of the massive glacier bus, and the pretty blue glacier ice. In Seattle at the thrift store I found these AWESOME platform shit-kicker boots. they're vinyl and cheap sketchers but so dramatic in black. The tops climb up my ankles to that mid-ankle height like Doc Martens. The round toes top 2" of sole and the heels are somewhat over 5" but not quite 6" These massive boots say "ow my goddam feet are killing me!" But I can't resist wearing them anyway. They really go with my spiked dog collar and black bustier. In coastal cities you kinda need to go dramatic.
Seattle. Yawn. I mean, okay, it's a big city. The freeway structures are pretty cool. But after the CN tower in Toronto, the space needle is just a good view. I did like the harbourfront okay, but the neon and kitsch was a bit much. We probably missed the neighborhood I would have liked. There was one highlight. I finally tasted Krispy Kreme donuts....
Oh dear.
I'm ruined for life. Canada simply hasn't got anything like that. Nothing. Not one patch on those donuts. Wow. Just wow. Okay already, I understand the fuss when they supposedly opened some branches north of the border! We did see the glacier in Banff and lake louise too.
We've stayed in campgrounds and motels on this tour. The motels are always cheap, we spot out the grody looking ones because we want to save money. The campgrounds.... hm well, nothing special I guess, but prisons probaby have better showers. Everytime we set up a tent, it rains. It doesn't quit till we rent a motel room.
Sarah the dog is having a major blast. I swear. She's loving it. We laughed so hard on the beach yesterday when she found out that water isn't always good to drink. Took a lick of salt. Shook her head. Did it again, repeat. "YECH!" We laughed our asses off! She loves bouncing around looking at rushing waters and old growth forest, mountain waterfalls and deep old grown forest.
Such a cool trip... Yeah, it's a road trip people.
Oh yeah, we visited micheal/zenrox/kergan. Great fellow, good vibe.
But Dude, your atmosphere is making you sick. Clean it out, air it out, the air is ill. We both found ourselves coughing up like back when were were smokers! Yech man! How can you experience your best self and life when you hide in a dank hole fulla dust and smoke? Oh, and i hope you ate those cherries we forgot. They were so tasty. Good to meet you, you're a cool human, don't quit being.
Oh boy, we still have the road back to nanaimo, dan gets to drive it on return, it's only fair. Goddamn that road is fucking scary like the best roller coaster!!! What a blast! ZOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!
(this is me on 2 glasses of wine, that too is scary)
Then we take the ferry to Vancouver, look up another friend, and then I guess we head back to the flat land. :-)

Sitting in the ferry terminal at Nanaimo. We arrived in time to board the ferry but so did a lot of other people, and we were unable to board as it was full. So we've sat here nearly 3 hours waiting for the next one, in the rain, a band of motorists bound together by frustration but not much else. So I'm getting back to the car after drifting around the waiting area awhile and the dog has been on the seat again. She always moves the towel off the leather seats so as to best damage them! Fortunately the leather is tougher than I credit it. I'm putting the towel back when I spot something wedged into the corner of the seat. At first I think it's Dan's gps or something, it's familiar and small electronics... THE CAMERA!!!!!! I've now copied all pics onto my laptop so if the camera vanishes... It's a shame we didn't have it on the island, there were some amazing things to photograph. We enjoyed the cathredral grove, if you're ever on the island going west you will definitely stop there, it's obvious and lovely and you see everyone stopped along the road. Then there's that amazing beach all the surfers hang out on. It's Long Beach and the tide goes out so very far and comes in so very far and even in the calm weather today the rollers were breaking. So lovely.
The ferry is about to load so thats it for this entry.
Pictures to follow, I'm a bit too busy to set up the gallery but it'll be in the gallery section of the website and I'll be a good girl and post a quick blog entry informing you of that so you don't have to poke around hunting every day, assuming anyone reads this.