May 6th: Portland

The night was cold and Marija woke up with “cold eyeballs”. We had some quick oatmeal and broke camp by 10am. We were off to Portland! The initial plan was to head over to Smith Rock National Park to do some climbing but we changed things to spend more time on the coast. We decided to spend the night at a hostel in Portland.

Portland is a beautiful place with large trees, artistically painted buildings and tons of art studios dotting the streets. It turned out that the first Thursday of every month is the day that the artisits of Portland open their doors to the public and show off their art. Most of the art we saw was very modern and some a bit too off the wall for me. We saw everything from an arcade with a smoke machine running to a room with forecent lights and rocks that were painted black. Most of the art was lost on me. I did however enjoy the free beer and food that came along with the art.

After going aroung to the art studios we picked up some food and beer and Safeway and headed back to the hostel to cook up some dinner. We had heard that there was a good local brewpub nearby the hostel and the plan was to head off there after dinner. We made up some chicken alfredo and drank some micro brewed local beer. We were off to the pub. I was amazed that the locally brewed beer was $3 a pint! We had the sampler of all the local brews and got a pint of the best one. The total bill for 3 pints and a sampler of 6 beers? $15!

May 5th: Heading off to the USA

Gill and I were up early. We said goodbye to her parents and went to pick up Tessa and Marija. Tessa lives very close to the boarder so it was really quick to get there. Our goal for the day was to go and visit the Boeing Everett Factory in Everett Washington. The Boeing Factory is the largest building in the world by volume at 13 million cubic meters; that’s 94 acres at 11 stories high!

This was my second visit to the Boeing Factory and it did not disappoint. We had a great tour guide who had some of the best muttonchops I have ever seen. He was really dramatic and well spoken; it made the greatness of the building and factory even easier to appreciate.

The first real sign of being in the USA was a cashier at a corner store refusing to accept my Canadian nickel. “this is America hun, your funny money is no good here”

After a brief stop at Wal-Mart we were off to the campsite. At the campsite we met a colourful character, we will call him Billy. Billy called us over to help him unload some folding chairs from the back of his 27’ powerboat. He then proceeded to tell us his story.

“dang government got done raised my taxes. I could not afford my house any more and I’m sure as hell not gonna sell my guns, boat n’ pickup truck to pay for taxes. So I sold my house. I’m a disabled veteran I can camp here for free I am sleeping in hotel Chevrolet tonight.”

Welcome to the USA.

Made it!

977km down. 15000km to go. Fortunatly I had a rather uneventful 10 hour drive from Calgary to Vancouver. There was some snow on the Coquihalla highway and by Lake Louise but nothing too impeding.

Second time is a charm!


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Day of Rest

Time is flying. I took yesterday off. I helped my mom get supplies ready for a cave rescue course in Hinton. A quick visit to MEC also let me get a longer version of my sleeping bag. A little extra wiggle room. After we picked up grandma for dinner I went to visit my uncle for a beer. I hope that tomorrow's departure is less eventful than last time.

Lost Wallet

Here is a quick update. On Saturday I waived goodbye to the family and left to Vancouver! Unfortunately when I made it to Kamloops I realized that I had lost my wallet! I talked to my dad, Gill and the VISA people via Skype in a Starbucks parking-lot. I quickly came to the cold realization that I had to head back to Calgary to replace all my cards. Ooops! 1400km and 16 hours later I was back in Calgary. Fortunaltly my family was happy to see me and I still had a bed to stay in. I guess this "hiccup" will make me more careful about what I am doing with my wallet. Better I loose it in Golden than in Texas I guess.



Here is me on my first departure. Note the roof racks and Thule.

Leaving Tomorrow

The car is packed, roof rack on and Thule is bolted down; tomorrow I drive to Vancouver. Just to let y'all in internet country know what is going on I am driving to Vancouver where I am rendezvousing with Gill. On the 4th we meet up with Tessa and Marija and the odyssey begins! I hope that this trip will give me some time to relax and ponder life. 16000km and 2.5 months should be adequate. I read a story in the paper today about a guy who sold all his possessions and drove a single cylinder BMW motorcycle around the world for 2 years. I hope to reach that level of awesome in a shorter time period. Throughout this trip I plan to catch up on some book reading, see the ocean and get some really great rock climbing in! Stay tuned internet goers cause you are not going to want to miss this!

The Road Trip Begins . . . in two more days

It has been quite a while since I last posted here but that does not mean that things have not been eventful. I just this past month wrapped things up at university and I now have a ring on the fourth knuckle from the thumb on my right hand. The UVic Caving Club is now under the command of a new president and I am back in Calgary briefly before the start of my next little adventure.

This summer my friends Marija and Tessa, my girlfriend Gill and I are going on a road trip around the US of A. Below is a map of what our trip may look like.


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As for Calgary, below is a photo of what my backyard looks like. Yeah! Happy April! If you are wondering, is that a Martin Davis cave suit? It sure is, it is a black ballistic nylon cave suit and it is all mine!