More Robert Service?

Did someone ask for more Robert Service?

There's a race of men that don't fit in,

A race that can't stay still;

So they break the hearts of kith and kin,

And they roam the world at will.

They range the field and they rove the flood,

And they climb the mountain's crest;

Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,

And they don't know how to rest.

- Robert Service, The Men That Don’t Fit In


It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,

With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want;

To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass,

Smoke a choice cigar, and sip the wealthy water in your glass.

It's bully in a high-toned joint to eat and drink your fill,

But it's quite another matter when you

Pay the bill.

- Robert Service, The Reckoning

5766

5766

That’s how many miles I put on the Explorer in the last three weeks.

How far is that?

According to Mapquest, if, when I picked up the car in Seattle, I had driven home to Charlotte and back to Seattle, I would have driven 5678 miles.

Now there’s an idea for the next vacation.

Vancouver to Seattle

Seattle is a short drive from Vancouver (relative to the distances I’m used to), and I got in to the Seattle area early this afternoon. Instead of going to the hotel, I went down to Pike Place Market to walk around. I got to see the guys toss the fish being bought back to the guys wrapping it. They’re pretty good. The specialty today was Copper River Salmon, from the Copper River in Alaska. I crossed the Copper River on the way to the Denali Highway a week ago. I’ll bet the fish got here a lot faster than I did.

Got back to the Hampton Inn in Lynnwood to watch the NBA playoffs. And then I realized that the Mariners were in town and I could have gone to see them. Terrible mistake. Way to go, Boston, but you sure took away any tension.

At least the PGA gave us some excitement this week.

This thing is coming to a close. Guess I’d better think about what it all means.

Vancouver

Pretty day all day in Vancouver today. But if you looked outside, it would be hard to say what the temperature is. I noticed it all day long. Some people on the streets are wearing hooded sweatshirts and flannels. Some are wearing t-shirts and shorts. The clothes I brought for Alaska are long on long sleeves, but I dragged out a short sleeve shirt.

Went for a long walk this morning, then came back and watched the end of the US Open. That was some exciting golf.

Then I took one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours that take you all over the city. It was a good way to get an overview.

The bus drivers on these tours give you the highlights of the city. They also point out their favorite restaurants and shops. These line up pretty much with the restaurants and shops that advertise on the map of the tour that you get.

There are a lot of high rise condos going up in Vancouver, ala Charlotte. One driver pointed out a building going up called the Shangri-La. At 63 stories it will be the tallest in the city. The penthouse has been sold to Jean Claude Van Damme fot $15M. Maybe I should have learned karate.

One of the drivers pointed out that Vancouver is very diverse ethnically, and around 1/3 of the population is Oriental. This same guy pointed out a little later that, even though Vancouver is consistently ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world, there is a bit of a dark side. He said that Vancouver has less crime than “most of the major port cities in the world.” I’m thinking claiming that your city has less crime than Marseilles is damning with faint praise.

The driver went on to say that one of the most notorious crimes in recent years was a hijacking of a tour bus full of Japanese tourists a couple of years ago. The robbers took all their money and jewelry and fled, but the Vancouver police caught the criminals within a few hours. The driver paused, then added that the police had some significant help. They had several hundred pictures of the criminals to work with.

About 1/3 of the passengers on the bus groaned. Another 1/3 didn’t get it at all. The other 1/3 sat there with their cameras, being inscrutable.

Duncan to Vancouver

Left Duncan this morning and drove up the coast for a ways. Then headed for Victoria. I’ve been in Victoria before, briefly, a long time ago. Didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Victoria, instead headed for the ferry over to Vancouver.

On the way to the ferry I stopped at Butchart Gardens. I’d also been there along time ago. Butchart Gardens. A little over a hundred years ago the area where Butchart Gardens is was a played out limestone quarry. The owners decided to reclaim it, brought in hundreds of tons of top soil, and now the gardens cover 55 acres.

The gardens are something to see, but I kept thinking I should have been here about three weeks ago. From a bloom perspective, this is kind of the shoulder season. All the rhododendron and azaleas (and there are acres of them) are just over, and most of the summer blooming plants are just starting.

From Butchart, I went up and caught the ferry for another hour and a half cruise to just south of Vancouver. The BC ferry system is really well run. As I said, these are big ships, and they really move the vehicles on and off in a hurry. Both boats I was on had two restaurants (well, cafeterias), gift shop/newsstand, a travel agent kind of place, and several lounges. You can tell who’s from the local area. They’re the ones who take naps on the trip.

Added some more wildlife to the list on the ferry trip. We passed a family of sea lions (or is it a pack, a pod, or a pride of sea lions?). I guess sometimes they see whales on this trip. Not this time.

I’m at the Hampton Inn in Vancouver. Great location, on the east end of the downtown area, right next to the hockey arena and the football stadium. Both of these are going to be renovated for the Olympics.

Went down the street to Dix Barbecue for dinner and watched the NBA playoff game. Dix claims “Authentic Southern Barbecue.” Actually, they don’t do a bad job. But no hush puppies, and no Brunswick stew.

I’m looking forward to spending the day in Vancouver tomorrow. Seems like a great town.

Funny how the pictures I’m posting are changing. Not a whole lot of dramatic scenery any more.

Whistler to Duncan, BC

The entire road from Whistler to Horseshoe Bay, where I caught the ferry, was under construction. I gather it’s under construction all the way into Vancouver. They’re trying to turn what had been a two lane road into a four lane road before the Olympics.

Took the BC ferry over to Vancouver Island at Nanaimo. The ferry ride was about an hour and a half, and pretty neat. The BC ferry’s are big ships. Four levels of cars and two levels for passengers during the ride. The east side of Vancouver Island south of Nanaimo is a lot of little villages. I worked my way down to Duncan, where I’d found another deal on a Best Western room.

Bagged some new wildlife today: Bald Eagle, Red Tailed Hawk, Great Horned Owl, Saker Falcon, and a Turkey Vulture (Sandy, are you paying attention?)

It turns out the Northwest Raptor Center is on the way to Duncan, and I got there just before their flying demonstration. The flying demonstration was awesome, particularly the falcon. The falcon is the fastest moving creature on earth. Trust me – these suckers can fly. It was all really cool.

It’s a lot warmer here in the south (Southern British Columbia). Mid 70’s and sunny today. The outdoor pool at the hotel is open, and there are some folks in it. Canadians undoubtedly.

Duncan is the home of the world's largest hockey stick. It's on the side of the hockey arena. That seems to be the thing for small towns in BC - a lot of them have the world's largest of some article. One town I went past through was home to the world's largest gold mining pan. There have been several others.

Maybe some of the local chambers of commerce in our area ought to do something like that. Maybe some of Charlotte's neighborhoods could even get into the act:

- Concord - Home of the world's largest NASCAR fan. (just picture this sculpture)

- Gastonia - Home of the world's largest PBR can.

- Waxhaw - Home of the world's largest community entrance gate

- South Charlotte - Home of the world's largest SUV

- Myers Park - Just a sign that says "We could be the home of the world's largest something, but it's unseemly. We choose not to particpate."

- Plaza Midwood - Home of the world's largest rainbow bumper sticker. Not that it matters.

I'm sure you can think of others. Like "Charlotte: Home of....."

Prince George to Whistler

After thinking about the alternatives my plan is to do Whistler and Vancouver Island over the next couple of days.

I can’t find the map right now that I marked the route on. I’ll add the image later if I find it.

I left Prince George and drove south on BC97. This was a stretch of road that I drove on the way north. A lot of farmland and ranches. It was country that I thought was pretty wild a couple of weeks ago, but now it seems like coming back into civilization.

I haven't mentioned yet the number of RV's I've seen on this trip, particularly on the Alaska Highway. A lot of the smaller motor homes are rentals. A lot of the big motor homes are towing a vehcile of some sort. I saw one motor home the size of a bus towing a Hummer. I figure it was costing him a dollar a mile in fuel to haul all that iron up the highway. I don't know if the RV traffic is down because of the price of fuel or not. I do know that every time I filled up, people were talking about it.

As I get further away from the Alaska Highway, the RV of choice seems to be a large pickup with a pickup camper. I'm guessing these are the locals. I've always thought this was a good, practical configuration, but you don't see it much on the East Coast.

Around lunchtime I got to Williams Lake, a town I stayed in going north. So I stopped at the Laughing Loon, where I had that great dinner. Ta da… They still had the wasabi encrusted prawns.

To get to Whistler I turned on to BC 99 when I got to Cache Creek. BC 99 is called the Sea to Sky Highway. The stretch to Whistler follows the Fraser River for a while, then cuts into the mountains. From there, it’s 100 miles of narrow, winding, mountain road that crosses countless mountain streams on one lane wooden bridges, and has waterfalls coming down right next to the road. Just what I was looking for. This might be the most scenic stretch of road I’ve been on. British Columbia would be a great place to come back to.

The road starts to come out of the wilderness at Pemberton. Pemberton and Whistler are both big centers of outdoor activities. (If you’re not aware, Whistler is one of the primo skiing locations in North America). Even in the summer, they’re busy.

I hadn’t realized (or I’d forgotten) that Vancouver is the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and Whistler is going to be the home of the skiing events. There’s lots of building going on and you can already by 2010 Olympics gear.

Whistler is like a big village centered around the major ski lifts. Most everything was open and it’s pretty busy. Seems like a lot of foreign accents around. I’m at a Best Western right off from the village “green”. Got a great rate yesterday from the whistler.com site.

Tomorrow I’ll head towards Vancouver, but before I get there I’ll take the ferry over to Vancouver Island for a day.