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July 25, 2014
Day 7 - Sick Day - Doug Leaves for Salmon Arm (Fri 7/25/14)
7/25/14
I decided to take a "sick day" today. Called the boss....told him I was sick and couldn't come in today.
OK. So, what really happened is that the weather is really bad today. Cold and rainy from here to Jasper, and I'm just not up for another 200 mile ride in a soaking rain today. Yesterday was plenty enough for me. Tomorrow, it's supposed to be warm and cloudy, but not nearly as wet. So, I'm going to take a sick day and stay in Banff for another day.
My hotel is pretty expensive. It's $38.00 a night, but I decided that I can afford it.
My thought is that I've been getting behind on my photos. I've been shooting like mad, uploading them to my laptop, and culling out the moderately decent ones, but then not having time to upload any pics along the way. So I'm thinking that today will give me an opportunity to upload some photos, and maybe document some other esoterica points that may have otherwise been lost to the sands of time.
My buddy Doug just left. Doug is riding a Harley, and heading west into Salmon Arm, British Columbia.
He grew up in Vancouver, and has been living more recently in Alberta...Edmonton, I believe. He's heading to the coast for a fishing trip and had a choice to make..."Do I take the Harley, or do I take the car?" He knuckled down and took he Harley, and I had to work to convince him he'd made the right decision.
"You did the right thing man...if it were clear and sunny, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You'd be feeling like a rock star right about now."
So, I sent him on his way this morning. Another wanderer on this planet. Searching for something.
What's nice is to find these people...to learn from them and talk to them about their adventures and where they like to go. He used to live at Hickman Airforce base on Oahu. Very cool guy. Used to run a charter business out of the "thousand islands" in the gulf between Vancouver Island and British Columbia.
All of my old stories come back to me now.
"Yeah, man...I was coming into Hundred Mile House one time and blew around this truck on a double yellow..." I offer.
"You were at 100 mile house? I know exactly where that is."
"Yeah, and then, at Cache Creek, I turned and came down the Sea to Sky Highway 99 through Whistler...."
"My sister lives up there," he says.
And this is fun, of course, To reminisce with strangers. But it's good, in a way. It's reassuring to meet these strangers on the road. The guys you see on Harleys that look so tough...most of them aren't really bad people. Most of them are pretty cool. Just lost, wandering souls like the rest of us. Desperately seeking something, but not sure what.
We eat breakfast together...coffee and toast in the "breakfast buffet", and swap war stories. It's kinda fun because, I've been a lot of places, so when people talk about where they like, lots of times I know the places they're describing. So it's fun, really. Better than watching TV and brushing the cats' fur off the couch, anyway.
Yesterday, Doug asked me "Can you search on your computer and tell me how far it is to 'Salmon Arm'?"
And I'm like..."Can you spell that?" Like...it sounds like you just said 'Salmon Arm', and last time I checked, Salmon don't have arms. But this is in a country that names things 'HaHaHa Creek' so, maybe there is a Salmon Arm. Sure enough. It exists. Due west of here. Unfortunately, the distance is in kilometers, so there's no way to know how far it really is. I guess you just have to start driving and watch for a sign that says "Welcome to Salmon Arm".
I mean...could I drive today? Sure. I could. But it's supposed to warm up tomorrow, and it's not supposed to be as wet, and I really, really don't feel like driving 400 miles in a cold rain tomorrow. It was raining when I woke up, and I wanted to hang myself. But, keep in mind...these mountains are green for a reason. I'm sure that they get a lot of precipitation. It's just depressing to look around and realize that it's been warm and sunny all week, and will be warm and sunny all next week, only these storm clouds seem to be following me across this crazy journey to nowhere.
But there's worse places to be stuck for a day. And then, when I get to Prince George tomorrow, I'll buy some additional clothing for the trip. I've got to get some high-tech long underwear (not cotton), and I've got to come up with a better system for the gloves. I'm not above just waterproofing the neoprene gloves I'm wearing, or even putting a pair of dishwashing gloves on over my current ones. Anything to keep this ball rolling. I've got a LONG way to go still, somehow.
But once I get past Prince George, I'm really going to try to open it up and start doing 500 mile days. Try to get up to AK before the winter sets in.
Posted by Rob Kiser on July 25, 2014 at 12:10 PM
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