Tetsa River Campground is where I write from tonight. There is, of course, no wireless internet here, in fact, there is no electricity or running water for that matter. There are horses, though, trees, and a babbling little creek. I decided to try something different tonight, that is, I decided to stay at a B&B in the middle of nowhere instead of a cheap motel in a creepy city. And I'm glad I did. It's beautiful here. Quaint and rustic. This compound has cabins, a little store, above which are the B&B rooms, even gas pumps ($1.60/liter!!! Glad I filled up in Fort Nelson). There are horses everywhere, including a tiny baby one.
Not much to write about today. Again, 13 hours and over 600 miles, and I haven't even crossed out of British Columbia yet. God, this place is huge. The terrain today, however, was much more uniform. It's as though the geography knows it has plenty of space to spread out, stretch its proverbial legs, and it does just that. It's in no hurry to cover mountains, valleys, forests, and fields all in the span of a few hundred miles, as areas such as Colorado must, if they are to preserve their topographical and ecological diversity. It has thousands upon thousands of miles to make gradual, almost imperceptible transitions between landscapes.
Anyway, I will have to track down some internet tomorrow, in order to post this. I think they will turn the water and electricity back on in the morning, but I doubt internet will come on with it. But I like it here and if there wasn't such a strong draw further westward, I might be tempted to camp out, so to speak, for a while.
28 May 2008; 8:30 a.m.
Holy crap! They do have wireless here! And friendly old cowboys and homemade cinnamon rolls. Paradox Paradise.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Prince George, BC... (originally posted 5/26/08)
... is a very disconcerting place. I covered two countries today, and not no sissy more-like-a-state-than-a-country European countries, we're talkin big North American countries here, real countries. 600 miles. 13 hours. I'm tired. Prince George freaks me out. I can't wait to leave. Why are all the hotels booked up? Creepy.
600 miles, 13 hours, and two countries, not to mention about a half dozen different types of terrain, provided a blossoming opportunity to make my recently-endeared observations. Which I did. Unfortunately, the very same factors that made today so rich also rendered the mind weakened and beat down to a point of near collapse. Thus, I must now recluse into this cheap hotel room, distancing myself from any type of intriguing or enthralling narration of the day's adventures. Apologies for that.
Just a few of the more interesting things that happened to me today:
1. Got pulled over north of Seattle for having studs in my car. The tire kind, not the man kind. Got off anyway.
2. Canadian people are very friendly. Except, of course, border patrol. Still, no problems there.
3. I'd forgotten how beautiful Southern British Columbia is.
4. Everything is flooding. Lakes, rivers, the bowls of normally-dry meadows. Seems this is not a problem confined to Western Colorado. Probably the same causes. I saw a horse grazing on algae in a fenced-in swamp, presumably it used to be his paddock.
5. Found myself driving the wrong direction on a street in downtown Prince George. More accurately, a fellow driver found me driving the wrong direction on a street in downtown Prince George. I assumed all the streets in downtown Prince George were one-way, just like all the other streets in all the other downtowns (they call them "city centres" here) in all the other towns all across the country... wait, this is Canada. Everything is backwards (read: everything makes more sense) here. This was, of course, about a half an hour ago, and my delirium is, even now, I think, fairly evident to you, dear reader.
6. I spent too much money on the Comfort Inn last night, so I've resolved to stay in cheaper motels from here on out. I can't imagine why I would have paid $60 for a crappy continental breakfast... Well, maybe because the Comfort Inn was a lot less creepy than the PG Hiway Motel in Prince George. Actually, even the Days Inn was creepy here. I think there is just an air of creepiness in this city which... well, creeps into everything in or around it. I hope I don't leave here reborn as a creep.
7. I noticed a billowing plume of smoke about 50 miles outside of Prince George, and when I finally got here and began driving down the hill into town, there was a big building all ablaze. There were people who drove up the hill just to see it and had traffic stopped all the way down the hill. Cops had to come and "move along, there's nothing to see here" everyone. I should turn on the news and see what that was. I hope no one was inside...
600 miles, 13 hours, and two countries, not to mention about a half dozen different types of terrain, provided a blossoming opportunity to make my recently-endeared observations. Which I did. Unfortunately, the very same factors that made today so rich also rendered the mind weakened and beat down to a point of near collapse. Thus, I must now recluse into this cheap hotel room, distancing myself from any type of intriguing or enthralling narration of the day's adventures. Apologies for that.
Just a few of the more interesting things that happened to me today:
1. Got pulled over north of Seattle for having studs in my car. The tire kind, not the man kind. Got off anyway.
2. Canadian people are very friendly. Except, of course, border patrol. Still, no problems there.
3. I'd forgotten how beautiful Southern British Columbia is.
4. Everything is flooding. Lakes, rivers, the bowls of normally-dry meadows. Seems this is not a problem confined to Western Colorado. Probably the same causes. I saw a horse grazing on algae in a fenced-in swamp, presumably it used to be his paddock.
5. Found myself driving the wrong direction on a street in downtown Prince George. More accurately, a fellow driver found me driving the wrong direction on a street in downtown Prince George. I assumed all the streets in downtown Prince George were one-way, just like all the other streets in all the other downtowns (they call them "city centres" here) in all the other towns all across the country... wait, this is Canada. Everything is backwards (read: everything makes more sense) here. This was, of course, about a half an hour ago, and my delirium is, even now, I think, fairly evident to you, dear reader.
6. I spent too much money on the Comfort Inn last night, so I've resolved to stay in cheaper motels from here on out. I can't imagine why I would have paid $60 for a crappy continental breakfast... Well, maybe because the Comfort Inn was a lot less creepy than the PG Hiway Motel in Prince George. Actually, even the Days Inn was creepy here. I think there is just an air of creepiness in this city which... well, creeps into everything in or around it. I hope I don't leave here reborn as a creep.
7. I noticed a billowing plume of smoke about 50 miles outside of Prince George, and when I finally got here and began driving down the hill into town, there was a big building all ablaze. There were people who drove up the hill just to see it and had traffic stopped all the way down the hill. Cops had to come and "move along, there's nothing to see here" everyone. I should turn on the news and see what that was. I hope no one was inside...
Seattle (originally posted 5/25/08)
... is where I am now. I spend a good deal of time thinking on things while I'm driving, making observations and such, so I figured I would share a few of the less embarrassing or private ones. I woke up this morning in a little town in Montana name of Dillon (yes, there is also a Dillon, CO, but the similarities end there). I then drove to Butte, which is a strange, unassuming, almost naive (from what I could tell driving around, I never actually got out of my car there) city. It's overlooked by beautiful, but I couldn't tell how beautiful because they were capped by low-ceilinged clouds, mountains, and I think it might be called Butte because of the orange-colored rock-quarry looking thing that guards the city from the west. Butte is all casinos and churches. Downtown (they call it "Uptown") Butte had about 10 historic brick buildings, of which nine were churches and one was a saloon. I spent most of my 30 minute-visit to Butte driving around calling "coffee," which is how I look for things. I think it's probably a good thing I never found a traveling companion since some of my habits, not the least my habit of looking for things by calling their name (it works more often than you'd think, though it did not work for my passport... yet), could be construed as annoying or maybe even abrasive. I finally found some coffee at "Hot Shots" drive-through espresso. Not delicious, but coffee nonetheless.
So that's Butte, MT. I drove through about 10 other medium sized and about 50 small-sized cities today but I'm tired and so that's all you get to hear about. Anyway, Butte was where I spent the most time and made the most observations. My mind is far more keen and alert at 9:30 a.m. than it is at, say, 6:30 p.m., at which time I was in George, WA, at the Gorge Amphitheater hoping to run into Nick. I didn't actually expect to find him among the thousands of people there, but needed a break so I went and hung out outside the entrance to the music festival and watched the hippies and goths and emos stream in to see Death Cab for Cutie anyway. The Gorge is a pretty cool venue, sitting right on the top of this huge, well, gorge, which the Columbia River flows through.
So that's Butte, MT. I drove through about 10 other medium sized and about 50 small-sized cities today but I'm tired and so that's all you get to hear about. Anyway, Butte was where I spent the most time and made the most observations. My mind is far more keen and alert at 9:30 a.m. than it is at, say, 6:30 p.m., at which time I was in George, WA, at the Gorge Amphitheater hoping to run into Nick. I didn't actually expect to find him among the thousands of people there, but needed a break so I went and hung out outside the entrance to the music festival and watched the hippies and goths and emos stream in to see Death Cab for Cutie anyway. The Gorge is a pretty cool venue, sitting right on the top of this huge, well, gorge, which the Columbia River flows through.
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