The Kindness of Strangers and other adventures...

It’s strange how sometimes the most inconvenient of circumstances sometimes bring the most interesting experiences.

I drove out to Whistler. I took the ferry in the morning and made it to Whistler by mid afternoon. My intention was to hang out with my friend Mark, then head to Kamloops up highway 99. A trip that would take about 3 hours… maybe slightly less, then from there, head North towards Jasper on Highway 16.

Mother Nature had a different route in store for me. While eating dinner at Mark’s place, I caught a glimpse of the first bit of news I’d seen all summer. A huge forest fire in Lillooet. Curious, I looked it up on the map. Apparently, my intended route was heading straight into a massive forest fire. Not good. With the help of Mark’s friends, we called the highway line to see if the highway was closed. As of that evening the highway remained open.

My trip was still a go.
I set my alarm for 7 and was on the road by 8am. Heading towards a massive Forest fire… After an hour of driving I hit Pemberton, just down the road from Lillooet. A big sign announced the highway closure. I head into the nearest gas station to ask for directions.
The conversation went something like this:

Me- I saw the sign, the highways closed, is there anyway to get to Kamloops?
Lady - You’re going to have to go back to Vancouver and go around
Me - so there’s no other way?
Lady - there’s a big forest fire, it’s all over the news
Me- so no back roads then?
Lady - It’s a BIG fire
Me - So the only way to Kamloops is to go back to Vancouver
Lady - It’s a FOREST fire, the ROAD is on FIRE!
Me - So I have to go back to Vancouver then?
Lady - Yes
Me - No other way…
Lady- NO!

Another lady comes into the store

Other Lady - is there any other way to Kamloops?
First Lady - The only way is to go back to Vancouver
Other Lady - what about this side road?
First Lady (obviously getting annoyed, probably because of me…) - It’s a BIG FIRE, it’s all over the news, all the roads are closed, they’ve evacuated the town and surrounding area. There is NO other WAY, you’re going to have to go back to VANCOUVER!
Other Lady - Okay…. (though probably a little shocked about the outburst)

At this point I leave, realizing I probably have to back track 3 hours to Vancouver and from there it’s going to take me another 4 hours to get to Kamloops.

So I head back and wake Mark up again as I pass through.

Head back through Vancouver and get lost… things are so much more complicated now that I’m using a map and not a GPS to navigate. Outside of Chilliwack there’s a giant traffic jam. While traffic was stopped I get out, and grab my crochet. I haven’t made a lot of progress on the sweater I’m working on so it was nice to get a couple of rows in while traffic was stopped.
I continue to drive through smoke and haze, apparently because it’s so dry in BC there are a bunch of forest fires burning and the sky is filled with smoke because of them. You could actually smell the burning in the air.

Because I hate backtracking, I took the Trans Canada highway from Hope to Kamloops. It’s a little slower, but it’s very scenic. I was surprised at just how different the terrain was from highway 5 which I took on the way out. Highway 1 takes you through a much rockier, but much drier, more baron landscape. It was very bizarre with all the baron rock, and burnt/dead pine and some brushy area. In contrast, highway 5 takes you through much grassier, pasture lands and pine stands.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I drive through Kamloops, and continue north towards Jasper. It’s already late, so I grab a quick dinner at a roadside diner and keep going. As it’s getting dark, I find a campground on the Thompson river. But all the campsites are taken. I drive around the site twice, and realize this might be a night I have to sleep beside the highway…. But a group of girls wave at me, and tell me I can hang out with them and that they love dogs.

So I stayed with them. They even offered me dinner, but I’d already eaten. They were super nice, in their twenties, on the last day of their road trip to Vancouver Island. They were heading back to Edmonton in the morning. We chatted, I made them tea, and went to bed. If there hadn’t been a fire ban in effect, it would have been a nice night for a campfire.

So the next morning we all had breakfast and I left them as they were putting the last things away. I actually met up with them again just outside of Jasper. They were in line behind me at the front gate. I waved from the car.

It’s so much colder here in Jasper than it was in Victoria. It’s so cold I can see my breath, whereas the weather on Vancouver Island was unbearably hot.

So that’s where I am now. I’m going to spend tomorrow hiking, maybe go for a dip in the hot springs, walk on a glacier and head back to Banff in a day or two. From there, the bad lands in Drumheller, and then back through the prairies.

Leaving the Island

Naked people are a breed of their own.

You have to give naked people credit. To walk around in the buff, in broad daylight, without a care in the world takes guts. From my experience, those who choose to go naked, aren’t always the people you would prefer to go naked. Old people in particular, seem incredibly comfortable with their bodies. I say good for them, for having the guts to do something I wish I could do, but wouldn’t. Heck, I’m too embarrassed to go around wearing a hat that says “Addicted to Jesus” even though it’s hilarious. Hilarious in two ways; first, because I’m a skeptical atheist (skeptical because I don't necessarily believe in god, but I'm skeptical of the fact that I don't know...) and second because it reiterates the point on the back of the hat by writing “addicted”.

So, back to my journey.

After the whole Strathcona incident, I spent some time with Carol-anne, Babysat Julian and decided to head out again. This time up to Port Renfrew.

To expect a nice, straight highway would have been foolhardy. I’m getting used to these coastal, mountain highways with their crazy turns, sudden drops and one lane bridges. This highway was no different, except in some spots, the highway has half disappeared due to landslides and instead of fixing it, they’ve simply made it into one lane… that’s cool, I guess…

Things I saw on the trip:
- Botanical Beach with it’s tidal pools, crazy twisty trees and apparent cougar sightings
- the sunset at China Beach
- Sooke potholes for a second time. I liked it so much I went back. With it’s crystal clear pools, high cliffs, waterfalls and rapids, who wouldn’t go back. Ben and I swam there all day, swimming from one pool to another. We would swim up the river and on the way back I’d hold onto his tail and he’d swim with the current and pull me along. We stayed for the whole day and were exhausted, but a pleasant kind of exhaustion.
- a naked old man at Sooke potholes who tried to talk to me, but I swam away… quickly. Not that I don’t admire his courage/perviness… It just kind of scares me.

From there, I spent a few last days with Carol-Anne.

Tubing down the Cowichan River has got to be one of my favourite memories from the trip so far (I mean, the naked guy was memorable… but I would have preferred a younger, less wrinkly naked guy…). We left the baby with Christian (thanks Christian) and drove to Cowichan, rented our tubes and sat on a slow moving river for three hours. In the middle of Vancouver Island’s heat wave, nothing could have been more refreshing than having your bum in the water as you sat back and relaxed.

Because it was so sunny and so hot, we bought a couple of hats from the dollar store. There were a few nice ones, but the ones we chose said “Addicted to Jesus”. We wore these for the rest of the day. At times I couldn’t figure out why I was getting funny looks, especially at the liquor store…then I remembered the hat. Since I was only wearing my bikini top (and shorts), I probably looked like a bible thumping hussy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It was after all a very hot day.

I had fun on Vancouver Island, but I miss the sound of loons echoing over an Ontario Lake, I miss white pines and smooth rocky shores, I miss cold sheets on a hot night, warm showers and flush toilets, but most of all I miss my friends and family. I travelled out west in search of something. A place, a time, an answer, but all roads led back to home. It’s been a long crazy journey and it’s not over yet, but I’m heading home, slowly.

Tips for sleeping for free...

Tips for sleeping in your car and not paying for camping…

Tip number 1 - avoid organized, popular campgrounds.

After four nights of successfully NOT paying for camping, I got careless and got caught.

I went to Strathcona Provincial park. A fairly popular park (I assume, seeing as I’d heard of it before I came to BC). I was torn between just staying in the campground or if I should just stay in the day use area. So I went to check out the campsites and as I pulled in the warden yelled at me that I was driving too fast (I was going like 20 km an hour, apparently twice as fast as I should be). I said okay, sorry and he continued to explain to me that the speed limit was 10, and went on and on about why I had to drive slow. I mean the guy was talking to me like I was an idiot and a degenerate, not at all politely. I mean it wasn’t like I was going 80, I was going pretty damn slow…. Anyway I was a little annoyed with that, and I continued to drive around looking at the sites. When another guy screamed at me to go faster… that didn’t make sense, maybe he was telling me to go slower, but in anycase, I was going about 15.… But I mean seriously! Stop fucking yelling at me! I have never been yelled at so much since I came to Vancouver Island. I consider myself a nice, polite person, and as a result, seem to get treated likewise, but not here. I have a theory that they hate me because my license plate says I’m from Ontario. At least I hope that’s it, because otherwise I’m pretty unimpressed by how rude people are, I hope this isn’t the usual BC attitude and that they simply have something against Ontarians. (this theory started when the lady at the visitor’s centre at Pacific Rim made a crack about how people from Ontario want all the animals contained so we can see them, and that all of Canada hates Ontario… which was a joke, but not funny. I had gone in because I wanted to find out where a good spot to see some oyster catchers, (a type of bird).

Back to the story:

So that pretty much sealed it for me. No way I was going to stay in the stupid campground with all the jerks. Nope, I’m going to hang out at the picnic area and boat launch. It was on this mountain lake with a small natural beach area I could swim in. I made my dinner, made some tea, went for a swim and read my book for a bit, nobody around. When it started to get dark, I watched the rest of the movie I started the day before. When it was over I figured it was safe to go to sleep, that’s when the rangers pull up. And they have flashlights.

If you are going to do the stealth, sleeping-in-your-car thing, having a dog that barks at anything is not a good idea. Without him I could have pulled the covers over my head and pretended I wasn’t there. With him barking, it was kind of obvious I was. So they told me I couldn’t camp there.

Now, it’s not that I have a thing against paying for camping. It’s just that I feel that what I’m doing hardly qualifies as camping. I don’t set up a tent, I’m not staying long, I‘m not erecting elaborate tarp shelters; essentially I’m parking, overnight. I just happen to be in the car.
Defeated, and not able to argue my case (for the record, I didn’t even try, I just played dumb and said that I didn’t know I couldn’t camp there, even though the sign clearly stated it was for day-use only). I moved onto the campground. I found a quiet spot away from others and climbed into bed. Just as I was getting comfortable, the ever-persistent warden showed up again, this time looking for my camping fee.

He was very polite about it, saying it was safer here and more comfortable. Neither of which I entirely believed. I was pretty happy in the parking lot overlooking the lake and the mountains, and here in the campground I have no view of anything. Benny boy was doing a pretty good job letting the warden know we did not appreciate the constant interruptions. I let him growl because he was mirroring my annoyance at the situation, however, let the record show I was not annoyed at the wardens, they were just doing their job, and well. But seriously $15 dollars to sleep in my car! I feel cheated!

So here are my tips for sleeping in your car:

- Don’t bring a dog, unless that dog is a quiet, bark at nothing type who will hide out under blankets with you if needed.
- vans without windows work better than a many-windowed SUV
- avoid parks with wardens and campgrounds in them, or find campgrounds that allow self-registration and arrive late, leave early.

Deep into Cougar country

From Cathedral Groves, I had two options: I could head back to Victoria, or I could go north. Since I told Carol-anne I’d be back in a few days, I didn’t want to come back after one. So I went North, taking the ocean side highway and stopping at a few beaches along the way to play with some little crabs, search out sand dollars and pretty much just take my time.

I was going to stop around Campbell River, but didn’t have a map, and the GPS had decided to stop working (sorry John….) I also needed gas. The girl at the counter was very cheerful. I asked if she thought the trip up to Port Hardy (on the north end of the island) was worth the drive. She hemmed and hawed a bit then asked if I like hiking. Since I do, I told her yes. She suggested I go past Port Harvey to Cape Scott Provincial park, and that San Josef Bay had a really good hike. I bought a Vancouver Island Map from her, and went on my way.

I was already tired when I reached Port Hardy. I knew that the Park was about 40 km outside of Port Hardy, what I didn’t know, was that those 40 km were entirely on logging roads. These giant trucks would fly by, on these tiny roads, my only option was to drive as far into the ditch as I could and hope that a truck didn‘t come by in a section of road where the ditch was a drop off the mountain, or into the water.

Also, 40km on paved highway, and 40 km on logging roads are two completely different things (Like swimming in a nice warm pool and swimming in the freezing, wavy ocean…) It might be important to note that although the map was really well laid out with the road names one them, the roads themselves were not labelled and there were many more roads than were on the map, and they all kind of looked the same, and they only occasionally had an arrow pointing towards the park.

It was Forty kilometres of logging; clear-cut land, some replanted, and some older replanted areas. In a maze of roads, I wished my GPS worked. My sense of adventure was leaving me with every near-death passing of a logging truck. At one point a road sign said “be prepared for the unexpected”. I thought to myself “I’m not prepared for this” but the roads were too narrow to even turn around. I was beginning to doubt that there even was a campground at the end of the road.



When I finally found the campground it was pretty barren. There was no front gate and no real buildings except for a couple of outhouses. The overgrown campsites had a old picnic table and a fire pit. What creeped me out the most was that it seemed completely empty. In fact the only sign of recent human activity was a sign on an outhouse warning of a family of bears in the area, and a note from June warning that the male seemed hungry and unafraid of humans!

I drove further down the road and to my relief I saw an older man, his wife and their campervan. I picked a campsite near theirs. Not close enough to see them, the sites are pretty private, but close enough that they would be able to hear my screaming if I was being attacked by the resident bears.

Swarmed by mosquitos when I left the car, I made a quick dinner and burned some of my garbage (less temptation for bears…) and hid in the car to watch a movie. The old couple walked by and looked into my campsite, confused. Maybe they were expecting to see me, or a tent, but I was hiding out in the car. I’m pretty sure they were looking for campsite fees, but they never came to collect.

These are some of the pictures from the San Josef Bay hike, which as predicted was amazing and remote. But I kept Ben on a very short leash after a posted sign warned that an off-leash dog had been killed by a cougar the day before... With my luck Benny would try to befriend the big kitty.

In my next installment, tips on how to avoid getting caught camping for free…. If you consider sleeping in your car camping… which I’m not sure I do. Anyway, stay tuned.

At the end of the day, I’m sitting in this virtually abandoned campground about as far North as you can go on Vancouver Island. What started as a quick weekend surfing trip has ended in adventure… or at least mosquito warfare.

Carol-Anne and Christian took me to Pacific Ridge National park near Tofino to do some surfing. I wasn’t going to go at first, but decided if I left here without trying, I’d never forgive myself in my old age. So I put on the wet suit, grabbed the board and ran… okay more of a trot. I was pretty gung-ho after Christian gave a quick dry-land lesson. That lasted until I hit the water and it was so cold my feet ached (kind of like an ice cream headache in my feet, mind-blowingly painful). I didn’t think there was way I was going to submerge my body any further than my ankles, even with a wetsuit! But Carol-Anne was already waiting for me in the water and she didn’t seem to notice the cold. I told her that I didn’t think surfing was my thing and I had to get out. And that was my surfing experience.

Actually, I stuck it out. My feet went numb, and I started to have fun. Carol-Anne showed me how to grab a wave and I rode a few waves on my stomach. Essentially, I tried to stand up a bunch of times, wiped out a lot, even got to a squat, but never stood. But I had fun, cleared my sinuses (is that TMI?) and thoroughly exhausted myself. In the end, it turns out I’m about as good at surfing as I am at most other sports, which is not very good, but at least I had fun.

After surfing I decided to stick around and camp a couple of nights, I checked out the beaches, went into to Tofino and did a few hikes. Since the campground was full, I drove around town looking for a quiet place to sleep and camp. I found a quiet parking lot just outside of town. It didn’t have a No Camping sign, so I bedded down for the night in the car. Doors locked as it was my first night not sleeping in a campground. Nothing happened and I woke up the next morning early before anyone decided to take a hike. (I went on the hike, it was good). I also drove and did a few Pacific rainforest hikes, (you know, with the old growth forests..).

The thing I find sad about these old growth forests is that they really make it obvious how much of Canada we’ve cut down. I think the fact that they have these last few stands left is sad, not sad because they kept them, but because the rest is gone. In the last 200 years we’ve removed so many trees that the only remaining, intact forests are so special because they are so rare. Our early Canadian ansestors (though not necessary mine, or yours) would have seen a much different forest. Even 50 years ago…

These trees are huge! 90 meters tall or more, 15 meters around. These are giant trees. I feel positively tiny in comparison.

I was going to camp near Pacific Rim at the Kennedy lake picnic area. It’s a nice lake with a view of a snow capped mountain. I went for a swim, washed my hair and read my book. A few people came and went but I figured they would clear out after dinner time. I made dinner, the people cleared out and I made some tea and read my book again. This was the relaxing vacation I was hoping for, especially with a nice quiet, sunset over the lake and distant mountains.

Really relaxing, until some teenagers with very loud gansta rap (yep, gangstA) , with copious amounts of swearing , some serious base, talking about how ghetto they made the ghetto. When three more cars showed up, I figured it wasn’t going to be the quiet evening I’d envisioned. Since I’m not ghetto enough to be cool, I left with the plan to find another picnic area to park for the night.

Instead I found Tom.

The road into Pacific Rim is very windy, with steep hills and hairpin turns, often both at the same time. People seem to drive that road ridiculously fast. In fact I know someone, who won’t be named here, who drove that road going at a lightning fast 180 km an hour! (okay 180 isn’t technically lightning fast, not 75 miles a second or anything… but it’s still pretty fast)
I averaged about 80 at my fastest, but going much slower than that most of the time.

Fortunately for the fast drivers behind me, there are frequent pull-outs to let them pass. In one of these pull-outs was a car with it’s hood up, being the good Samaritan that I am, I decided to ask if I could help.

The man asked if I had any duct tape.

I normally carry duct tape in my car, but this time I couldn’t find any. I did have some first aid tape and some tinfoil… Tom’s radiator hose had broken and we tried to patch it up with the limited materials. I told him I’d follow him out in case he needed to stop again. He made it about 20km when his car began to smoke. I followed him into the nearest pull out lane and saw that the hose had broken right off. Not good.

We tried to patch it again, this time with some cut up aluminium can pasted with some first aid tape. It seemed to work decently. A little drippy, but the fluid didn’t pour out. I went to get more water, and asked some people who showed up if they had any duct tape, it turns out, the guy is a mechanic. He takes a look at it, and tells Tom to call a tow truck. Tom, not being phased, (we did after all do a really good patch job), waited until the guy left and got in his car. I followed him, just in case.

(Tom gave me a bottle of wine for helping, which maybe I should have refused, but I love wine. I really should have refused the second… but he insisted)

For about 20 km we drove until the car began to smoke again. Originally I was going to follow him until I found spot to camp, but it was obvious that he wasn’t gong to make it to town. Tom was an older man, with 200 lbs of fresh-caught salmon in a cooler, who desperately needed to catch a ferry and get to Washington because half of this salmon belonged to his boss, who had taken him on the fishing trip. Anyway, I couldn’t do much for the salmon, but I offered to take Tom to town where he could get a room for the night and call a tow truck in the morning (it was getting dark).

Conscious of the fact that the mechanic in Victoria tried to convince me that my back brakes needed to be fixed (which I don’t believe, because they are fine, and even then the front brakes are more than adequate), and the fact that this poor guy having to squeeze into the Sportage, weighed about 300 pounds and the fact that I didn’t have my glasses and I can’t drive at night without them, AND the road was ridiculously windy, and animal filled; I drove onto Port Alberni very carefully. Eyeing several awesome riverside camp spots on the way.

It was pitch dark when I dropped him off at the Best Western, and my GPS gave out and I couldn’t find a nice, quiet, side street to camp on. So I kept driving out of town hoping to find somewhere to sleep. Before I knew it I was on the windy highway again, and it was near midnight. This was not a very good situation, but there was no chance to turn around and no chance to stop. So I drove.

I drove for about 30-40 minutes when I saw the roadside parking lot for the Cathedral Grove (Cathedral grove is another old-growth, pacific rainforest. I wanted to see this in the morning and didn’t want to backtrack so I parked beside the highway in a parking spot beside a giant tree). I didn’t get much sleep. Between the large trucks flying by, the paranoia that someone was going to find me and kill me, and that I was convinced there was a large animal outside my car, possibly a sasquatch, I was terrified. It was well after 1 am when I dozed off.

I awoke with a start when a car pulled up beside mine. I hid under the covers as much as possible. I peeked out nervously to see some guy taking a leak next to the tree, but thankfully, unaware of me…

After about 4 hours of restless sleep, I decided to get up early and check out the grove. I saw some BIG trees, but it wasn’t as picturesque as the rainforest hike on Pacific Rim. But in hindsight, it was probably prime sasquatche territory.

To be continued...

Made it to Victoria.

The last couple of days have been a blur. Sleeping in my car, staying at campgrounds and driving throughout the day.

Things I saw in the prairies:
- a truck on fire
- a pronghorn antelope
- a lot of ducks and shorebirds
- salt flats
- grass, canola and hills.

I thought I was going to find the prairies boring. They are flat, but they are far from boring. Besides, for a driver like me the prairies are perfect. There aren't many people on the road, the road is mostly straight and mostly flat. Set it on cruise, and go. Loved the prairies.

What I was surprised about was how quickly the mountains pop up. You're driving through flat prairies, and it seems like the Alberta Prairies are by far the flattest, you hit Calgary and BAM there's the mountains! About an hour from Calgary you're in Banff.

Banff is pretty, so is Lake Louise, but it is so crowded with tourists! It was a good spot to see different license plates though. Lots of RV's and sweet camper vans. I'm developing Van envy. My Sportage camper is awesome, but it's not a sweet van. As soon as I win the lottery, my first purchase will be a pimped out, fully loaded camper van. And then I'm going to live in it full time.... down by the river.

I saw Pat in Banff, he got me free camping, but they sold my site to some tourist, so I stayed in another campsite and didn't pay... shhh. I was going to stay another day and go climbing with him, but when I woke up the next day it was raining, so Ben and I did a little hike and moved on.

Things I saw in the mountains:

- a big horned sheep (or whatever they are called)\
- a black bear
- a bald eagle
- a golden eagle
- a car on the side of the road that obviously had a large rock go through the windsheild.... I mean they have signs on the road that warn of falling rocks, but really, who can anticipate a giant rock going through your windshield!?

The mountains are certainly NOT made for a driver like me... I really had to pay attention.

As we got out of the mountains and into the Fraser Valley, things got really dry. It was what you expect the wild west to be like. Dry and hot. I just kept driving. I drove all day, at one point the car's cruise control gave out. I thought I'd completely broken her. It was really hilly, and extremely windy. For one tank of gas I only got 300 km... where I normally get 500. The engine was really reving and the car starting to smell distinctly like burning... I thought if the truck I'd seen on fire in Manitoba... so I slowed down.

When I couldn't drive any longer I stopped in Hope B.C. Finally found a small campground in town, being so relieved, I got out of the car, and closed the door, immediately realizing I'd locked the keys in there, with the car on, and the dog inside. IDIOT! I called CAA, and they came within 30 minutes and nobody really made fun of me... to my face.

Yesterday I moved on, and made it to Victoria. I'm not sure what my plans are from this point. I'm definitely taking a few days to relax, then I'll head up the coast to Tofino, and maybe a little further up the Island. After that, who knows, the engine light is back on, and the car needs an oil change. I'm thinking about heading up to the Yukon, maybe see Mark in Whistler on my way, if I'm in the Yukon, take a quick hop over to the Northwest territories and back down into northern Alberta, Jasper, see the Ice Fields, back into Banff and head back through the Prairies. I would like to see the Alberta Badlands.

My route for the next three days

So if Today is Thursday, and I'm pretty sure it is, I'll make it to Whiteshell provincial park tonight, Moose Mountain Provincial Park tomorow, Cypress hills (because i'm Insane in the Membrane... insane in the brain....) provincial park Saturday night and finally to Banff on Sunday. Hopefully I won't run into any Grizzly bears...

Made it to Thunder Bay.

It was a hard start to my trip.
Saying goodbye is always hard.

Around Parry Sound my check engine light came on in my car. Not wanting to turn around, I decided to see how it went, and get it checked out in Sudbury. An hour later and nothing really seemed to be rattling, and it seemed to be driving fine, so I decided to keep going to Sault Ste. Marie. Still nothing seemed to be wrong, so I kept going to my campsite at Pancake Bay. I figured once I got to Thunder Bay, my friend Richard might know a mechanic that could check it out.

I slept in the car the first night. It was really cold! I was completely under dressed, other people were in Parkas and toques! The car was cozy with Ben and I inside and I watched Napoleon Dynamite on my laptop. Really roughing it. The car bed held up well and was comfy, but I didn't sleep very well at all.

Continued the drive to Thunder Bay in the morning.

The drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay is by far my favourite stretch of highway so far. With it's panoramic views of Lake Superior and large rocky faces of Canadian Shield, it's winding road makes for an interesting drive. Still conscious of the Engine light... so drove slow. Probaby for the best because there were quite a few speed traps along the way. Especially closer to the towns.

Once in Thunder Bay we checked out Terry Fox and made our way into town. Nobody was at Richard and Selina's house when I arrived. Probably because I'm an idiot and told him I would be there Wednesday, and it was Tuesday... so he was surprised when I called him to say I was there. Turns out Hinder was in town, and he had tickets. While I didn't really know who Hinder was, it turns out I'd heard their songs on the radio, and I never turn down the chance to see a live show. My ears are still ringing, so it must have been a good concert... I'll add pictures later.

When we got back, we decided to introduce Ben to Bio-Pup (Richard and Selina's dog. Bio-Pup is Northland Bio-diesel's husky mascot. Richard started Northland Bio-diesel a couple of years ago). Anyway, the introduction didn't go well. Something about a pig's ear, two dogs and not enough supervision... to make a long story short, Benny Boy got his ass handed to him on a platter and in the process lost a tooth and had another tooth sticking out on a funny angle. We tried to pull it out, but it was pretty firmly rooted. He also had a few superficial scratches on his back. I'd like to say he gave it back to her as good as he got, but he got the crap beat out of him...

So I took him to the Northwest Animal Hospital this morning and they were really great! They took in right away, checked the tooth out and confirmed my suspicion that the tooth needed to be pulled. They took him in immediately and I went back to the house for a nap. About two hours later I went to pick him up. He was groggy and I was surprised that it only cost me $230! At home I'm sure it would be closer to a $1000.

Good news on the car too, just a small vapour leak around the gas cap... It's nothing big and they checked it for free.

I've decided to stay another night to let Ben rest (he's still a little wobbly from being put under for the extraction), and get an early start towards Manitoba in the morning. I think I'm getting a cold so the rest will do me some good too.