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Early in the morning…Using up some time before people wake
up. The sun is bright and warm already. To find a minute to just sit
and write, even postcards for that matter, seems just about
impossible any day. It is absolutely the most difficult challenge to
do what we are doing and then write about it…b/c we are to busy
doing it…
LATER IN THE DAY:
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Of course, we never make it to Vancouver. We end up going to
the very expensive Aquarium (note to self: next time call ahead for
the prices!) in West Vancouver. It’s pretty cool with whale and
dolphin shows…
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Later we settle on trying to make it up the coast to Sechelt
before heading eastward and home at last. My feeling is that I want
to see the pacific coast at least a little before heading back. I
sense that Steve just wants to leave, he is very stubborn in making
plans…I whine long enough for him to give in, I think he realizes
that I am serious and he is better off giving me what I want than
hear about it for the rest of the whole trip back…
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It turns out that we would have to take a ferry to cross
Horseshoe Bay and Steve will have none of that. I sit quiet. I let
it go.
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We end up on Hwy. 99 straddleing vertical mountain walls on
one side and precipitous drop-offs toward the river on the other. It
takes all of Steve to maneuver the bus, which he only inadvertently
admits by his being taken aback the next day that we will have to go
back the way we came.
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This road leads up Mount Whistler. We decide not to go up but
go back and then east on Hwy. 1 to Harrison Hot Springs.
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This means we have to find a place to spend the night and
pick Squamish, a cute little town in the middle of what seems
nowhere. This entire region is Ski country so maybe in the winter
it’s a little more populated, right now it seems desolate. In this
unpopulated area it seems out of place to find a Wendy’s. Even Lilli
says “It’s so funny that there is a Wendy’s in the middle of
nowhere..?” How does she know these things?
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Spontaneously we decide to stop and ask for oil. Our first
time! The manager, Lorenzo, is very friendly and very intrigued by
the project and more than happy to have us take the oil of his
hands.
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An older guy, with greasy gray hair, comes over and looks at
the whole transaction, Steve is more than happy to advertise the
details of this operation and Lorenzo and James McDougal seem happy
to learn about it.
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Mr. McDougal ends up telling us all sorts of roads to take
and so forth. He seems like a very nice guy, waiting for his wife to
finish her choir practice (they frown on husbands hanging around and
so he hangs with Lorenzo on those nights…). He tells us about
retiring from the BC railroad in ‘05 and how he is bored now and
wants to start working for the Wal-Mart that is supposed to open
soon…
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Mr. McDougal suggest a local parking lot to stay over night
and later when we are trying to find it, and take a wrong turn into
a dead end street, he shows up again and says that it occurred to
him that he didn’t give us good enough directions to the place. He
also tells Steve about a certain heat valve they used to use on the
trains in order to keep hoses from collapsing, as he just saw our
do…
