..even better mountains and a northwest rain.

I should have known the weather was going to be rainy in Vancouver after a complete stranger told me to take his umbrella after finding out where I was going.

The Canadian stranger of about 25 years old told me that the mountains are beautiful but he had enough of the rain and never wanted to see another umbrella again.

Canadian Rockies

I awoke to a beautiful 7:30 am sunrise in the mountainside ski resort town of Cranmore Alberta. It was another night becoming acquainted with the steering wheel and driver’s side seat.  As hard as it is to believe, considering the misery of the first few attempts at car sleeping, but I’m actually getting used to sleeping in the car. While I’d rather “couchsurf” so that I may get some interesting stories from people, I will say that the car and I are becoming very comfortable with each other.

No sore necks, no sore backs, just a leg that won’t wake up.  I was starting to wonder if Thrombosis was setting in after a sharp pain in my leg wouldn’t go away, and no matter how hard i tried, the rest of my leg wouldn’t wake up.  I tried walking every couple of hours, I tried slapping my leg to get blood into the area, and I even tried squats at a few rest areas, but nothing worked  How odd must that have looked;  Big man doing squats on a mountain side?

My leg never did wake up, but all my other senses did.  I would have never guessed that I could see mountain views even more breathtaking than the previous days, but I did just that in the Canadian Rockies and Glacier Park.  The mountain tops were sprinkled with snow to add even more effect to their majestic appearance.  Yellowstone still stands as the better overall experience due to its many park wonders, but as far as “mountains” go….the Canadian Rockies win.

fog from above

I believe the experience was magnified by the snow and crisp air. As always, I watch the thermometer in the car to see how the temperature changes as I ascend and descend through passes.  This time it went from 39 to 29 in about 30 minutes.  The air at the top was the cleanest air I have ever inhaled. The streams had an illuminated blue glow. The water looked so clean and clear that I was tempted to hike it down to the water for a sample.  About the time I decide to sample the water is about the time they find some rare disease floating downstream. Another feature that I liked about these mountains over Yellowstone and northern Montana is the peace and quiet.  Much like a few days earlier in Bighorn National Forest, these mountains passes in Alberta were silent enough to make me feel as if I was on this planet alone and the world was all mine.  In British Columbia, it all changed.

I will give British Columbia the credit it deserves. The slogan on their license plate says: “Beautiful British Columbia” and they are right.  While not as naturally beautiful as the Rockies, it was gorgeous.

The only complaint would be that the traffic picked up more and more the farther west I got, and so did the weather.

As I neared Vancouver, the traffic picked up, the clouds lowered, and the rains began. The mountain roads became blocked by clouds and approximately 12 mountain tunnels were thrown into the mix as well. The fog was heavy enough to scare my GPS into hiding. I no longer felt like the only person in the world.  I was now one of a rapidly growing populations being sucked in by the heavy gravitational pull of “V-A-N-C-O-U-V-E-R.”

driving through the clouds

I knew that Vancouver was a major metropolitan area, but I had no idea how much more congested if felt than any other city I’ve been in up to this point.  The five lane roads were bumper to bumper for the last hour leading into the city. After being in the mountains for the better part of the previous week, this traffic was a bit overwhelming.

The weather was a consistent rain. Not a deluge by any means and for sure not a sprinkling either, but a consistently steady rain, which made navigating in the dark through this foreign city quite a trick.  I was on the main road and it weaved its way around the local mountains before heading straight through downtown.  I quickly realized part of the traffic problem.  There is only one major road through the city and a large amount of people live in the downtown area.

How odd is that?  Rush hour at the end of the day to get downtown? The city really didn’t seem like it belonged in North America. While Calgary and Edmonton are Canadian cities too, they still have very many similarities to American cities.  Vancouver had a bit of an Asian influence.  The housing skyscrapers downtown reminded me a travel show in Asia.  I’m not exactly sure why the architecture reminded me of Asia, but it did.

Maybe it was the neon lights on the skyline that reminded me of Asia. It was a beautiful skyline and  I wanted a good picture… badly.

I ventured off the main roads and started driving through the dark, rainy streets in search of a good spot for a picture.  Vancouver may feel safe, but I have seen enough episodes of Cops to know better.  There has been no shortage of episodes from Vancouver.

Vancouver at night

I found myself near a port and started feeling like I was setting myself up for a scene out of a mafia movie.  The wind, the rain, and the dark cold night in a shipyard with boat horns in the background started to make me nervous, so I quickly got in the car and searched for a place with out boatyards.

A half hour of driving up hills and finding dead ends finally led me to “The Spot.”  It was still dark, it was still raining and windy, but I saw people without trench coats walking their poodles on the walkway next to the water and that got rid of any uneasiness I may have had.  I convinced myself that I’m the scary figure in this situation and I need not be worried. If there is one sure sign of a safe neighborhood, it is elderly people walking poodles.  I don’t care how dark, windy, or desolate the area is; if you see seniors walking poodles, it’s safe

My photo was more than disappointing.  I didn’t have my tripod handy or a telephoto lens.  The spot would have been perfect for a good photographer with good equipment, but it was not going to work for me.  As much as I tried, the photo wasn’t going to turn out.  The lights weren’t captured and the lens wasn’t wide enough.  Oh well, I did the best I could with what I had, but I can promise you the picture is worthless next to the real thing.  It doesn’t even look like the same city.

I left Vancouver disappointed and set sail for the border.  I never thought I’d be so happy to see $3.50 gas prices again.  In Canada, I was paying close to $5 a gallon for gas.

I’m going to hopefully set up some couches, which will in turn give me more to write about. Until then…..I’m happy to be back in the states.

Wendy’s side note:  Other than the week at my family’s in South Dakota, I have still maintained the Wendy’s diet.  Everything I have eaten has been from Dave’s hamburger haven.  I have been writing everything down, but need to total the items up for the website.  I think we will all be amazed at the sheer quantity of Wendy’s consumption that I have done since beginning this trip.  As far as weight loss goes, I’m not really sure.  I don’t feel lighter and I haven’t been getting much exercise outside of my sightseeing walks (and squats on the side of the highway with a very sleepy right leg.)  One of these days, I will find a scale and fill everyone in on whether or not I’m dropping any weight.

The mileage numbers will be updated too.  It’s been hard to update everything in the coffee shops, partly because I sometimes forget my notebooks back in the car:-(

I am going to make an effort to walk or run each day since the tennis idea turned out to be a logistical nightmare.

There is your update from the road   I will get those Wendy’s totals up within a few days.

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