I Think It Was A Good Day

I spent some time at home on the weekend. I got pretty tired (for various reasons) and decided it wouldn't be safe for me to drive all the way back to London on Sunday night. Therefore I thought I would get a good jump after breakfast on Monday morning and be back to London just after lunch. That was a pipe dream.

The following are my facebook status updates that I made via my cell (with some commentary):

Laura is on the side of the 401 with a flat tire, although she is capable of changing said tire, she is glad to have caa. 10:51

-I'm just driving along and the car starts to handle all crazy and there is a bad bad noise coming from the back. I pull over and swear. Then I call CAA. Then I wait for CAA. Then CAA comes and puts the spare on and inflates it for me. Then I make phone calls to Dad and L.Bo for advice on where the heck to go and get this tire repaired. I end up at Northumberland Tire. They say its gonna be 45min or so. Alors, I take off on foot to kill the time.

Laura stly) replacement. Hurray! 12:01

-this was supposed to read "Laura is eating chinese buffet by herself in port hope. She was just informed that the tire cannot be fixed and she is waiting for them to put on a (likely costly) replacement. Hurray!" I had decided lunch was in order and a 6.50$ chinese lunch buffet is ok with me.

Laura gives up on trying to update this from her cell. Grrr. 12:03

-I was pretty frustrated that I had taken the time to put that whole long update up and it didn't work. though I think it may have worked over the mobile network because I got a text from L.bo saying that I was killing her. she felt sad that she was working and couldn't come and have 6.50$ chinese buffet with me.

Laura is killing Lesley, possibly slowly and with her song. 12:06

-so I thought I'd let everyone know that I was killing L.bo

Laura just watched some woman named Doris get surprised for her birthday at the aforementioned chinese place. 12:18

-yup, just as I was heading back to the buffet Doris and a couple of friends walked in and she spied a very long table full of more of her friends and very quietly and sporadically they started going "uh, surprise." "surprise Doris" "happy birthday Doris" I was pretty amused. And I was just killing time while I was waiting for N-Tire to put the newbie on my car.

Laura cannot do anything simple. Sigh. 12:42

-while I was in the bathroom my Dad called. he had just remembered that before I got the car, he and Mom had put new tires on it and they might be under warranty. but the warranty would be with Canadian Tire, which I was not at and which there is none in Port Hope. this frustrated me to know at this point. so I called Dad and said that it was too late for this tire as a new one was being put on, but I was glad to know for future tire 'incidents'. I got back to N-tire and the spare was still on my car. what? growl. they hadn't had time to find a suitable replacement. so I took that opportunity to check my glove box for anything that mentioned tire warranty. found it, called dad. after some discussion dad called cobourg CT for me and they said to bring the tire in. I got my tire back from N-tire and slowly headed to the 'burg.

Laura is on her way to cobourg canadian tire, frick. 13:00

-I was obviously thrilled to be back tracking and likely eating another hour of time. if I didn't leave cobourg by 3pm then I wouldn't be making it to London by 7 for rehearsal (because of traffic) and would just go back to my parents.

Laura was really wishing she would get an unsecured wireless signal at CT. that wish is going unfulfilled. 13:17

-I pulled out my laptop and thought I might get some work done while waiting for my 'free' replacement tire to be put on. this work would not be involving the internet

Laura has a new tire and is ready to take off across toronto (into traffic). Oh look, its raining. Fun. 13:51

-after about a million phone calls, a bunch of hours spent waiting on the 401, in port hope, and in cobourg, I was finally able to start heading westward again

Laura is back in London, thinking about supper and getting ready for rehearsal. 17:07

-traffic was nice, I made good time and I made it back with a bit of space to breath and have supper before choir rehearsal.

So I think that was a pretty stellar day and was in no way frustrating or a waste of an entire day. Cough.

Resting My Head

It occurred to me that I have been on the road a fair amount this summer. By the end of the summer (and this could change still, who knows what could happen in the remaining weeks) I will have slept overnight in:

1. Hamilton, ON
   
2. Ancaster, ON
   
3. Brighton, ON
   
4. Chatham, ON
   
5. Morpeth, ON
   
6. Aylmer, ON
   
7. London, ON
   
8. Toronto, ON
9. Richmond Hill, ON
   
10. Wawa, ON
11. Brandon, MB
12. Calgary, AB
13. Whistler, BC
14. Vancouver, BC
15. Franklin, TN, USA
16. Barbourville, KY, USA
    

Namaste

What I was doing 4 years ago.

Photos and Lies

I said something a while back about getting the pictures of Whistler and Vancouver up here. Well, in theory you can call this "here". They're on facebook, but you can see my wittily labeled pics of Whistler here and Vancouver, here.

Nita Lake Lodge - The Tour

Remember when J and I got to stay in that swanky hotel that I told you about. And I think promised a tour - well here it is. But be forewarned this is no Tour Through Mur's House. Mostly because I could get my cough, brother to be humorous or helpful. So I did my best with what I had.

Philly

So, who wants to drive me to Philly on July 9? 'Cause maybe I just read that Regina Spektor is opening for Ani DiFranco in Philly that night. I'm pretty sure that Jesus' return might actually be in and around that date is this is truly what is happening. WOW. Part of my brain and my heart blew when I read that. Wow. Like wow.

A Few More From Whistler

The price of pasta!


Johnny and I in front of Nita Lake


I ticked another one off my list!


JStew, the world class luger, getting ready to do the fastest track in the world.


Me demonstrating the height of the track.

April 26 - May 17

I am not a rock star, but I did drive (or was in a vehicle) to these places in the past 3 weeks:

• Michigan
• Ohio
• Kentucky
• Tennessee
• Manitoba
• Saskatchewan
• Alberta
• British Colombia
  

YVR

So I'm in the Vancouver Airport on my way back. I will try and continue posting pics and stories over the next week to finish catching you up. Buuuut there will be a little delay in posting as I'll be tied up on Saturday graduating from university. Subtle. Grin.

Whistler pt 1

Pan Pacific Hotel




The 6-plex John lives in from the back


Stir fry ingredients at the Mongolie Grill - employer of John's girlfriend and sometimes John


The view from Green Lake

Van City All-Stars

Word. I am in Vancouver at my Uncle and Aunts house. John should be collecting Hayley from the airport right now and heading back to Whistler.

I'll give all y'all a taste of yesterday sometime on Tuesday. As for now, I'm pretty exhausted and looking forward to some time to sleep, and then a time with people I haven't seen in a long time.

Extra Pics - updated

I posted some pictures on Facebook of Ontario and the prairies.

You can find them here and here. Oh and now, here.

Nita Lake Lodge

Well, we talked to John's landlord and her evil spin doctor daughter this morning. They told J that they could be out of his apartment by Sunday evening, but it would mean that there would exposed drywall and plaster in various places in the apartment, that the closet wouldn't be put back together, part of the bathroom would be left uncompleted too. Also, the dryer, half the point of this reno project, was not even working. So they wanted to figure that out, or they would have to call the contractor back after this long weekend. John didn't really want this, and he knew Hayley would not want to come back from a couple weeks in Costa Rica to a partially renovated apartment. Therefore we needed to let them stay over Sunday night and keep working on Monday.

Frankly, they weren't too apologetic about leaving John without an apartment and tried to blame him for coming back to an apartment that he pays rent for, a few days earlier than he had thought he would, and that they started renos they didn't know they could finish in time. Growl.

We didn't want to stay another night on someone's living room floor - and people had been fleeing town for the weekend. Nor did we want to skip town ourselves as I only have 2 days here in Whistler. So we considered a hotel. We told the landlady this and she said she would pay for the whole thing, then the daughter (who kept doing all the talking for her Mom and who I would willingly fight on behalf of my beloved brother), said that she should only pay half as she had been staying in a hotel for a bunch of the time that the renos were happening. In my head I gave her a lot of dirty looks. Fortunately for us, Mom and Dad generously agreed to pick up the other half.

The landlady had told us we had to stay at The Legend as it would be cheaper than other places. We walked in, asked them what their cheapest available room was and were quoted 309$. Cough, too much to get people to pay for. We were pretty bumed.



There was one hotel in the south of Creekside that we hadn't thought to check. So John in all his infinite wisdom thought we should walk down to Nita Lake Lodge. The lobby was very posh looking and we were expecting to be quoted hundreds of dollars. Buuut, no, already long story shorter, we are in a suite at the cost of 159$ plus taxes. Sweet suite.

We've just been relaxing tonight with the flat screen tvs. I'll post some pics tomorrow or the next day. But this place is nice! So we're doing ok.

Saturday's Drive

Logs!


Clouds - i took it upside down on purpose




Train!


John and the Duffy pass


Me and the Duffy pass

Just So You Know

We're here.

I'll explain later.

What The Schlagt/What A (written last night)

After 4 hours of waiting and suntanning in Golden, highway 1 opened and John and I were able to get forward momentum. We saw where the mudslide had been and it looked like some massive amounts of work needed to be done in order to let cars pass through again.

Eager to keep moving westward, we only stopped for gas and to pick up a couple of Hot and Ready's from a Little Caesars. John knew that one of the hardest parts of the drive lay ahead - Duffy's pass. Having now completed this pass myself, and consulting John, we're pretty sure Duffy was a raging drunk. We did Cache Creek to Lilleoot in the after supper sun. But dusk settled quickly and we did Lilleoot to Pemberton in the dark. We encountered 13 deer. It was insane hair pin turns, one lane bridges, dirt roads at times, up, down, winding, craziness.

So you can imagine how tired we were once we finally hit Whistler. We got to John and Hayley's place and we found their landlord's daughter there. Their landlord had told them that when they were gone she was going to have a washer and dryer installed. John told them that he was aiming to be back in town on the 19th, but maybe earlier. The landlord and said daughter decided that they would also tear up the bathroom floor, put new flooring in the living room, hall, bathroom, and bedroom, as well as wash the dust out of the place. Aka a few renos! In order to do this they have had to tear various part of the apartment apart. All of their belongings are in the living room and the landlords daughter was sleeping in their room that was also in massive disarray. This meant that there wasn't even room for the two of us to sleep AND the two of them have Sunday and Monday booked to finish the renos - aka the only two days that I am in Whistler to visit John. What. the. schlagt?!?

We were too tired to go over what I am assuming is breaking the landlord - tenant act. Currently we are at John's co-worker/friend Adrien's place for some sleep and then we figure something out tomorrow. John is very angry and upset, I'm tired and emotional was really just looking forward to chilling in Whistler with John and having a home base for the first time in a few days. We have some things to say to the landlord and the daughter tomorrow after sleep and extra thought. There are a few ideas in our heads on how this can be rectified.

But for right now we are sunburnt, smelly and tired. Sleeping we can take care of right now and well, John has been asleep on the floor here for the entirety of my writing this post. Things will work out.

Ha ha - oh, and I"m pretty sure I left my pj's in Calgary. Sigh. What a day!

Downtime

Mountain


Cutting through


Locals in Golden


Making the most of things

The Sunshine Is Golden

So I'm sitting beside the gym of the Ponderosa Motor Inn in Golden, BC. Highway #1 is closed from Golden to Revelstoke because of a mudslide in Glacier Bay National Park. If you consult a map you'll see that the only way to get where we want to go (which is Whistler) is to take said closed highway - unless we want to go up through Jasper, which we don't. Alors, we're just sitting here in the west end of Golden waiting for the road to open again. The radio and the interweb tell us that it will be around 2pm mountain time for that to happen, but thats not a guarantee, and they'll update us about half an hour before that to see for sure. Sadly we're really at the west, west end of things, so it would be a long walk to anything other than some restaurants or hotels, so no postcards to be found for me. Actually I haven't bought a postcard yet - so sad. John is keeping very solid guard of the car as he doesn't entirely trust the growing band of travelers that are clogging up there. I can understand, its not his car.

There is a very large cross section of humanity lined up along the Trans-Canada Highway on a Saturday of the first long weekend of the summer. Oh - John just joined me in the shade of the unsecured internet land. Anyway, yeah, we're just chilling here, looking at some mountains, breathing some air.

B-Randon And Onward

I kind of ran out of time to give you the skinny about Brandon, MB. We stayed here:



It was actually pretty nice. They have a water slide - which was closed since we got there late and left early - and a bar called The 40, and they had a fridge in the room, which was nice. Oh, and lots of water pressure.

Highlights of yesterday's drive include:

• meeting a man who has been with A&W in Canada for 45 year - the longest in the country. his name is Ron and if you see nostalgia pics in A&W restaurants of some dude in a chicken man car, its him
• talking more about moose, and then John seeing one lumbering along the side of the road, looking a little like a horse with antlers, me going, "woah yeah" and then it actually turning out to be a hiker with a really tall backpack
• John doing a few push-ups in the middle of the Trans Canada Highway

It looks like we're pushing on to Whistler from here. Woooord.

L'Alberta

Alors, we're in Calgary, staying at the lovely house of Rachel and Clint. Maybe they took us to the Keg, and it was great. Maybe they have tiny lovely baby.


Prairie sunset after Winnipeg


Uhh, classic prairie pic


Miles and miles of, well, uh...


Sometimes you stick your head through the sunroof


The Indian head at Indian Head.