BC Sportsman Trade Show, Tradex,Abbotsford

It’s my birthday. So I get to decide what we do today. That’s what she said.  “Let’s go to the BC Sportsman’s Trade Show, “ I said.  “I kind of wanted to go to the mall to get some body lotion, but it’s your birthday.”  I could tell it was hard but she was willing to sacrifice.
Since the mall was on the way to the Tradeshow, we were able to compromise. “I’ll just run in a get a book and some body butter.” She said as we separated.  I had to go to the Post Office any way.  I’d bought a new skookum hard drive and screwed up getting the PC version rather than Apple. My techie movie making nephew can sort it out. I included the American Dream DVD as well.  Tom Cruise. Incredible film.
Back in the Mini CooperS , she’s smiling.
The sky was blue with clouds and sunshine. Sunshine!!!  Spring!.   Great day for a drive in the country.  I love my car.  “This is what I like to do on my birthday. A drive in the country.”  The mountains with ice caps and forest along the highway with interspersed farms were spectacular.  Great views along the Highway for Hero’s.  In no time we’re at Tradex too.
I love Tradex.  We’d been at the BC Sportsman’s show last year and loved it.  Everything.  Boats, motorcycles. Lots of ATV’s.  Fishermen and fishing equipment galore.  ATV’s of every shape and size.  All the best manufacturers.  Honda, Yamaha, Polaris, Can Am.  Some new companies too with great deals. Guns. Knifes. Binoculars.  Optics.  All weather all terrain boots and clothing.  Tents. Campers.  RV’s.  Did I mention boats?
Porta Bote. I’ve been researching boats all year ever since I sent my AB hard bottom inflatable with 30 hp fishing machine down to the nephews for fishing at Hay Bay.  My sailboat and inflatable dinghy are out east as well.  Sailing with my brother is one of my fondest memories.  I’d had a Kevlar Hunting Canoe from the amazing Western Canada Kayak and Canoe store but now it’s up for sale on consignment. With closing my own office and going to work in clinics, I’d  lost a whole lot of storage room.  The place is stacked high with tens of thousands of files.  The perfect canoe took up too much room andwas just too long to go on the top of the truck now that I had a fifth wheel trailer.
Porta Bote was the solution I found after extensive internet research and consideration of just what I’d be using it for and the biggest issue storage. It folds down to 4 inch depth and has a mount to go on the side of an RV.  I’d tried to buy one at the boat show from Maple Marine out of Langley, the distributor.  They didn’t have one there but they had one with my name on it here.  With Godly synchronicity a fellow hard parked his RV with a Porta Bote on the side near me. I drove by it several days a week.   Talk about synchronicity and a ‘tease’.  I didn’t even know about Porta Botes before but now they began to appear everywhere. I watched a Utube showing how easy  the assembly. I could even put it on my Mini roof rack. The 10 foot one good for 2 people and even three could take up to a 6 hp engine. I had a Honda 2.5 hp which had worked on the canoe but without the weight of another person created difficulties in the wind.  However thanks to the resale of the canoe which held it’s value so well, I’d only pay half for the Porta Bote. I pick it up from Maple Marine in Langley next week. Oh boy!!!
Laura loved the Hummingbird Micro Home custom built in Fernie.  “I could live in this just fine. It’s a home. It’s more than an apartment”.  It had wheels to move it and all the amenities.
“With all the street people and their government fed dogs using up the streets and sidewalks I think you could park it on the City Hall lawn and get a better view. It might even  fit in a bike lane.” I said trying to be helpful. Amazingly affordable.  Laura began scheming about put one in the city graveyard. “I own a plot in Surrey,” she said.  
She’s been working all her life and feeling recently that the government wants to euthanize all us seniors so they can take more money for themselves and their lavish behaviour. I don’t think of us as old but she worries about the future and feels betrayed.  The Left never respects the ‘social contract’.  Right now Canada and BC and even Vancouver are being sold to foreigners by the big chiefs in legislatures and parliament.  I feel like the Indians must have felt 200 years back when their chiefs made deals to give up the land in exchange for party favours and kegs of whiskey.  The people always suffer. I just don’t know that all these new wealthy immigrants buying up the land and resources are going to give back money to the grand children of today’s Canadians getting shafted for the kick backs to their leaders.  We can only hope for a new set of land claim deals a couple of hundreds years hence  when the grandchildren demand that the dirty deals that gave the mayors, premiers and Prime Ministers of Canada their land get compensation.  But somehow I doubt their generosity. Everyone talks about the homeless problem but it pains me to see all the middle class and lower classes unable to afford to live in Vancouver where the rents are $2000 for a closet. Yet all the elite, the criminals and government big wigs  swagger about the city and seem to forget that people like Laura are the very backbone of the city.
BC, the province is still God’s country.  It amazes me that i keep meeting immigrants who have lived here their whole lives and never been to the country.  I wouldn’t work and live in this ridiculous slum city of Vancouver were it not for the weekends and vacations I get in the country and off the coast. Vancouver with it’s traffic jams, bike lanes, corruption, tent cities, filthy streets and side walks, belligerent street people with their entitlement and dogs, it’s night time shootings and constant police sirens, and gross mismanagement is the price so many of us have to pain so we can enjoy the lakes, sea and streams forests and mountains that make it all worth it.  I was so s thankful for this BC Sportsman’s show because it reminded me that in only a few more weeks I’d be able to go camping!!!!
“Laura! Laura!” Laura  turned to see  this bearded man all in black running after her. She didn’t recognize Derek with his beard. He was volunteering for the National Firearms Association.  “Did you shoot anything?” I asked. He’d gone to the Charlottes at Christmas and indeed had got black tail. His friend had flown up with him. Then Naomi now 7 months pregnant had joined him.
”The Charlottes were wonderful. Walking in those woods was mystical. Naomi loved it.” He shared.   We’d told Derek and Naomi about how much Laura and I loved the Haida Quai.  How the people were so friendly and the land mystical.  The north island peopl were so inviting compared to the political Haida on the South Island.  Russians had begun trading with the north island Haida before Captain Vancouver even landed to the south.
Derek was there with a delightful former town mayor and we talked rifles and gun laws.  Nobody there liked the Liberals.  It’s comforting to be with people who see that Justin Trudeau is just a little Stalin “want to be”.
 “Give an inch and they take a mile.There’s no negotiating with them.”
“They only want the rich and criminals to have guns.”
“You don’t see judges , politicians or Justin Trudeau trusting gun laws. He’s surrounded with guns and probably his nannies are packing.” We all laughed.
“It’s all about taking guns from the middle lower class so that only  rich can afford the guides and hunting like all over Europe..”
‘We had the best gun laws in the world with Conservative Kim Campbell but then the Liberals came in and started the registry like we were some kind of criminals besides giving their Quebec gun toting security cronies 2 billion dollars boondangle.”  The rural men were spitting angry and being forced to pay for what they considered necessary equipment in the north.
“I”m tired of a bunch of girls pushing paper in Montreal telling all of us in the north how to live our lives.”  One fellow added.
A great little discussion followed.
Derek was laughing. “It’s just divide and conquer. These people don’t even know what an AR 15 is.  I really enjoyed target practicing with the Chinese 223.  After Naomi delivers she’s going to enjoy that rifle. It’s the perfect size for her.”
“Laura likes her Ruger 22/10” I said.
“It’s got a pink gun stock,” Laura added with a big smile.
I had to tell the guys about all us guys out hunting without getting anything only to return to camp to find Laura  with a big grouse on the table. “It landed in the tree above me so I shot in case you guys didn’t get anything for lunch,” she’d said.  Everyone was impressed.
The best ATV was the tank tredded one that would  go everywhere, CF Moto from Frazer Valley Power Sports.  Mud, sand , snow.
I loved the hand crafted knives and the different camping and cooking accessories too. 6 pm came too quickly and we had to exit.  We’d stopped for a hot dog when we arrived and loved making a day of the show.
“I really liked the Sportsman show”.  Laura said.  She had long sleeved shirt from the BC Wildlife Federation. I’m a member.
I was especially pleased that I now had  a folding hard boat I’d got at boat show discounts and would  pick up next week in Langley. The whole experience was a great birthday outing.  Camping and summer seem all that much nearer.   There is hope in this winter world.