Canyon Alpine RV Park , Boston Bar July 2023)

I left Roger‘s Creek on the Duffy Lake road early in the morning. I‘d woke at 5 30 and took Madigan for a walk among the sleeping campground.  I didn‘t feel like lifting my jacks till 7 because they‘ve been rather noisy in the past. Thank to Kelvin of Travco they were quiet and I could have left at 6.  I sometimes think delays are so God can prepare a better day for me.  

I‘ve wondered about stoicism and Epicureanism.  I read the stoic biography of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and know that most religious teachers were stoical leaning.  Paramahansa Yoganada, the world is maya and attachment to this world keeps us from Samadhi, the ultimate experience. Buddha, Desire is the base of all suffering.  Kierkegaard, Life is suffering unto death. Physicians, life is best in moderation but not purely stoical.  The epicureans by contrast separated lust from love and encouraged the more refined experiences.  If God is the great giver and I don‘t accept the ice cream of creation then perhaps I‘m just a pouting child. However if I accept pig slops then that is what God thinks I want so I get more of what I attend to.  Stoicism and mysticism say to God , not this, but you.  I don‘t want your bangles I want you. Hence the Monk who sold his Ferrari.  There comes a time when the pleasures of the world wane and one wants truly to know God. I want the great kahuna. I want to Grok existence. George Harrison sings my Sweet Lord.  Christians want to know the ‚‘sweet Jesu‘.  Our hearts open to experience the highest 

The seven deadly sins are an amazing selection. We love to judge others by their choice of sin while denying our own preferences.  Lust gets short shrift in the church with much sermonizing and condemnation of the gays and prostitutes while pride and avarice are almost celebration along with gluttony.  Envy is sometimes knocked. I haves smorgasbord of sins and cycle through them judging others when I‘ve got a hold on the worst of mine.  

Avarice and envy  is institutionalize in Canada with the growing communism socialism.   Capitalist‘s had pride to deal with like all of us.  

I just wonder what God thinks about all this. I‘m a fan of Creation Theology which takes us back to the Garden and says the snake and the apple aren‘t about sex and fruit but rather about obedience.  God said don‘t touch that tree. Human‘s disobeyed.  That was the beginning of free will versus Automism .  AI is the issue to day.  God gave man choice and we had freedom while today most seem to choose addiction and tyranny over freedom.  Freedom is the saying no to even the good things. It doesn‘t need to be permanent but temporarily fasting is healthy at least.

What is God‘s will for me. What is the meaning of existence. What would I best do today How can I best serve my fellow man.

Jesus said Love God and Love your neighbour as yourself.  Self love is self caring.

I‘ve spent the night in this wonderful camp ground with full service sites. I plugged into electricity and after a night of self dependence I was comforted by the relatively unlimited nature of the full service. Water supply too. I‘ve been limited to batteries and tanks. I‘m usually good for a few days off grid. I‘m back with cellular and wifi too.  Terrific. This place is a 5 star hotel of a RV camp.  It‘s tucked right in the forest so one feels psychically connected to the evergreens .  I loved my calming fitful sleep.  I barbecued Hot Dogs and Madigan who has no concept of stoicism was disappointed we weren‘t having another night of steaks.  I like to mix it up.  A weekend of camping makes me more grateful when I‘m home just as going from off grid to on grid gives me simple joy.  

Laura and I came up to this RV park a decade or more ago. I‘d leave my RV here so we just had to drive up with the truck and quad. Laura love the peace and calm of this forest cathedral while I loved going on the quad over to the mountain to the next valley.  There was a road a half mile north of here.  There were endless trails leading off from it. I never shot anything but saw several bear.  A truck road lead into The Valley south of here and hunters and campers came up there.  I even met a conservation officer back there.  She was pretty and officicious.  I was armed to the teeth as usual ready for war.  A pleasant encounter.  

They‘ve really fixed up the office and area to make it a bit of a cafe visiting place where folks can mingle.  I liked it, reminded me of the Mexican villas. They‘ve put a golf putting place in and really are caring for the place.  It’s always been a nice place with big spaces and great hook ups.  Now it has even more character. I loved throwing ball for Madigan

In the off leash park. Back in the camper, more reading. I‘m supposed to be writing my own novels.  I excuse myself but saying reading is research.  I do like to read.  

It was so hot yesterday I really enjoyed the new Air Conditioning.  I could even boil water for tea and not heat up the place with the air conditioner on.  I don‘t doubt God wants me to have air conditioning.  I just questioning whether God wants me to have more ice cream, or rob a bank, or have a hooker.  Is masturbation okay alone or better with people?  My mind goes to such places.  I expect all the monks and holy men had defective minds like mine.  I expect others have a ‚me want, take mentation and don‘t think beyond that.  Must be nice. I got the neurotic mind. 

I don‘t so much think of a punishing God but rather that if I eat bad food I‘ll be sick. The idea of spiritual laws like physical laws.  I liked C.S. Lewis‘ ‚Surprised by Joy.  

I‘ve had a truly joyful weekend doing the Duffy Lake Loop. I‘ve done this many times and it‘s always been a joy. It‘s a joy to return top Canyon Alpine RV Park and experience the peace and calm here.  I‘m going to stow my clutter and head home .  The sooner I head out the more likely I‘ll see the least delay at the Langley Bottleneck.   The construction work on this Lillooet Boston Bar stretch was monumental.  The amazing crews are restoring a road after some of the mountain came down so that for a stretch it was pilot lead single lane.  Amazing to see the construction crews and equipment doing a monumental job.  

It certainly was scenic to follow the Frazer and Thompson Rivers with all the history of discovery.   

Thank you Jesus.

Whistler RV Park and Brandywine Mountain

Some say hunting is the most expensive sport. I’d say it competes with yachting.  My fisherman and golf friends argue about the cost of their endeavours.  The antique car and motorcycle enthusiasts are as protective as the ski enthusiasts. The costs do make one consider leasing and renting and living on the surface.  Camping has been a lifelong passion ignited by my parents and carried on into the next generation.  My mom and dad went from army tent with us kids as toddlers to the top of the line Slumber Queen RV bus and Good Sam Membership.  

I’ve now a Good Sam Membership.  Dad introduced me to hunting when I was 6 and now I’m still hunting decades later. He loved his truck and never did get an ATV. My brother had a motorcycle.  They both hunted mostly stalking.  I’ve pupped tented and sierra camped in bag beneath the stars.  This Adventurer Camper on the back of my Ford F350 is luxury.  Staying at a full service RV Campground like this Whistler RV Park is heaven.  The Burnaby Cariboo RV Park is a Good Sam park. Good Sam parks are highly rated with the kind of amenities and service that Whistler RV Park has.  I’ve come along way from days of roughing it when I camped way off grid and shot deer in the mountains I carried back on my shoulders.  The last deer I shot I almost died dragging it a hundred yards to the logging road and truck.  We get old. 

I love the great electrical and water and sewer hook up here.  The view is to die for.  When we were last here it was the view and overall tidiness and orderliness of the campground that attracted us.  

The preparation for this 10 day hunting trip and another 10 days planned in October required me to have the F350 checked out by Coastal Ford. It’s not a wise idea to go into the backwoods with a truck that has problems.   Thanks to divorce I’ve hunted in less than optimal vehicle, divorce cars and divorce vans but today I have the wherewithal to plan wisely.  Enough can happen with good equipment one doesn’t want to invite trouble.  I had the Honda 420 Rancher checked out by Chilliwack Motorcycle.  I took all the equipment for hunting out of the storage locker and checked it over. I have my Iridium Satellite Phone for emergencies and renewed my time as well as arranging the camping Star link package that allows me to communicate and even work away from home.  It was $500 to just have the fuel and propane for truck, camper and ATV .  Add to that the few hundred dollars for groceries.  We have to eat here or at home so I don’t think of those expenses as such.  This morning I made Laura soft boiled eggs on toast with cafe au last and toast and French marmalade.  We had fresh squeezed orange juice and it was delicious.  The mountain air was delectable. Madigan the dog was happy be with us and to be able to pee outside the door.

It’s a lot of moving parts.  A hunting trip isn’t the same as the yachting expeditions I did.  At sea if you’re missing something you have to make do.  Tools are a major concern. Here if I was missing something I could detach the camper and take the truck into town to get it but the aim is to be self sufficient for the week.  I believe we’ve done that.  We’re all set up here .  

I was up at 7 am and attended an on line meeting at 8 then had breakfast and by 1030 am  had the Rancher loaded and clipped Madigan onto the seat be hind me on the quad.  Laura wished us well.  We were off. What a great ride on the Brandywine Snowmobile trails.  The views of the mountain, Chocolate Bowl and Brandy Wine Bowl .  I found the Snowmobile Hut and the little lake.  I even stopped to sit on the deck chairs and drink the last of my coffee I had in the thermos I bought at the Harrison Lake gift store. It fits perfectly in the holder I have on the ATV.  

Until tomorrow morning it’s only bow hunting season for deer, bear and partridge.  I didn’t bring my big Excalibur Cross Bow because of the bulk really.  I did bring my mini cross bow feeling good knowing I could shoot a grouse if they walked out onto the road.  Deer will have to wait. I’m looking forward to heading out early tomorrow. 

Back for lunch Laura made chicken and halepeno cheese sandwiches on sour door bread and we drank Coca Cola and relaxed.  After that I finished reading the incredible Anthony Grey novel, Peking. I’ve order his Tokyo Bay book in hard cover.  Laura and I have been lying on deck chairs with Madigan intermittently walking over us.  A chip munk has been looking at us from a rock.  The view is incredible. 

It’s heaven on earth. I’m going to load up and head out for an evening ride along a logging road trying to decide where to hunt first thing tomorrow.  Today was reconnoiter day and maybe shoot a grouse.  So far the chip munk is the only 4 footed life I’ve seen.  Still what an adventurer. Laura told me she was listening to the cheering this morning as today was the was the Vancouver Whistler bicycle race with one lane of the sea to sky highway closed.  We were glad to have come up yesterday and not encountered the traffic which much have been difficult today.  We’re here 10 days and the stress is just lifting off us in this incredibly peaceful place. 

Both Laura and I think this much be sacred ground it’s so positive. The energy is truly uplifting.  I do love my little home away from home with all the amenities. Glamping is blessed.  Thank you Jesus.

Travels with Amber: Spences Bridge

Morning. The sun has risen. It’s already warm on my face.  It’s above the mountain beyond the rushing Thompson.  The trains made some noise in the night but only once did I wake. I had sweet dreams and felt comfortable here in this camper, with my little dog sleeping through the night on the seats in the dining area. He’d be in bed with me as at home but I fear the jump down from the camper bed would not be good for his back.

I’ve cleaned my face enjoying the smell of dove soap. I’ve brushed my teeth with Colgate.  I thought of showering but really want a swim.  I like having a surplus of water too.  Later today.  

I wore the black nightie to bed with the sparkling word “sexy’ across the chest. I’ve had that for decades now. I’d wear it camping when I hunted alone in the mountains near Pemberton tenting.  The animus hunted. The anima lead back at camp.  Psychological mindedness, tolerating the tension of opposites.  I sometimes think that my masculinity has been ‘reaction formation’ and my femininity ‘identification with the aggressor’.  Yet I embrace both. I so enjoyed the strong young man and his pleasure but now older with less outlet for heavy lifting I’m rather enjoying more the feminine.   

I am a cross dresser.  My transexual psychiatrist friend joked when I lunched with her last month, “What’s the difference between a cross dresser and a transexual?  5 years. “ she said.  I’ve been cross dressing since I was an actor in my teens.  I played a school lead as a woman. It wasn’t an issue back then and I enjoyed those times.  I felt freeer, more creative and alive as only the young can be. Decades of being a doctor and a psychiatrist and an addiction medicine specialist I’ve grown weary of the social homogeneity, doctors dressing like lawyers and bankers.  I like my colleagues who wear shorts and hiking wear.  They are far beyond the white lab coat even.  Symbols of normalcy don’t seem as important.  

I’m technically bisexual by history. On my sad days I fear that when I was anally penetrated an bred the seeds of homosexuality were planted.  I was changed by trauma.  How melodramatic.  My cherry was bust and yet I’ve wallow in the self pity so many girls adopt to be one down and adopted. Of course it could be gentle.  A little lube would have gone a long way. But there are men in the gay community with a mean streak.  Feral.  In the war they were leaders in the SS.  Toxic masculinity describes them. I supposed the like raping boys and girls and the rape fantasies continue in society.  Shares of Grey and Sado masochism.  The most popular female fantasy is being ‘taken’ by a rich and powerful man.  

“Would you have sex with me for a million dollars?” He said.  

“I’d think about it”.  She replied.

“Would you have sex with me for a dollar?”

“What do you take me for?” She said.

“That’s already been decided. I”m just dickering for price”

I got the experience of being anally penetrated.  I said no so it’s technically raped. I was given my first blow job drunk and stoned.  I had sex with a man imagining a woman , so deluded by drugs and alcohol I couldn’t be accountable.  The social programming was broken.  I recoiled and returned to the tame world. I’d taken a walk on the wild side and didn’t return a billionaire but had a sore bum and a hell of a lot of shame.

Velvet Rage is the book I recommended to gay men.  We joked about men being ‘pussie’s’ and it wasn’t attractive.  Being gay was to be ostracized not like the tomboy or was she too a bit reviled.  It was definitely easier for her to return to her feminine role.  When a woman has a child all is forgiven.  So much of society is based on the need for children to man the armies of the world.  The demand only changed with industrialization. The birth control pill was created in 1952, the year of my birth.

The elite always have time and money for any indulgence.  The lower classes we’re too tired to be creative. The middle classes were upwardly mobile but cautious to retain there hard won status.  Homogeneity was the goal.  To fit in. Discretion was the rule.  Dr. Carl Jung differentiated the ‘self’ from the ‘persona’ or social self.  

I’ve done quite well till now.  I’ve served society and now with limited time left want to be free from  constraints.  There is little time for soon they’re just say ‘he’s demented. He’s psychotic’.  Difference is either mad or bad.  Wearing women’s clothes is my Klinger expression.  I don’t want to war no more.

Life is a journey, a grand one at this, This bit is a blip in the whole, a delightful embracing of the whole self.  Dr. Jung called these ‘bits’ the ‘Shadow’. Obviously there are darker aspects of life which were contained by ‘evolution’ but there’s also those other bits which are not so bad or wrong or demonic.  Society is evolving and we thankfully don’t need more children for war so heterosexuality and the trappings of the military are no longer the only game in town.  I like the expressions of the artist.  Besides I’m a sniper and called up as an old man I’d serve my community though really I’m a healer first and foremost. Killing is relatively easy by comparison.  The sheep dog is more advanced thatn the wolf in that regard .  I do imagine myself more a sheep dog, maybe even a bitch. 

Telte Yet Campground

Well, we needed to pick up the Adventurer Camper in Chilliwack.  Laura was up for the adventure.  Madigan was all paws.  A stop at Windsor Plywood served to get some 3/4 inch marine fir to lay in the box.  The ride wasn’t onerous at all. I’d been to Dr. Ready in the morning so we only got away at noon and were loaded up at Chilliwack by 2 pm. We filled up with gas and water at the Esso.  

It was a glorious day with blue sky sunshine and small gaggles of cloud gossiping in the sky.  The mountains were magnificent . The greens so enchanting.  The traffic was surprisingly light. 

A short drive onto Hope and a stop at the grocery.

I wheeled the buggy out with the haul.  Laura stand in the camper as I lifted out the goods

« I don’t know how to shop for a weekend, ». I said.

« I know’, she replied, piling bread and eggs, steak and bacon onto the table. ». « You always get so much. »

« I know, the survivalist kicks in.  It’s related to those periods of poverty in my life , leaving home and after the divorce.  Being hungry left an indelible mark on my psyche even though it was only a few weeks. It must be worse for the refugees and folk who’ve known rationing after a war.  » I said .

« When the children were small and it was hard making ends meet I felt really comforted having food in the cupboards. » she said. 

Here we now were just talking about cholesterol, the American epidemic of obesity, the need we had to lose weight.  

The young native woman at the campground was truly a beauty.  A regular black haired Veronica.  She had a pretty little shy daughter who leaned up against her mommy’s leg.

« Do you have a place for the night. » I asked 

« How many? »

« 2 adults and a little dog. »

« With electricity? »

« Yes , we d love that, ». I didn’t say but Kelvin had just installed air conditioning and I was so excited by this new luxury  The day was really hot  though the winds off the river was cool..  

« I love the wind here. It’s so refreshing , » Laura said, when we chose #5 overlooking the large river meeting.  

« What a glorious place! » I said looking at the river through the trees.  It wasn’t long at all before we had back in hooked up and felt like we were at a home away from home.  

Madigan was glad for a walk.  Every form of camper was here.  Gréât Class A buses hooked to full service, fifth wheels and toy haulers.  Then there were traditional tents and several of the new tents on top of cars.  Converted vans and even a few motorcycle campers.  A Big Foot Camper was next to ours.  While Madigan marks territory every where I enjoy looking at the other camps and campers from everywhere, Asian, European, local.  I still like my truck camper best though younger I know I’d have like the tent that sits on top of the car.  I started camping as a child with family and have camped ever since in tents, and vans and now so enjoy this little home camper van because it can go anywhere with amenities off grid for days or weeks.  

After the walk back in the camper I  made coffee using the handheld Vevok grinder and stove top expresso.   The refriderator was slow to fire up because there was air in the propane lines. Once the stove got going the refridgerator did too.   Laura and I then settled into reading.  Wi Fi wasn’t that good but I plan  next week to have my Star Link with me when I take a week vacation on my own.  

This night it was hard to believe we were here It was a total breakfrom the city.  Another world. 

I pulled the barbecue out and barbecued the corn in the husk. I then did the steak having to watch as the wind blew out the flame at first.  The smells were delicious.  I had potato salad from the Hope grocery as well.  It was a feast. The steaks were succulent and of course Madigan was glad to share with Laura and me.  Laura loved the corn with butter an salt and surprisingly I did too because it didn’t get caught up in my teeth.  The potato salad was perfect and the local bread, Lac La Heche Pioneer bread with spread easy butter was a delicious addition.  We had a butter tarts to finish and Madigan was glad to help.

Another walk with the dog then more reading after a splurge of air conditioning.  I finished Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen.  A wonderful intriguing historical  mystery.  When it came time to sleep I could only cuddle a bit  with Laura before being unable to sleep and reading more of Venice in the quiet night.  So much for late afternoon coffee.  Sitting up with only the screen door and the sound the river was lovely at night. I eventually became sleepy and this time climbed up in to bed and slept till 8 am.  

Laura’s up and we’ve had coffee but I’m going to make bacon and eggs walk the dog and she’s going to shower.  It’s not a mystery or a suspense but rather a magnificent treat after  a week of work in the city.  Thank you Jesus for this adventure and camping.  Thank you Telte Yet natives for letting us share your sacred place . 

 

Harrison Lake

I dreamed I was on the ridge above the peninsula where my sailboat is anchored in the harbour. We were in trucks and several of us were hunting.  I’d seen moose and elk and believe I could have shot one but chose not to. Someone had shot a deer that was somehow boxed and I didn’t like that, seeing the animal contained that way by that weapon,  I was old fashioned and woke irritated by my back ache and the work demands.

I have to move out today,. To do so means packing up and putting away hoses, electrical and sewage,  Mostly I’m thinking of unloading the camper at storage . To make the space I have to pull out the trailer first, then back in the truck and unload the camper remember to clean out the fridge. 

When I get back to the city I have a half dozen calls to respond to from patients and lawyers. They began yesterday.  I’m grieving the end of holidays but with the pool closed yesterday I was disappointed.  I’ve done all I set out to do and am looking forward to my cake and the IDAA conference.  The threat persists.  

I pray.  I play peak a boo with Jesus.  

I’ve enjoyed reading of Bertie and Mathew and Pat and Big Lou ….all the characters of Edinburg novels by McCall Smith.  They are so light hearted compared to the heavy Peter Rimmer Asian novels of men and women involved in business competition and sex.  

My experiment in the blog was an exercise in transparency, to lay out the truth and confusion of the emotional and rational internal process.  I liked the early writing of the analysts. I liked free association. I liked the early Irish writers.  I wanted a journal of autobiography but along with the outer landscape of a went to b and was looking at c, that travel report, I wanted the inner journey. The evidence of the effort taken to rise above depression and anxiety.  The gratitude lists, the challenges, the prayers. I wanted this here to be seen. I wanted other weary travellers to see me ‘truckin’, ‘keeping on trucking’.  It wasn’t all easy and I struggle against despair and catastrophising.  I am now working through character defects and see that sloth and envy rear their heads

I saw this exercise as maintaining a skill of communication that would one day be apply to the task of story telling. I’m amazed at how prolific McCall Smith is and admire his light hearted stories.  I’m too heavy I believe.  Fundamentally in the very depth of me seeing ‘struggle’ and prone to depression and anxiety after more than30 years of hearing the worst.  Now I’m still too internal, not seeing that which is around me, not focussing like Adam on naming that which is in the garden.  

I don’t feel as driven to write of imaginary friends and plots and events.  I was content yesterday to eat pizza and read.  I’ve three places that I’ve completed which could serve me as places to live, my yacht, my fifth wheel 40 foot trailer and this truck camper.  I’ve achieved these goals and continue to wait, procrastinate, fine tune.  I was moved by Steinbeck’s Travels with Charlie.  Madigan is asleep right now at the foot of the bed where Laura is sleeping. She got up and now has gone back to bed.  I’m calming down. I woke rather excitable from that hunt with many hunters about.  There was pressure.  Now I’m up and there is none here but in my mind , yes. 

I feel better with coffee.  Now I’ll read and in a bit begin the process of departure.  It’s been a good vacation of rest and relations, of exercise and good sleep.  I’ve been very active and will become more so.  I’m looking forward to a chiropracter visit and resolving the technical difficulties with Starlink and with my IPhone.  For a couple of days I wasn’t getting emails and find that the face is cracked so imagine the two may be related. I’m getting emails again and should make a back up of pictures given thousands are on the various iPads.  The cloud is filled to and with the cloud and storage lockers the past is expensive.  

Thank you God for this day. May I serve you and do the next right things.  

Early Morning, Harrison Lake

I awoke positive, good dreams, good sleep, rested. I only realized that it was only 5 am when I checked the time coming out of the washroom.  Madigan was actually sleepy.  Laura was sleeping in, a blond tousle of crazy hair on her pillow.  I only had to add shorts and Teva Sandals and put a leash on my sleepy dog

A brisk walk around the lagoon is what the morning called for . Mist rising off the snow capped mountains.  Shades of blues flowing into each other from the grey blue sky to the turquoise lake.  An eagle was chased away from a tree top nest by two black birds.  A v of eagles honked overhead.  What a glorious morning! 

I was thankful to be walking and breathing.  Harrison’s is a tourist paradise. I think of those I know who have come to live here permanently to take the waters and heal from work injuries.  

Yesterday I had a lot of exercise. I assembled the folding electric bicycle and did a turn of the park, picking up the bacon egg sandwiches from Suzy’s for our breakfast.  I walked Madigan twice around the lagoon. I assembled the Body Glove Inflatable Paddle board twice, once with electric pump and the second with hand pump. I was tuckered by the time I’d hand pumped the board.  Taking off the hose and closing the valve lost too much air. My back was already aching.  I stood on the board with it stabilized with one end on the beach.  Laura was primed with the camera, I made it one or two board lengths out into the lagoon until the movement and my unsteadiness on my feat and gravity all brought me to my knees on the board.  It was then I remembered that I had difficult standing up from a solid surface like the ground There was no assistance. I actually thought a walker would help me up. It was like that last time tenting when in the morning I crawled out of the tent and wanted to call in helicopter to help me get upright.  

I paddled about sitting on the board.  Back at the beach I tried one more time before I was again on my knees clinging to the board, thankful the water was calm and there was little more than a breeze.  My back was weak and sore.  Proof of concept. Yes that’s what this was,  Enough for today.  

After that I had a good swim enjoying the cold water though I’d taken a mouthful wondering what algae and goose poop germs I’d ingested.

It was exercise. Deflating and carrying the paddle board home I was definitely read for the healing minerals waters of the public pool. I’d so enjoyed them the day before.  But no the pool was closed with apologies.  The hours are only 10 to 3.  Today I’ll enjoy relief.

“So who do you think you’ll give the paddle board to now,” said a very astute Laura. I have a history of buying floatable items and passing them along to friends who get great joy and pleasure out of them.  Kayaks, pontoon boats, dinghies.  Along with that various electric bicycles.  I give them away.  Other’s would sell them but I have no desire to have strangers come to my place when I can as easily give friends the results of my experiment.  A wiser man like my brother would have borrowed or rented a paddle board and learne that he couldn’t stand up on water any easier than he could stand up on land saving himself hundreds of dollars, I’ve not given up. It’s now a storage locker thing and thankfully it reduces nicely so that likely for years I’ll struggle with the nonsense, I do need the exercise 

I read another Peter Zimmer, completing the Asian series, with a lot of horny Englishmen chasing equally randy young women in London, Rhodesia, Sarawak, New York and Hong Kong. A peculiar episode of Mad Men. The series began before the war and ended with the adult children after the war. The satirical comments of the older generation were enjoyable while everyone drank way too much and smoked cigars as somehow the business of insurance and empires carried on. Interesting comments about communism and capitalism and the euroasian.

I’m now reading a continuation of McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland, thoroughly enjoying Bertie and Dominica and Pat.  He is such a prolific writer with such uplifting comments and insightful takes on life that I’m both inspired as a writer and deflated before such genius. A modern day Somerset Maugham and Mark Twain.  Of course I think I should be writing telling stories and not distracted by the antics of the ‘something rotten in the state of Denmark.’

Our Dumb and Dumber PM and the head of the NDP continue to spend money overseas where there is zero accountability , even less so than on our northern reserves and all manner of creative economics occurs.  Meanwhile CSIS has been saying for several years that the communist Chinese have infiltrated the government, media and education to the highest level. An honorable politician which these thugs and goons aren’t would have stepped down now that it’s out that the Communist Chinee, today’s equivalent of the Nazis essential bought the last election for the Liberals and threatened conservative MP’s.  Not only does the idiot savant narcissist not step down or open a public enquiry he gets his family friend to say he’s a good boy while his silly partner in crime backs his play. 

I”m naturally critical and post on social media my fear of the growing dictatorship in Canada and the destruction of democracy by this tyranny who lie continuously about a climate change ‘emergency’ which is little more than another concern of the industrialization.  Thankfully Musk is like Columbus expanding our scope and anyone who ever read Buckminster Fuller of the geodesic dome as a kid would know that this snowboard druggies don’t know squat about science.  I worry naturally like John the Baptist that my questioning the federal government so vociferously will have me beheaded so the emperor want a be can get into some other child’s pants.

It’s all too bizarre,

Now I believe in the power of attraction and a loving god so theoretically should focus on the good rather than the fear mongering of media. I’m brought down by all this when I really ought to be focussing on the advances in battery cells and energy production, the miniaturization of AI and all the extraordinary advances such as the drone flying cars that are light years now beyond the ultralights.  

I’m pleased with my air conditioner and little house, this truck camper on wheels. We used the air conditioning yesterday and enjoyed our capacity to control this little bit of atmosphere.  Meanwhile Bill Gates and the likes are playing with the earth atmosphere with a grandiosity and recklessness that seem to follow that egomaniac,  Naturally I don’t trust him not to shit in his and our meals like Trudeau who is another not potty trained metaphorically.  Meanwhile all the wonders of the world are funneled into the military’s industrial complex which rules of the world, the wars created and decided by the ‘security council’ of the dictators club call the UN>. The WEF and WHO are another couple of 

Rotten global agencies, once part of the British empire but now taken over by those whose countries haven’t even known the Magna Carta, French Revolution, American Revolution or the 60’s.  All of these are trying to turn the world back to the 50’s wanting the materialism and free sex of yesterday. The music died and they don’t seem to know it. 

I’m lost and confused.  I don’t cling to the past but know it so see it repeating itself.  Perhaps why I enjoy historical fiction like the novels I read.  

It’s 7 am. My alarm sounded.  A song praising God to start my day which is now already hours forward.  

I hand ground Ethiopian coffee beans I roasted myself. Cooked in a stove top expresso machine I have had delicious brew topped with cream and honey.  Now I’m yawning and tired and could go back to sleep to enjoy the warmth and blessing of lying beside Laura whose tousled blond head I can just see about the folds of blankets.  

Napping is under rated. I could have a nap right now and put off writing the great Canadian novel for another day.  I was wanting to read a Neuro  chemistry text I purchased last year and have been reading a chapter at a time,  Fascinating but slow going.  I much prefer the fast reads broken up with attention grab bing sex and violence. I likely would read more physics and math if they’d have orgies between the bits of trigonometry to spice up the dull.  Looking back I don’t think anything could have helped statitistics.  Yet I use statistics more these days than ever before.  Without that heavy slow year of statistics I’d not have know how deceptive CBC and CNN were through out the Covid crisis.  Yet knowing the leadership is lying and their friends are scoundrels does little to hearten one. I feel like it’s 1939 at times then gain hope and carry on, I must try paddle boarding but not today

This weekend we’re leaving the camper in storage because it will be weeks before I can head out.  Work has been put aside a bit to recoup. I’d become so despondent with the overwhelming threats and bludgeoning of mismanagement that I wanted to hide again.  Now I’m invigorated again by nature.  I really must exercise more and have balance and not let the crazies get to me. My patients are fine but it’s management with their ever increasing demands, theft and criticism and expectation of perfection from others,  So sad each day hearing so many struggling while the party animals in power waste and profit,  Hypocricy is Canada’s growth industry.

Easy to criticize.  My back aches and physician heal thyself is at core. Take the timber out of your own eye before trying to take the mote out of your neighbour’s Judge not less thee be judged. I know all this and yet I slide.  It’s hard to walk upright dragging knuckles. 

Thank you Jesus. Help me lift up my head and mind.  Guide me today and always .  Thank you.  Harrison Lake is a blessing and here I am in heaven and paradise.  Thank you! Thank you God!!!

High school reunion happened this weekend. I paid to go before covid and contributed my support but didn’t actually make it thinking maybe the next. I’ve an IDAA conference to go to in July so feel like I’m slowly winding up.  I knew I needed time camping and that the stress in my life with the recent vicious low life attack is not going to be helped by visiting old friends, most of who are retired while I still work. I read of their lives on face bock and they mostly have children and grandchildren while I’m alone and go to work because I don’t know better. I seem in limbo too.  In Death’s waiting room. So many close to me have died. I feel like becoming a recluse to handle the grief and face my own denial and fear of death. I don’t take enough time for God and have a puppy who needs me.  I am doing baby steps. I confess the idea of retiring here to a routine of taking the waters andd walking about the lagoon with the dog is appealing. I’d garden vegetables and raise chickens. Yet on another day I like the hustle and bustle of the city enjoying my motorcycle and paying for the addition of a air conditioner to this little house.  My life is good and I’d not want anything else though I don’t know what to expect days or weeks or months ahead. I’m okay for the year but don’t know beyond that.  I think of my sailboat and often long to be sailing again but everything seems to need reduction. My world is smaller and my body struggles with decreasing strength and power. The sore back is a reminder like the unreliable dick. I ‘m fine then I’m not. I don’t feel dependable.  All my body parts have moments of crankiness like the dog.  He’s grumpy now when I want him to get out of my seat.  I worry about him.  Attitude. All the attitude about me and no respect. I can’t recall ever having ‘respect’ but like a lot of promises it has gone.  I am blessed though to day by the wonder of the air I’m breathing.  It’s so delicious.  The weather is a find too,  When I was up at 5 it was so quiet and now the town has come alive and people sounds are coming on line.  I love the colours, the flowers and trees, the bird song.  Thank you God. Thank you Jesus!

Glencoe RV, Harrison Hotsprings

Laura is sleeping. She’s beautiful with her head down on her pillow, the curly blond hair a tumble.  I’m blessed to know her.  The nutbar dog, Madigan, began whining at 7 am.  7 am is when my alarm normally goes off during work week though I often wake earlier

It’s a grey and dreary rainy day here at Harrison.  I took Madigan out for a pee. Shorts and a t shirt. Wet roads.  Flip flops. I’ve of an age when my Calvin Klein under wear, shorts, will pass inspection from a distance.  The advantage of aging.  I’ve got less concern about my dress and others share my lack of concern.

I haves flashes of earlier age. It’s like a present with reverberations of earlier me, of cares and concerns that no longer track. I love being in bed with Laura. She’s so beautiful.  But also when folk talk about a person as home rather than a place.

This mobile home is a Gypsy caravan with the girl and the dog. I’m having stove top expresso and enjoying it.

My first quick glance at the news was positive, the Johnston of the Trudeau family stepped down from his silliest buggery ‘rapporter’ position, a Trudeau nonsense attempting to cover up the election violations that had the Liberals ‘stealing’ the election from the conservatives with Beijing money and threats.  Trudeau is a traitor. The Dictatorship of the WEF is on us.  In the south the lies of Jan 6, are out , showing the White House guards opening doors and walking the worst of the supposed worst about the White House , dozens of armed guards and unarmed ‘domestic terrorists’.  The FBI are coming out more and more corrupt.  Media lies of the kind Stalin and Mao were famous for. Now Biden stands up there with Castro.  Here in Canada we learn that Trudeau was complicit in the greatest election fraud of Canada’s history. Mass immigration to turn a first world country into a third world country. The image of the Canadian PM paying a known terrorist who killed and American medic 10 million dollars is followed a RCMP horses trampling an old lady in a freedom rally.  ‘Freedom’s just another world for nothing less to loose!” 

“Everything and everyone can be bought in third world country’s’” she said.  Where is the unbuyable Nader when we need him.

So that’s the political rabbit hole. War and rumours of war.  Somewhere out there in social media/media world but here there’s the patter of rain on the room and a veritable goddess sleeping in the bed with a dog curled up beneat the table by my feat.  This is real. That’s not. This is here and now. This is. 

The air smells so fresh here.  The Hotsprings Pool opens at 10 am. I see that Laura has turned over. From here I can just see her elbow moving.  I think she’s reading here iPhone. She connects with her sister, daughter and neice each morning, checking in on her family, happy theyr’e well, entertained by their endeavours. Her personal soap opera.   I’ll make her a coffee.  She really deserves to be cared for.  I try.  Madigan worships her then tries to hump her shoulder.   I’m glad in the camper, he can’t get up into this bed with us. He’s a real nutbar.  

I didn’t dream of work. I was dreaming of work last week. I went through the nightmares of the weekend of the college, a terrible return of all the PTSD hysteria and catastrophising, remembering feeling utterly helplessness held hostage, then the utterly abusive judge who worked for the criminal, then the lying crack smoking psychopath who rallied the college and other government agencies to her side while her biker loser boyfriend threatened my life, and the crazy cow in authority saying ‘women don’t lie about sex’, the man threatening my life and the callous police doing nothing, nothing, nothing, the guy who threatened me and my dog with his off leash pit bull and no consequences.  My dog was blind at the time, slowly dying of an enlarging heart and injured back, hardly able to walk.  

I’m increasingly deaf from the medication I took for a year for the TB I acquired flying into Indian Reserves back when I worked for the University and Indian Affairs when it was called Indians affairs.  Indigenous is the preferred term this week, aboriginal out of fashion.  I’m now Irish and Scottish Canadian and I liked it better when I was just Canadian. But Singh and Trudeau are doing the fringe politics that made Hitler famous. The SS were dominated by pedophiles too. Epstein list remains protected damming all in Washington by association.  Mel Gibson has a documentary coming which shall be incredible since he was a whistle blower on Hollywood.  Pedophilia is a disease.  The complicity of courts is to include post pubescent sex offenders in this group. Sex with the prepubescent children is against nature. Sex with teens is merely against the law.  The grandiosity of godless men would argue other wise.  The pride of judges and beurocrats and government .Doctors are humbled by nature. The greatest sadness of our days is that arts students aren’t required to study biology.  These are ludicrous times.  In some future of the multiverse children will read with horror of the insaniety of our age, so little different from the religion of the cargo cults.  We are such a silly lot. 

I’m as likely to wear unisex clothing, a sarong from sailing days and earrings but have no interest in children.  The communist state is against family and I love family, miss my own as the old died . I’m an elder in this branch and still feel seventeen.  I get no respect.  The very thought makes me old. 

Normally I wake and get out of bed to pray and meditate But here I have gone straight to coffee.  Walking Madigan around the lagoon I like to sit looking at the lake and mountains and give thanks to God. Sitting in the hot pool and hot tubs I recite prayers to myself. Our father,  Hail Mary.  All shall be well.   Lying on lawn chairs I pray and meditate.  Not working I like to pray. Working it’s often prayers for guidance and protection. Not working gratitude and thanks.  I try to pray unceasingly and hope one day I will.

I took her coffee and caught of glimpse of her beautiful face poking out of the mess of hair as she reached out for the cup, the black strap of her lingerie , the extended bare arm and sculptured hand. She reminded me yesterday we met in our 40’s . I think of her as a teen as I think of myself, a couple of high school lovers.  She’s a grandmother and I don’t see it. I feel older only because my back aches since I slipped in the rain climbing Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh last year.  In my mind I’m little more than layers of thoughts on the little boy who hid behind my mother’s skirts when approached by strangers.  Now my back hurts and I find it harder to stand up from getting down on the floor. I feel vulnerable.  Twisting hurts and I love the hotsprings.  I imagine that weightlessness in the space station would be as appealing.  

“He ain’t heavy, he’s my broteher.!”  I do find myself reflecting on my teen years, 20’s and thirties.

Just the other day I thought of our late night discussions about ‘changing the system’ from within or without. It was the Vietnam War era and we were concerned about the military industrial complex and arms dealers and war maker. I argued for changing the system from within.  Other’s argued for ‘opting out’. Now looking at Trudeau and Singh it’s never been so bad.  As teens and 20’s we were hippies or weekend hippies, mostly interested in sex and dance and being free. The wood stock marijuana was like beer. We drank wine too.  We were so active the effects were muted.   We talked about social revolution , nudity, music.  The music of the day was the source of philosophy and theology.  I was reading the Bible,Bhagadvagita, Buddha, Lao Tze, Torah, and Koran.  They were heady days.  A couple of friends of the late night discussions went off to Africa as missionaries, another became a Rosicrucian.  We spent time in Toronto with the Thosophical Society.  My first wife  was reading Neitzhe and fashion magazines.  We were dancing and appearing on tv. I was writing poetry and wanted to be a screen write. Bicycling across Europe , playing chess and meeting so many others our age from so many different lands we were like the Moveable Feast.  

Today I miss the easy sensuality but ironically love being with Laura whose presence is revolutionary like the love of  a naughty nun.  We laugh together and I remember the hippy era as laughter. The pomposity and pretentiousness was there but no so prominent as it is today.  We were together against the man.  Joan Baez said we were all climbing the mountain but couldn’t see each other because the few at the top had shit machines to pour shit down.  That was when we were ‘anti war’. Before we knew that the ‘Peace Movement’ was naive and funded as much by us as by them. 

Putin as KGB talks of his good times infiltrating the hippies to encourage their anti war movement against their government - the fifth column war. Today it’s part of the hybrid war of the communist chinese.  Trudeau is the traitor from this perspective.  The Modern day Chamberlain. 

We were so idealistic and only later I learned that the anti war movement was the enemy’s movement. Freedom needed to come first.  Freedom of speech and anti scensorship first. Later I’d learn realism and study rhetoric and logic and science and psychopaths and sociopaths.  I’d meet people who would just as soon kill you as play golf with you.  I was safe and middle class back then. I later worked with soldiers and will ever recalls the sergeant who told me that ‘we’re like the sheep dogs, we protect the sheep from the wolves.’   We were sheep then.  I faced the wolves and after loved the sheep dogs.  So many silly academic I met were so deluded they didn’t know they were sheep. So many middle class were so fat and soft they voted Trudeau and Singh and entertained such silly ideas as defund the police. I remember the silliness of unilateral disarmament from those teen years when we were so young we’d not met Jeffry Daimlers in our midst.  We externalizer our fears and hates.  We’d not studied Jung.  Just as individuals develop socially and emotionally as Erickson taught so do groups of people. Today more and more people are here who escaped their countries which are still in the pre Magna cart, pre French and American Revolution. They’re prone to dictatorship. They’re socially immature and yet look like others adults .  But they ba like sheep.  The Wallace’s of their countries were genetically removed and they never had a Bruce.  They want license and believe in revolutions and don’t know that feeedom comes with accountability.  Their world is paranoid and ‘us and them’. They don’t know that ‘Eichman is within.” 

I am older now. I know God is All.  Without the manure there’d be no roses.  I’m a great admirer of parents who know the difficulty of raising children and teaching adolescents so have little faith in Trudeau maturing.  He and his adolescent gang are flying boys and girls.  Laura doesn’t get upset like I do.  She tells me stories of her children knowing it all and I remember when I was that age and my father wasn’t nearly as wise in my eyes as he turned out to be.

The courts and parliament are a binary, like non binary and binary are a binary.  It’s a cluster fuck and crap shoot and gamble.  In medicine we see the whole.  We know the complexity of how the head bone is connected to the toe bone. We study health and disease.  It’s been an amazing life of study and learning. I am truly blessed.  Not only have I learned of others but of myself. I still am learning and I’m trying more and more to be more kind.  Love your enemy, Jesus taught. Do not be afraid. I look back and my greatest regret is that I didn’t show my mother more love.  I was a good son by standards but so entitled and inconsiderate.  She was always there and I was so intellectual so narcissistic, such a genus.  I wished I’d just hugged her more.  My father was the genius. He lead and managed a hundred and fifty men at one time.  I wished I’d listened more.  My brother did. He was the good boy and I felt the alien, so caught up in the things I saw in microscopes and telescopes that I didn’t see what was in front of my face.  Face. Face . Face.  Location. Location. Location.

Thank you Jesus 

I love Harrison Hot Springs. Laura and I have been coming yearly often several times for a quarter century and before that I came and even brought my parents here for one of our best visits as adults. My friend told me of the mafia meeting here when he was a messenger  for them. The Canadian Christian Medical and Dental Society had their meeting here where I so enjoyed the company of Willie and Anita Gutowski.  It’s a holy healing place.  Sacred.  Here I am today blessed. Hallelujah.  

Riverhaven RV Park, going home

This Victoria Day long weekend has been wonderful.  Laura and I and Madigan have slept a lot. I’ve barbecued so we have had steaks each night with storebough salad kits , potato salads and only one night boiled eggs with butter and sour cream.  Laura has made cold cut sandwiches.  Each evening we’ve each had a ice cream bar thanks to the freezer compartment in the camper fridge.  

I’ve walked Madigan about the camp several times a day, stopping to study the fast flowing high river that is above the beach line.  We’ve read. I’ve read several books . 44 Scotland by McCall Smith has had me thoroughly entertained by Bertie and Irene, second gap year Pat, lost Mathew, wise Dominica and countless antics the folk in this Edinburgh building get up too along with Big Lou’s cafe and Dr. Fairbairn’s psychotherapy office.  I definitely did the full range of laughter from bell laughing guffaws, to chuckles to snickers to chortles reading it. So thanks to Amazon I’ve ordered the second one in the series. I’d already read severeal of his Number One Lady‘s Detective Agency so feel thankful he is most prolific and I’ve some dozen more to read.  

I did get out in on the Honda 420 Tracker riding high up into the mountains on the logging trails to where I sighted in my Ruger 223 bolt action and my Ruger 30:06 bolt action. I was chillier in the high country so not so pleasant the one day it rained.  Madigan rode behind me in his box with a leash attached.  He really does like these rides and each day on his own would jump on the quad and sit up wanting to be put in the box for another expedition.

I did take pictures of marmots.  

Bear season was still open but I had my Nikon and imagined if it was right in front of me on the road I’d take a picture rather than a shot. The idea of all the work of hauling the bear back to the road and getting it down off the mountain seemed too much work for my back which has been kind to me these last few weeks so I’ve not had any desire to undue the process, to say nothing for the bear who I’m sure would like to live.  Fortunately I didn’t have to make a decision as none appeared and I was happy to shoot targets and drive about in the country with my dog.

We had eggs and bacon for breakfasts and toast and jam.  Eating is becoming a looked forward to event.  Followed by coffee and reading.  Neighbours had dogs and our dogs visitted a bit while we smiled and nodded and discussed the weather.  Half the days were rain and the other half were sunny.  We had the most extraordinary thunder and lightning one day.  Quite the scarey sort.  

I had a couple of showers always enjoying in indulging in my little’s homes on site amenities.  We had shore electricity and water as well as sewage hose.  Glamping is what my friends call it.  I rather enjoy it.  Laura takes time with make up and generally is a the most beautiful companion and a delight to share time with.  

I actually wrote some of western story. It’;s like playing guitar. I have to be relaxed to enjoy these past times.  Sketching is the one that I only do when I’m really relaxed and off the clock. It’s a while since I’ve felt so childlike.  Mostly I’m busy and affected by the news still though at a distance in the woods.  There are calls but and texts but none needed to be addressed on the weekend so I was thankful for that. I could ‘play’ instead letting my imagination make a story. I do look forward to doing more of that.  Telling tales.  It’s like writing poetry but more childlike and fun.  A bit of see one do one too.  I read so much it’s a pleasure to add to the written story word.

Now it’s time to gather up things and load up before heading home .  Check out is 11 and it’s only 9 so coffee first.

It’s been a marvellous time off from work.  A gentle time.  I’m so very thankful .  God is good all of the time. Thank you Jesus.  

Riverhaven RV Park, Hadley

What a joy to be here!  We left at 10 am and arrived at 3 stopping at Chilliwack RV storage to pick up my trailer with the Honda 420 Rancher.

“Glad to see you, John! “ I said when I drove onto his lot. “We’re back camping.”

“It’s been so long.”

“A year and a half. Frazerway just wasted our time and gaslighted us insisting on me writing them a blank cheque, did nothing but run around and waste of time.  That’s the past. Once Kevin got involved everything was sane, and smooth and competent.  Such a good man and great character.  We really enjoyed the people at AdventurerRVCentre, not just Kevin but the whole team.  The receptionist was delightful.  We were so thankful for Kevin.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said John, who’d recommended Kevin to me in the first place. 

“ Laura and I have  been camping a couple of weekends already. We love outdoors therapy. With what we both do in our work dealing with really sick people, getting away camping for the weekend is what it takes to recharge.  How are you your self doing taking Sunday off?” John had told me on the phone he was taking a little time off. 

“My wife thinks I’m a workaholic.” He’d told me. I’m loving not working Sunday though.   No more horns at the gate with people losing their key or coming to my door and wanting something.  I may have lost a few people but the relief is worth it.’

“Well done. I tell people I’m past retirement age, past my shelf life but I don’t smell yet. Still I have to have some self care to keep on going. I ‘m glad you’re doing that too.”  

John and his family are some of the most admirable people Laura and I know.  

His son was there, what folk would call a ‘tall strapping lad’,  a real gentleman.

Laura said, “His father’s a great role model but you can see how much love the mother gives.”

“I just feel blessed to know such fine people. Gives me hope.  When the media is portraying the future as dark I look at people like John and family and see plain goodness.”

John’s son came by to see if I needed help getting my trailer hitched.

“Thanks but I’m okay going forward with the trailer if I can find the keys and get it all hooked up. My problem is backing up with trailers. I may need your help when we come back Tuesday.”  He laughed.  

It actually wasn’t that hard.  Laura sorted out the keys and locks and I actually seated the trailer hitch on the tow ball on the third try.  When it clunks into place it’s such a satisfying sound.  

We headed out with the camper and trailer and ATV feeling great.  

We stopped at Buy Low in Hope for more groceries.  ‘The steak was perfect, mottled, thick, I couldn’t resist getting a couple more.”  I like barbecuing. Had pork chops already.  Laura had wanted more fruit and with the freezer doing well in the camper I was able to top up the ice cream bar stash.

We stopped at Macdonalds on the  way out for 1/4.pournder’s with cheese.  I’d bought at western audio book at the Esso.  “A movie in your mind”.  Madigan loved his burger patty. Laura and I love MacDonalds on the road. I like their coffee.  Driving through winding number 3 thorugh Manning Park, the great forest and high snow capped mountains we listened to tale of cowboy revenge porn.  The twist on this tale was a daughter who dressed as a man to hunt down her father’s killers.  

“I really am feeling I’m on vacation now.” I said

“Me too,” said Laura.

We’d done the old routines.  A little rusty. But this was the same as we’d done so many times.    Princeton is a favourite destination for us. It’s a half day to a day travelling and outfitting but then we have several days of downtime and bliss.   

Glamping.  That’s what everyone calls what we do.   

Riverhaven RV campground is just beyond Princeton.  The sign for Stemwinder trail then Pickard wilderness camp site we’ve often stayed at.  Then Gold campgrounds and Riverhaven.  We love Riverhaven and have come many times. We liked the old owners but the new owners are even more committed to making the place a first rate Good Same Accomodation. Mom and Dad had a Slumber Queen Motorhome they took all over Canada and the US always choosing Good Sam accommodations when they could.

“Your mom loves how clean and friendly they are.” Dad had told me.  Now here I am following them. 

Of course I had a trial backing up the trailer with the ATV so rode my Honda 420 Rancher off the trailer, unhitched the trailer and pushed it into the site.  Laura kept an eye on things while I backed the truck camper in between the trees. I really appreciate her help. With my first camper I hit overhead branches and clipped trees.  I’m a nightmare back ing up.  Embarrassing. Laura reduces the anxiety .  

With the camper in place I put out the happy jacks, hooked up the power line, water and sewer hose.  All connected.  Glamping.  I took Madigan for a walk and saw the Silmikameen river was raging. Madigan didn’t like it.  The sand beach was definitely underwater.  No swimming this weekend.  

I barbecued steaks.  They were delicious.  It’s a little community. Others coming in Friday evening.  Kids and young families and some old folk like us.  Riverhaven is well organized and quiet.  I loved the day the whole herd of deer walked through one morning.  I like that the ATV trails can be accessed across the road.  Madigan was so excited when I rode on the ATV. He’d accompanied many times hunting. . It’s obvious he remembers the good times, me shooting grouse and him finding and fetching them. His bark was more a shreak of excitement.   

“You’ll be okay here while Madigan and I go off in the morning on the ATV.”

“Of course . I’ve got my cross words and books. I’ll be okay.”   

Kelvin is putting in air conditioning the next few weeks.  Laura had found it too hot up at Whistler , unable to sleep in the heat so I aslked Kelvin of Travco as he was upgrading the Happy Jack fuse panel, if he could.  He’d done them before so said, “sure.”  I’m glad to give him more pleasant jobs after he fixed the frozen sewer pipe last winter.  I think too Madigan’s going to need air conditioning if I leave him in the camper when I’m down south. Everything is always a work in progress. That’s the joy. Being like Adam and tending the garden.  

I sure like having the camper back and am going to really enjoy being back on the ATV. I’ll take a rifle for target practice. It’s bear season but I only took a photo the last great shot I had.  Mostly I just enjoy riding about in the back country in wonder at God’s creation.  I love the peace I find.  Shutting off the ATV engine and having a picnic with Madigan, taking a nap out in the woods by the little machine then going off again exploring.

That’s tomorrow. Now I’m ready for bed. Laura’s already there. Madigan sleeping under the table.  I’m beginning to yawn. I love the wood smoke scentn the air.  Other campers had fires in their fire pits.  I’m going to sleep well today.  Lots of physical activity and country air.  

Thank you Jesus!. 

  

 

Alice Lake Campground

Thanks to Kevin (adventurerrvcenter@yahoo.ca), Thaun Vo of Rand and Fowler Insurance, Kelvin  at Travco RV and Merry Maids of Burnaby, my Adventurer Truck Camper is back. Two years ago I hit a boulder on the West Harrison road causing structural damage that Kevin restored to new. Kevin rescued us after a year of gaslighting by the dealer.  Despite working in jails I still am not immune to sociopaths.  Thank God for Kevin and Thaun, men of character, honest business men.  Once they were involved everything went smoothly.  

Kelvin from Travco fixed my pipes and furnace last year and was kind enough to come by and fix the drawers and windows in my camper .  Finally Merry Maids detailed the whole inside delighting Laura when she arrived for our inaugural camping weekend.  “It’’s better than new, “ she said.  

We didn’t know exactly when we’d be able to leave till this week so didn’t have reservations. Since Covid ,campsites are premium. When we picked up the camper last week in Chilliwack at AdventurerRV Centre, we took it back to the city, where Merry Maids had at her.  

Each day Laura and I texted each other, ‘just three more days’. “ Just two more days.”  “Just one.”  Madigan was ecstatic to see Laura at our door 9 am  this morning   I’d loaded the truck and we just had to  head out.  I was sorry to leave my new HD Nightster Motorcycle. I have yet to test the truck hitch carrier with the new motorcycle. We have the quad in the country on a trailer for another trip. This weekend was just for enjoying the return of the camper. And we are.

“I want to go north to Pemberton.” I told Laura this morning.”  I’ve not been on the sea to sky since before Covid,” It was raining and ugly but the view of the sea was still spectacular.  Passing Porteau Cove I remembered all the wreck scuba diving I enjoyed there.  Then we were passing Britannica Beach where the mine is. “We stopped here a whole lot for best burgers and fries,” Laura said.  Then we were at Squamish.   

“I’ve loved riding the motorcycle here and stopping for coffee at Starbucks.” I said. 

“That was so much fun, “ she agreed.  

Then we saw the sign for Alice Lake Campground.  “We can try,” I said.

“We don’t have reservations. Any spots available.” I asked the young man at the booth. 

 “You’re in luck. I have one”. He said. “I think too you might be a senior so are entitled to a discount.’  (I don’t think I look old but I’ll identify as old if it means saving money.) 

Now we’re here. We even have electricity. I was glad to have filled the water tank before we left.  In the past we’ve gone three days easily.  We’re really quite spoiled.

The provincial park site is terrific. A large private lot with wide spaces between campsites.  What a marvellous provincial campground.  He  warned us about bears and not leaving out food.  Dogs have to be on a leash but we just love the fresh air, the quiet and that the rain stopped once we stopped.  

This is bliss.  Laura has made Black Forest ham sandwiches with the fresh lite rye bread.   I made stove top expresso and am  comfortable now  writing a blog entry before my plan to walk Madigan around the neighbourhood.  There are mosquitos but they’re staying outside the screen door.  Laura having chucked the paper plates has settled down with a magazine.  

“We don’t have wife or cell service,” she said.  “It’s the first time in forever I’ve been so disconnected.’

“I know. I forgot my satellite phone but rather like that I’m disconnected.  The world can get by without us for a day or two.  I’m beginning to feel so relaxed,” I said.  

Madigan meanwhile is still a Duracell bunny as the humans are really settling into this camping life.  

‘I may have to make another coffee.’ I thought «  Maybe a walk first. »

My cellphone rang to our surprise.  Kevin and Anna and the kids were driving by on the highway on their way to camping in Pemberton.   Great talking with them and hearing about our mutual friends  Elizabeth and Phil in Newfoundland.    We may follow them up to Pemberton tomorrow as we’ve only this site overnight. This can only be booked 1 day at a time and the rest of the campground is full.  The air here is glorious.