Adventure- Thunderbay, Sault Ste. Marie, Ottawa

I’m surprised I made it.  I feared mostly falling asleep at the wheel.  The passage over the top of the Great Lakes at times was a bit like the Saskatchewan flats. I stopped several times for brief naps. The scenery was of course spectacular with forest and water. Coming around a turn there would be the Great Lakes over and over again.  Playing peek a boo with water. Green and blue.  There was intermittent rain.  Some storm. 

Thunderbay to Sault Ste Marie was a haul. It all was really. Hours upon hours of driving. I find 6 hours is more doable but I’ve been doing 7 and 8 hours.  I enjoyed the KOA in Sault St. Marie. In the morning the office was pleasant, a delightful attractive older woman who told me she’d been working here 40 years.  I filled up with Propane.  It rained a lot.  I was glad when I could turn off the wipers.  

I didn’t know if I could get from Sault St. Marie to Ottawa.  I have to remind myself that I had an extra day with the Monday Holiday.  Now I’m here.  

Thank goodness for Verghese, Covenant of Water. That was my audiobook I listened too the last few days.  Several generations of Keralla family.  Amazing story.  

I’d tune in to CBC occasionally.  The inauguration of the Pope.  PM Carney was there .  He was described as a devout catholic and that gave me hope. I enjoyed the Pope as a religious leader but not as the secular dictator that he is. The Vatican is a country and he involvement in politics, every with the Nazis, has been Machiavellian. His globalism today is not what is good for the poor but what is good for the Vatican.  He was at his worst when he criticized President Trump for building walls while he himself and his country was surrounded by walls. Migrants aren’t getting into the Vatican and there are no tent cities or shit on the sidewalks

Madigan has been a great companion. We stop a few times for walks during the day.  He shares my food, of course. I stopped at Dairy Queen and enjoyed the burgers. We also enjoyed the poutine and fish at the chip shop

I texted everyone that I’d arrived . Laura said it was a ‘feat’ and I appreciated she understood.  Blind and deaf and war weary slouching towards Bethlehem.  I’m in Wesley Clover. It’’s very treed but they put me in 17E and I have good Starlink connection.  Electricity and water. No sewage unless I drive out so much rations showers or use public facility. I have a week of black water potential and grey water tank last as long if I don’t shower.  I like that I ‘m here. It’s wooded and lovely.  Let’s hope I can stay.  

Thank you God for bringing us safely here. I really am looking forward to seeing Finn and his brother the unknown great nephew, Elliot. It will be be great to see Andrew and Tanya and Alan and Meaghan.  Meaghan is preggers so I’ll meet another new family member. Don’t know when I’ll connect with Adell and Graeme.  I work three days and this next weekend I’ll plan to be here a couple of days .  Maybe go down to Napanee the next week.  Visitting relatives is not a skill I have or much experience with. Historically I fly in and do a few trips and fly out. No plans this time. I’ll see what the folk want now that my being here is a reality.

Thank you Jesus.

South to Sun, Eureka, Day 4, 6 am

I’m here in Eureka.  The last time I came into Eureka I was driving my Volkswagen Baha Bug, called Pendergast. It has been resurrected from a farmer’s field and used as an ambulance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I was fleeing a divorce and yuppie dom.  I had to use up the Thai stick before crossing the border.  I’d sold my Mustang for funds and bought the Bug for $500 and paid $500 for blue paint job and minimum to make it street legal. A trucker had hit a deer right before me at night.  We hit the carcass and were airborne.  I didn’t know at the time the axle was bent.  My young Mennonite artist friend who’d shared the driving to there departed for Eureka California.  His wanting to go there was the first I heard of the town and liked the name. 

I pulled into a coffee shop into this town wth the name Love something. .  I parked Pendergast and both front tires fell off and the car dropped to the pavement, exhausted .. I’d learn later that the lug nuts had been sheared.  The mechanic I met towed me to his shop and regaled me about the love of his life he’d met in a whorehouse. Make the best wives, he said.  Pendergast was reborn that day and I headed onto San Francisco to be with Suzanne. I was playing guitar and singing Dylan’s Don’t think twice, and Cohen’s Suzanne.  It was a hell of a ride.

Since then Ive passed through Eureka several times always meaning to stop and stay. Humboldt County folk are really fine.  My Marin friend, Suzanne’s brother said Humboldt was where they grew the best marijuana.  We’d canoed there with him and his wife when my marriage was shiny and new, a well polished thing before the rust set in.

Now I’m alone with a dog.  I already miss my friends.  These expedition adventures can be lonely. I left the Alder Dune Campground yesterday , pleased I’d used my new Honda 3200i generator. It had been a cosy night in a fine off road campground, no amenities, just the grand outdoors.  It poured all night.  I was glad for the generator and electric heater. I could save on propane.  I was up at 5 am then too.  Just like today.  It was hard finding my way out of the camp in the utter darkness. I had to get out several times with a flashlight to ensure I was on the trail.  Back on the 101 it wasn’t long before I made Florence. I’d just been reading about the Medici and Michelangelo and Da Vinci.  I was glad to fill up a propane tank at a gas station beside a Macdonald’s. Madigan liked his sausage paddi and I liked the refill of coffee the sausage egger and bun and greasy hash browns. Part of the trip is the road food.  

In Coose Bay I went on line and enjoyed a meeting.  Colleagues and friends.  I don’t feel entirely safe but am present.  I’m amazed with one of my mentors.  Like so many he’s more than 5 years older than me, some are 10 years older.  So many are retired or semi retired.  I enjoyed another fellow sharing how he didn’t explode when a teller ignored his crutches and asked him to get another box since she couldn’t read the price.  He said how he’d have exploded years ago.  I shared how I mellowed too being patient while waiting for all the paper work and regulation related to getting a new phone to replace the one I’d dropped.  I expressed appreciation and gratitude for the progress. The topic was integrity.  Outside and inside. I’ve felt I had been well trained in morality and ethics in my Baptist faith and my friends said ‘get off the cross we can use the wood’.  Well it’s’ better I’m still working on Arendt and the Nuremberg scenario and the Serenity Prayer.  My iPad died then.  I had been distracted by the ambivalent invitation to share, “if you want to share’ and a person leaving for another commitment and then this iPad death. I’ve carried a resentment about a fellow who plays it safe and doesn’t share but interrogated me once such that I had to stop him and recognierd he was just relatively new in sobriety and struggling with judgement the issue issue I struggle with  these days. Judgment and comparison,

I’d wanted to say that I’m feeling good and glad to have learned that the resentment I carried and dealt with were more often these days about people who were dead. I had the thought earlier that detectives say it’s likely a crime of passion when they find multiple gunshots or stabs to the body’.  i expected I’d desecrate graves.  Something about the Irish Scottish heritage.  I thought it was funny and progress. But the iPad died and I being paranoid thought no one liked me I’d been cut off. I’d looked an there’d been 10 minutes and I’d only shared a few minutes when that happened.  A better explanation was that I’d used up the cell phone time on the iPad. I couldn’t get it to come back on.  But there I was reflecting on being rather happy and content but not able to conclude on a higher note than Arendt and Nuremberg.

The truth is that’s where I was then. I’ve been away of how poor I am which is silly but with Canadian dollar going for 65Cents to the American dollar I feel like the poor cousin. I’ve also felt that my integrity in my work cost me outrageously as the colleagues at the hospital who were mum about the unnecessary deaths that I spoke to an stopped had gone on to greater wealth and position. I left in disgust and still judge unfairly.  I didn’t have children and I didn’t play it safe.  I was frustrated at myself and concerned about my future running scenarios of past false accusations and the cost of integrity.  I felt like the Count of Monte Christi but had fore gone recvenge for Christian forgiveness.

I was driving south with my mind no longer at peace. I also couldn’t phone anyone because I didn’t have my contact list.  I was also emotionally disturbed and had a couple of near misses driving. Jesus definitely took the wheel when I almost drove into a cliff the sun in my eyes and my not seeing the road had a sharp turn.  Forgiveness is for my sake. it’s to give me peace of mind.  Before the meeting I had relative peace of mind. I wrote yesterday a fine piece on spirituality and was resting on my laurels when I felt this judgment and rejection.  

it’s also that I’m alone.  My mind is a bad neighbourhood and I shouldn’t go there alone. I’m experiencing envy .  There are these character flaws and I have hear that while I have pain others have shared their surgeries and pain and I’ve felt apart of as they’ve shared their experience, strength and hope. But I found it interesting that I didn’t know about the pain and struggle till now thought we ‘ve shared together several times in the year. I’;ve listened too.  I’ ve shared honestly about my struggles I’ve even shared my issues with gender and felt the velvet shame associated.  I shared to about the proxy wars that women have waged using authorities to punish men .  Today they have their children and it’s a challenge as I see with my effect of my dog on my life. But the single women collectively ride on the shirt tails of chivalry. I tend to self pity.  

I’ve struggled with those who say I’m number one or compete and yet I’ve been content to be number two as God is one.  I’ve spiritually struggled with thy will. Thy will be done not my will yet I’ve so often been challenged by those who seek superiority to deal with their inferiority. I shot Billy the Kid.  Today the young men kick dirt in the faces of the old men.  I wonder how long before they throw dirt on us. Jesus died in his 30’s. I was pretty good then physically but today I am struggling with integrity. In the 12 step program the least done and hardest part is the Step 4 recommendation to address resentment to people, institutions and principles.  Ive pretty much done my step 4 regarding people several times I’ve also addressed institutions such as the school, legal system, bank, college and even marriage. But principles such as integrity still come up to bite me.  I note that so many people now are becoming ‘spiritual’ after they have pensions and wealth made sometimes not so licitly .  I don’t hear of amends being made either.  I am not a beaming example. But its apparent that the Peter Principle was at play in the hierarchy.  I struggle with regrets of leaving the university and see life as that of thee ‘regular’ army and the ‘scouts’ and I’ve remained a scout.  The ‘regular armies’ are principles that I struggle with the ancient history of the Celts and Romans and later the Crusaders and Islam.  Then today there’s the identification with the aggressor that pays.

Well all this insanity was playing in my mind while the most extraordinary creations of God were flying by on either side of me. I loved the beaches of Oregon and Northern California. I loved driving by Gold Beach when I spent a week last year and loved walking each day on the beach.  I loved being on the beach where my dog Madigan who’d had his eyes removed for hereditary glaucoma had memories of our beaches and sailing. For the first time since his surgery all the while he’d been timid and afraid, here he came with me and we ran together on the beach. It was the first he’d run free in months. I’d try to get him to run with me in the park but he so feared slamming into something, Yet here I ran with glee and I was so uplifted to see that and feel his joy and be thankful.  Madigan also loved running to me and sniffing all around.  It was different. He’s been a cuddle bug the whole way down, leaning up against me and rssting his head on my leg as we drive  away the miles. 

We came upon the herd of Elk and I loved getting pictures I can be proud of. I was thankful I had my big Nikon and if I hadn’t broken my phone I might not have had it out.  Using it has taken me back to all the joys I’ve had from photography.  I’m engaging in my world.  I’m living in thee present.  I’m praying and yet I’ve had my mind awaken in funny ways. I sang Jesus Loves me and then Suzanne and other songs. I’ve listened to the radio a bit enjoying Christian music.  Since my phone had all my audiobooks I’ve not been able to listen to books on the way down.  Coming back last year I loved Louise Penny. I’ve downloaded some to audible and last night got them ready to play on the ipad.  I’m muddling along. I was pleased to pass into California.  The light seemed just a bit brighter.  The rain had stopped and the sun came out a bit

I was pleased to make Eureka and find this 4 star RV park. The campground cost $31 us , more like $45 Canadian while this place with all the amenities costs $65 American which is more like $90.  A buck is a buck . I’m grateful Thank you Jesus.

Thank you Godl

Thank you for a new day,  Guide me in my thoughts and action,  Show me the way.  Protect family and friends and be with Madigan and I as we travel south.  Today’s destination is to get through SAN Francisco.  Thank you God. 

Forest dreams

I woke twice from sleep last night. Somewhere around 4 am I woke from a dream in which I was in Fort Garry on the recess ground of Viscount Alexander. I was a 30 years younger.  We were talking and walking and looking up we saw sleek long war planes in groups of three, thin, barracuda shaped.  I had my old Nikon and was about to take a picture when Marion tried to stop me. The planes passed but a warthog type army machine passed in front of our group. I took a picture of them and they stopped so I walked over and showed them my camera offering the SIM card. « Nice camera, » the fellow said and took it.  I was naive and we’d all been supportive but this camera incident seemed to undermine my patriotism. 

Later I’d come across an older man saying a younger woman was having trouble orgasming and he was trying to help her.  She was rubbing her clitoris furiously and he was there offering assistance.  I was passing by and wondered what this dream had to to with the futuristic war planes and war machines.  It’s all metaphor.

I always thought Marion was sophisticated, early as a mother, learned to protect her children  and foliage.  I was always idealistic, a dreamer, a poet, an adventurer, healer, explorer. I didn’t relate well to those men who needed to win, who wanted to be number one and would cheat or kill for that.  I liked a good game but didn’t lust for dominance.  Like most people I was happy enough.  I remember the crowd of us looking up at the barracuda air machines.  We were like that vast playground and playmates. I was often fighting mostly defensive. We were boys then.  The old men were competing for world dominion.  Paranoid I suppose.

I imagined my war machines were for off world war. I’d read Foundation by Isaac Asimov as a young man and recently begun watching the series on Prime tv. I was reading sci fi book of men fighting in the future, a group of men called the ‘dog’.  Not a very good book, I’m skimming.  I liked the discussions of healing medicine and futuristic care in found in the Jungle in the book but the fighting and killing is terribly repetitive. The science fi is the romance with man and EI and new baby being born for some future superhuman cyborg race.  I finished the history of Iran and the war themes and dominance and fighting dominated .  The Irag Iran war of Iman Khomeini and Sadda Hussein was interesting as I’d forgotten that and now must wonder about the failure of Saddam Hussein in that war and his later defeat by the Americans.  One could think the CIA had put him up to that for the Iranian oil which the British and the Americans were into .  Around the same time Iran nationalized it’s oil fields from Britain, Pierre Trudeau, the communist, was nationalized the Canadian Oil Fields from the province of Alberta and giving the profits to Quebec which was hoarding it’s own hydro electric power and selling it for profit to the US.  The media story was always what seemed like a fairy tale version for the low brow. The reality was far more complex.  

Meanwhile I’m in heaven. This forest is like the old forest of Vancouver Island, the forest that Emily Carr made famous with her painting. The northern rain forest with moss and fungus and ancient plants and evergreens.  It’s been raining while we’ve been here.  Drizzling or spitting. No sun. I made a fire yesterday.  Madigan wasn’t whining for Laura last night so we had a good sleep. I was up at 4 am for the dream but then fell back to sleep.  I remember enjoying feeling a stiff morning hard on and thinking the apparatus is still functional but then Laura was asleep .  

I prayed instead. Our father prayers.  Thy will be done prayers.   Morning prayers and falling back asleep to luscious dreams.  Madigan began windging and whining at 7 am our normal wakening time. I’m now on my first coffee and will have to walk up to see if I can get another day her at Alice Lake Provincial Campground.  Though there are empty sites, reservations aren’t available, only day by day for this spot.  I had an idea of swimming thinking the cold water would be good for my aging body, invigorating, but without the sun I’ve been loathe to get in the lake and swim. Walking Madigan often and throwing the ball is all I can manage. I’ve barbecued at night and Laura has made sandwiches in the day.  We’ve read.  It’s been truly relaxing. No tv. No calls. No wifi.  A smidgeon. We get messages but can’t phone out or load pages but we get a little bit of the outside world .There seems a ‘bit’ of wifi and a ‘bit’ of cell service at times . I ordered a booster for wifi and for longer trips this summmer will take my Starlink.  The Starlink Satelite wouldn’t work here because there’s too much foliage ‘obstacle’.   It will take some choosing of the space setting up to get it right.  I like the challenge looking forward to adding the wings lift to carry the motorcycle or towing the quad. I’d meant to bring the folding electric bike but if I’d remembered I’d not have had the long walks with Madigan.  I need to lose weight and I’m out of shape.  This whole camping thing so far has been terrific for that with so much movement compared to my being at my desk at home and watching tv at night. I walk the dog and swim but this outdoor thing is not pavement and there’s just a lot of moving and lifting and pulling.  Healthy.

Oh well another coffee and I’ll get back to reading.  If we can stay I’ll make another fire and use up the wood i have today.  It’s actually supposed to be sunny so a swim may yet happen. 

2017 ALP Adventurer 86FB Truck Camper

I”m here at Fraserway RV having put the deposit down on a 2017 Adventurer Truck Camper.  It was used as a rental and is now up for sale.

The fact is I destroyed the 2000 Palimino camper I got last year. I needed one as a place to live for a month while I was having home repairs so it certainly served it’s purpose.  Laura, Gilbert and I loved camping in it. Indeed when I was in Africa I just kept thinking about our truck camper experiences outside of Princeton along the river there.  I sold off last year’s camper and this year I’m getting a good one. Even the insurance guy I had look at it said there was nothing he could do because there was so much pre existing damage.  It’s one advantage had been it was cheap. 

It turned out it had had previous leaks and repairs. But really, I made every mistake known to man. I even drove away with the struts down. I realized immediately.  It’s  not a good thing to do. Mack and Dave helped me straighten out the struts after that fiasco.
I also backed into a hanging tree limb.  I’d not wondered what was stopping me from going backwards but never thought to look up.  Erik came buy and fixed that embarrassment.
Something hit the front end too and my gorilla duct tape just didn’t cut it.
I also didn’t line up the camper properly, backing up once and really banged the bottom.
Then there was the time the jacks seized.  Using the mechanical winch I had it twisted all to hell worrying that it was going to topple over.
It was a steep learning curve. I never knew what I’d do wrong.  

Now a fellow who is handy with time on his hands is happily going to rebuild the roof and enjoy it.  What’s one man’s junk is another’s treasure.
I am so thankful that I didn’t have a new one or I could have destroyed that. There’s a lot to be said about starting low.   These truck campers new go from $30000 to $100,000.  

Frazerway Rents these Alp Adventurers then fixes them up like new when they sell them a year or two later. I’m pleased.  It’s my birthday present to myself.  

Laura is ecstatic. I think the Greenwood Motel experience last fall, with the hair in the bed and poop on the towels, finalized her preference for campers. We really do love the camper/trailer experience.  I’m no longer really into tenting.  Laura was off tenting with the grizzly bear warnings at the wilderness campground a couple of years back. I still like to blame her for my no longer liking roughing it.  The fact is Gilbert and I love the luxury and comfort too. Gilbert is such a suck! He lies on the bed with Laura and lets her rub his tummy. If she stops, he hits her with his paw. I like having coffee at the table looking at the rain outside the window.

The trick is getting the indoor shower and vanity.  There’s cheaper and lesser models without the shower but I really like the shower.  

This Adventurer is perfect. I’d emailed Ray Konynenbelt what I was looking for and he got back to me with several options. The 2017 ALP Adventurer 86FB turned out to be the ticket.

Now I’m here just waiting to deal with the paper work and financing. We’re hoping to be camping next weekend when it will be ready to pick up.  I love the Canadian outdoors.