Driving Home on the Oregon Coast, Mini Cooper, Laura, Gilbert and Me

I loved driving the serpentine roads of Northern California and Oregon. The roads and ocean views are indescribably terrific.
We stopped several times as we’d had on the way down to let Gilbert enjoy running free on the beach. Seeing this little blind dog run freely was such a joy for us.  Crashing surf,  walking in sand and happy dog running full out, unafraid of colliding with a wall.  Thanks to his memory he knew he was safe on the beach and could enjoy his freedom and motion.
In Oregon they have a rule against ‘self serve’ fill up at gas station.  It was pleasant to have an attendant to chat with while he or she did this. This took both Laura and I back to the day of real personal care by gas station attendants, when they actually knew about cars and maintenance,  checked oils, tires and cleaned windows. They even could give directions and knew their neighbourhoods as a rule. I really liked the gas stations in Oregon.
There was also a Cannibis sign even bigger than the Oregon sign as we entered Oregon.
 I was envious of the motorcyclists we passed on these roads. What a great motorcycle ride. Like a never ending Duffy Lake run.
The views of the ocean and the rock formations were constant eye candy.
We had stayed in Coos Bay at the dog friendly Best Western there. It was one of our favourite motel stays because of the excellent staff and facility.  I got Thai food take out and feasted on the best of the best spicy creations while watching yet another enjoyable episode of Big Bang Theory. I love Coos Bay since I first sailed into the harbour and stayed overnight their tied to their dock. I've come back on motorcycle as well.
We stopped at a few of the little shops along the way too.  We loved best the Bandon shops where Laura got some eucalyptus lotion and I got us coffee mugs.  Laura got me a Myrtle Wood cutting board in Myrtle. She also got me an Oregon fridge magnet, "to remind us of Gilbert running on the beaches."
Our trip was coming to an end so it was nice to have some touristy fun time before the last push to get home.
Laura was looking forward to getting off the American freeways. Her idea of speed is 80 km/hr in her little red Smart Car.  The slowest speed on the highways we were on was 55 miles/hour but mostly it was 65 mph or 120 km hour plus.  On major interstate highways the speed is 70 mph or 144 km/hr (1 mile = 2.2 km roughly).  Having driven these often on my Harley Electroglide I found the Mini was a match for the freeways and the speed and loved the driving overall especially the incredibly picturesque coastal highways.
If all went well we would have been crossing the border at 6 pm.  As it was Murphy had different plans. The flat tire warning went off in the Mini right in the middle of the Seatle Washington just at the beginning of rush hour.  In the middle of the freeway I had to find a way off the I5 at high speed. The tires are the new 'ride slow' kind that allow you to get to a gas station at 50 km/hour.  The trouble was everyone was going 120 km/hr and not at all pleased with me trying to stay at 80 km/hour till I could find an exit which took forever.
Eventually, I found an exit and was blessed to find a gas station with air hose.  I checked the tires.  One was 35 while the rest were 40.  Probably just a matter of 5000 km of driving on that tire. Nothing too serious.  I filled that tire up to 40  and was thankful for the old fashioned tire pressure gauge I’d had the foresight to put in the glove compartment.
The trouble then was finding out way back to the I5. We took another freeway forever before being able to get off that and come back to I5 now in the middle of rush hour just as a crash was being cleared off the road.
Bumper to bumper slow going north I was then desperate to pee. Getting old isn't bladder beautiful. When you have to go you really have to go.  With traffic not moving I suggested I'd pull to the side and piss in the ditch.
"You know everyone has an iPhone and you've go viral on You Tube as the crazy old Canadian guy pissing on the side of I5 in Seattle. "  Laura said.  I held on till the next exit. That meant leaving the freeway yet again. I was thankful for another gas station. Leaving much relieved I bought some beef jerky which Gilbert and I shared. Unfortunately  the I5 signs were misleading to return us to the freeway.  First off a tree branch concealed the sign and then the sign pointed in one direction while the exit was in another.
The attendant had kindly told me that I had to pass three red lights but when we saw the south I5 sign was well marked but not the I5 north we knew we'd missed it.
I pulled over to turn around and fired up my Tom Tom asking for directions to Burnaby.  But even with Tom Tom I missed the turn off coming back and seeing the ramp  as I was passing it. I couldn't look away from the rush hour chaos of speeding angry traffic and I couldn’t hear the Tom Tom girl voice with my deafness and loud traffic noise, so Laura was repeating the Tom Tom messages.   This caused moments of delay.
When she said turn around,  I turned around doing a U Turn, only to have the slightly longer turning radius of the new Mini confound me. I’d have easily made the turn with the Miata. In my full box F350 Ford truck I'd have driven over sidewalks, across the lawn and taken off the front of the houses.  I really did think I'd make it with the Mini. I was less than an inch off.  That wouldn't have been a problem except for the idiot behind me whose helpfulness was coming up on my bumper honking, making it impossible now for me to reverse that one inch I needed.  While he was  honking obnoxiously, as if this was going move things faster, Laura was assisting further by telling me I was such asshole to have missed the ramp. She wanted me to pull over and let her out, a total impossibility in the middle of that intersection.
Laura can't see at night, I'm deaf, and Gilbert is blind.  I love the Mini.  I floored it.  It drove off the curb, not even needing to mount it, to complete the turn, more like a richochet. I saw the unlighted I5 north sign half concealed by untrimmed branches.  The helpful honker stopped honking.    I got on the freeway ramp.
Laura wanted to stop for the night but I certainly didn’t want to get off the freeway again in rush hour.  I’ve driven the I5 north at night dozens of times on motorcycles, or in cars. I love the I5.  Just don't get off the free way at night.
I really was also looking forward to getting back to Canada.  I really could use good nights sleep in my own bed before returning to work.  The border crossing was a breeze, very nice man, welcoming us home.
"Happy New Year!" I said. He waved us through.
8 pm we arrived home. Mack was there to welcome us.  When we told him we’d been all the way to Mexico,  he said, “You went to Mexico for the sun and heat and left me here in the snow. I could easily have fitted in the back of the Mini with Gilbert..” We laughed.
The electric heat was fine but I had to change the propane tank to make it toasty.  Laura  figured out why the furnace wasn't blasting full  I'd had the stove on to bleed the air out of lines but once I'd done that I needed to turn the stove off to let the furnace get the propane to start.  Once the furnace was on the stove could be used again.
George the Cat made a dramatic entrance, suddenly jumping down from the highest cupboard where he’d been hiding.  We'd been looking for him everywhere all the while he was plotting his show stopping entrance.  Laura hugged and cuddled him.

Addendum
It’s good to be home. 5500 km. 7.1 km/l fuel consumption, about $40 a day while driving. Motels were on average about $80. I did spent $180 a night for a couple of nights.  This was without planning and just dropping in.  I thought we'd done well considering.   Fortunately I'd had an American visa which I'd put money in last year for the New York trip but hadn't used because of a PIN problem. In a sense this trip was done with that 'saved' money.  Hence Justin Trudeau's ruining Canada's economy paying off terrorists damage to the exchange rate didn't affect us too badly.

Motel 6 and Best Western were best dog friendly motels and hotels for this road trip.  We’d made the road trip with Gilbert in the 2017 Mini Cooper S .It had been a whirlwind.  Laura said she’d never before got out of Vancouver for the winter. I just knew I needed a break from the drudgery of bureaucracy and politics and opioid deaths.  Driving had got my mind off work surprisingly.

I feel re invigorated. I don’t like the tail end cough of this cold but it was wonderful to breathe dessert air in December. I liked revisiting places I'd been to before. Lots of good memories of California living there, sailing there. A renewed love of Oregon where I'd sailed and motorcycled and driven the coast.
I’m now looking forward to meetings and church and driving my truck with it’s snow tires. The Mini Cooper performed perfectly. What an amazing car. Gilbert had the time of his life being continuously with his two favourite people, MacDonald’s burger paddy’s, and runs on the beach.
Laura was as always a lovely companion but would not like to spend more than two days driving in the car. She only called me an 'asshole twice' twice while driving which may reflect well on her character and God's grace. Other than those couple of ten minute city freeway night time anxiety provoking moments she really was delightful companion and did seem to enjoy the trip.
Gilbert made everything special. It was his road trip and he really did have the greatest time. I'll never get over seeing him running full out on the beaches.  It was the first time since his blindness this year he experienced 'speed'.  Gilbert lived for 'speed' and 'ball' but now despite his blindness he's got his old life back. Loved watching his little tail was wagging so much of this trip.
We found it was warm south of San Diego, so if I did it again, I’d plan to get a place along the coast a couple of hours south of San Francisco. Once we got past San Francisco the weather was great. Southern California is a great destination for Canadians at Christmas.
We'd originally planned to fly down but with Gilbert's adjusting to his blindness we decided against that.  The road trip was decided mostly with Gilbert in mind. It really was Gilbert's Road Trip.
I certainly would recommend the Mini Cooper for any road trip. Not surprising it was such a successful rally car.
It is great to be home though.  I always appreciate my home so much more after I’ve been away.

Encinitas to Northern California, Mini Cooper Road trip, with Laura and Gilbert

After a lovely stop in Encinitas we continued up the coastal California road through all the little tourist towns. Lots of surf boards and scuba shops. I loved the especially loved the harbours and yachts.
We were going rather slowly through these towns and it was all a lovely drive, so picturesque with such great views. Very colourful.  Fashionable people.  Lots of t shirts and shorts and sandals. Beautiful California people. Reminded me of being in California when I was 20, the Summers of Love.
Laura and I enjoyed this stretch of the journey as much for people watching as enjoying all the "tourist town", ‘summer town’ flavour. Just a little off season but still pretty incredible. It reminded us of places like Cultus Lake.
Given the weather alot of buildings had a summer "shack" flavour reminiscent of southern island houses. There were also spectacular architectural wonder homes.   I didn’t figure any had basements though. I doubted any had major furnaces for heating, that’s for sure.  Definitely an electric heat place, maybe a log fire or two in the more fashionable places.
The weather really was incredible for us Canadians enjoying this Christmas New Year's season. Made me realize how threatened people living in paradise would feel with sharing even a degree or two of warmth in climate change with their poorer northern brethren.   I imagined Beach Boys music playing year round here too.
We thought of our friend Kirk when we passed through Malibu. He’d stayed there for a while.  Alot of the fun of just driving through these places was that we'd seen  so many of these exact spots on TV So many of our favourite tv shows and movies had been filmed in California.
We stayed in a La Quinta somewhere off the free way one night. It’s not memorable.  I was becoming sick with a cold (see man flu).  We had microwave lasagna's as the place wasn't close to any pizza or chinese delivery but sold microwave dinners in the lobby.
The next day it was incredibly hot.  It was terrific to take breaks and soak up the sun at rest stops.  California rest stops are the best, clean, well laid out, and interesting dog walks.
I felt like I had miles to go before I rested though.  With both Laura and I having to return to work I was on a driving schedule with 8-10 hour drives for three days to make the distance. I had developed a fatiguing cough wracking cold that made carrying on difficult. Often at times like this I knew that I wouldn’t feel better resting either.  They just have to run their course. I took time and alot of kleenex and aspirin. Because I was driving I couldn’t use cough suppressants or even cough candies as they could affect my focus. I did drink coffee for my sore throat which felt like razor blades swallowing.  I added energy drinks which helped counteract the general malaise.  I missed the long drives I took younger when I had colds and counteracted the misery with menthol cigarettes and night time scotch. I wasn't planning on going there.
I remembered back too the years of working through sickness in internships.  I'd just soldiered on while sailing at sea too since there was no way off the boat.
The American freeways really are a thing of beauty. Just point and go. In the wide open country it was easy. The only problem arose going through cities where the speed and signs are a challenge at the best of times. I remember the excitement these gave me when I was riding on a motorcycle.   The experience in the Mini was a cakewalk by comparison.
Inland we some beautiful farming country before coming back to the coast through Oakland freeways. We loved seeing the sheep and cattle.  We wondered with the new marijuana laws if we'd see the patterns of cultivation change. Major cannibis grow ups might soon replace alfalfa.
The windmill farms were beautiful at sunset coming into Oakland.  I couldn’t help think of the millions of migratory birds these farms killed though  Hopefully they’ll one day they’ll care enough.
 I got lost coming through San Francisco. At least I thought I was, until I stopped at a gas station for a desperately needed pee.  I found out we were still on the correct route but I plugged in the TomTom still and followed her directions from there to the Golden Gate Bridge.  In the daylight I could have remembered the route but at night it was a whole different story.  Not only that it was New Year’s Eve and some drivers were showing the effects of celebration early.  Once we were over the bridge and north we began stopping and asking if the hotel was dog friendly.
Moments like this I cursed Telus for their mistake with my data roaming package which had destroyed my main navigational plans. I’d not opted for the Navigation package on the Mini because while I have it on my new truck I prefer to use my phone’s navigation as the speaker feeds into the blue tooth of my hearing aids.  At Best Buy I'd picked up a TomTom for the disturbing scenario when going through a city we lost the freeway then would get
got caught in rush hour traffic dealing with one ways and aggressive drivers.  The other issue being. without the roaming package was that we couldn’t look up a town’s dog friendly accommodation as planned.  We do become dependent on this new technology.   Without it we had to go back to the old ways. This meant we  had to stop and get out and sleuth on foot. To do this we had to leave the free way. It turned out motels closed early on New Year’s Eve while others were full because people planned to party and didn't want to drive after that..
Thankfully in Cloverdale after three motels and hotels said they weren’t dog friendly we found this marvellous little Cloverdale Vineyard Motel.  There was a thoroughly delightful Latino manager with a very happy and busy little pomeranian companion.
Laura was exhausted and went straight to sleep.   I drove about town looking for any place serving food after 8 pm. None were so I got micro waveable chicken nuggets and turkey pot pie. It was one of those meals that simply served as sustenance. Water a flu and feed a cold. I was doing both. It  helped and I collapsed in bed with Gilbert snuggling between already asleep Laura and me. It was maybe as late at 9 pm.
 No New Year’s Eve celebration. Just thankful that 2017 with death of closest friends, liars and false allegations , corrupt or incompetent authorities, death threats, all the left offended by everyone and everything, working tragically in the DTES overdose epidemics, and Gilbert losing his eyes.  The negatives, which shouldn’t have taken up so much space in my brain, seemed to do just that, despite all the tools learned to handle grief. I expect I was still grieving the loss of my brother.  I know the loss of my mother and father in the years before took their same kind of toll. Leaving me feeling like I was working through molasses, taking hits from all the losers who'd never dare attack a well man.   On the bright side my nephews were doing as well as the god kids.  Laura’s children and grand children were well. Her niece was overseas enjoying New Zealand as my nephew Allan was overseas enjoying England. We’d had a wonderful time in the fall in Nakusp.  Some good camping trips and we were enjoying my time in  the Burnaby Caribou areas.  I'd really come to enjoy Dave, and Mack and Rick and Laura and all the dog friendly folk.  It really had been great.  Friends were terrific.  We’d survived a tough year. We could hope 2018 would definitely improve.  Already even the CBC was reporting truthful news about  the Justin Trudeau betrayal, lies and theft from the country.   All the fake news in the US about Donald Trump just kept being exposed day after day.  Even Harvard reported that 75% of the news about Trump had been false or grossly biased.  All the doomsaying and fear mongering and outright lies by media was indeed being exposed for what it was.  Bad journalism. Despite daily reports of the 'skies falling', the world continued and probably more sports fans took an interest in politics for the first time in decades. The news reporting did seem often more insane than the ravings of my psychotic patients but increasingly it could be put down to money and more media people doing drugs or worried about getting caught for pedophilia.    There was hope.
My friend Barb was taking a 32 year cake soon. There were miracles.  I attended some really good ones at White cliff.  IDAA in Utah had been a highlight seeing so many friends continuing on despite sickness, deaths and politics.  I am so thankful for the inspirations.  Willie Gutowski and Phillip Ney and James Houston all continued to set examples for godly living. I felt I still dragged my knuckles but at least held my head up.
I just had to get my head straight to look for the beautiful despite the ugly being pressed in my face.  My flu was better this day. The coughing was still bad. I felt like the desert air had killed off the Vancouver mould and fungus and it was just sloughing off so I could start with fresh lungs and sinuses in 2018. At least that was my best medical explanation with a positive spin.
It was with such thoughts I fell sleep on 2017.
Laura was angry and exhausted with getting through cities at night.  She can’t see at night and the speed and honking cars and general chaos unsettle her.
She told me New Year’s day though that Gilbert had woken her at New Year’s Eve snuggling up against her and licking her ear. She’d look at her watch, saw it was one minute to midnight, watched the hand pass, hugged Gilbert, and fell back to sleep despite my belaboured snoring.
We were up at 6 am.  We got  way by 730. It was a beautiful day with a beautiful sunrise.  We drove north along the coast in the loveable Mini Cooper .  We began seeing sites we'd enjoyed coming down, redwood highway, lovely  views of the Pacific Ocean.
Thanks to MacDonald’s, God’s gift to road trips, we  had coffee and egg mac muffins and hash browns most mornings  We also stopped a couple of times at Star Bucks because we liked their morning breakfast sandwiches too.  MacDonalds however has the best coffee.  Even better than Tim Hortons.
 At lunch Gilbert loved the Macdoald's burger paddy's best too.

While we loved the Janet Evanovitch, "Hardcore Twenty-four"  audio book the Nora Roberts, "Come Sundown" was too slow and entangled for driving.  Pierre Burton's "Klondike Rush" iBook audio book was just perfect.  Audio books really help out on long drives.

Self Realization Fellowship Encinitas California

Maija, my first mother in law, introduced me to Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda in the early 70’s. .  I later came across the book as the only eastern writing of note in the chapel library of University of Winnipeg which had begun as a United Church seminary education facility.
Contacting Self Realization in Encinitas I began their weekly study.  The 70’s was an exciting time in my life. I’d married the most beautiful dancer in the world and bicycled with her across Europe before studying dance for a year in London. I’d return to study arts and sciences before experiencing a calling to  medicine praying in the University of Winnipeg Chapel.  All the while I was teaching dancing evenings at Arthur Murray’s and Fred Astaires.
I attribute my meditation practice in those early years to my having the focus and discipline to complete my medical studies.  I belonged to a small meditation group that met weekly in the home of one of the members of the  symphony. I forget this name sadly. He taught me the Harmonium so I could lead chants when he wasn’t available. I actually ordered my own harmonium from Bombay and later met the harmonium salesman when I visited Bombay.  He remembered that order well. He said, “We never received an order for an harmonium from Canada.”  I remember well one unforgettable day meditating in Winnipeg with that group from sun up to sun down.
Eastern studies and yoga were not like they are today. True the Beatles had studied with Mahareesh Yogi. George Harrison had put out “My Sweet Lord.”  My friend Kirk had left Baiba and I  at the Strawberry Peace and Love Festival to dance with the Boy Guru followers, later becoming a Prem disciple. Baiba and I had gone on to San Francisco to dance in the streets and  ‘wear flowers in our hair." I believe Kirk’s  family was Anglican. Mine was Baptist though I later taught Sunday school for the Fort Garry United Church. I came under the amazing direction of the saintly genius Dr. Carl Ridd.  A former basketball star he’d become a University of Winnipeg Literature and Religious Studies professor.
I liked that Paramahansa Yogananda had been India’s delagate to the World Congress of Religious Liberals in the United States.   This was an Ecumenical Religious Conference. Vivekananda had been at the first in the late 1900’s meeting and influencing Emerson, the father of American philosophy.  He's lent  his Walden Pond home to Thoreau.  of ‘civil disobedience’ fame.  It’s a small world.
I became a Kriya Yoga initiate in Toronto in the 70’s but only years later made my way to Encinitas California years. It was a moving first visit.
I stopped doing Kriya Yoga when I smoked marijuana remembering that I thought this was a faster way to ‘feeling at peace’.  It was also a ‘tantra yoga’ path in my mind as well.  I had become less spiritual and more an ‘intellectual’ then studying philosophy, politics, psychiatry and medicine.
Indeed studying Freudian psychoanalysis at the University of Manitoba in my psychiatry residency I was told by my professor to stop meditating as it ‘was harmful for the mind’.  Smoking dope was not considered such at the time by my teachers.  So I dutifully stopped meditation but began to study the medical and psychiatric evidence in favour of it before considering that particular professor sadly wrong and rather egotistical as well.
It turned out that Herbert Benson, MD had extensively studied the benefits physically and psychologically at Harvard.  The evidence of benefit was overwhelming. I’d fallen out of the discipline and wouldn’t return to meditation myself extensively until I got into recovery a decade later. I had indeed learned the benefits for psychoanalysis more from ongoing psychiatric psychotherapy and from psychotherapist friends Dr. Miller and Dr. Christiensen.    That didn’t interfere with my becoming a wine connoisseur with my Napa Valley friend and definitely an authority on marijuana.
I was studying prayer in recovery at the time and was again cautioned against meditation. So I began researching meditation in the Christian tradition and began meditating with a Benedictine monk. It turned out that the second oldest Christian prayer, the Dessert Father prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ,son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’ was taught as a meditation first by St. Augustine. It turned out that meditation has a rich history in the mystical and spiritual Christian and Catholic traditions that followed from St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Chross. “Nada" is as simple an affirmative mantra meditation as anyone could wish.
Meanwhile I’d been very thankful to learn the value and depth of prayer by focusing on this more than meditation. Dr. James Houston and Dr. Willie Gutowski are great teachers of prayer.  “Transforming Power of Prayer, Deepening Your Friendship with God” by Dr. James Houston is my all time favourite writing on prayer. In 12 step programs, known for their rough simplicity, meditation is called ‘listening to God’ and prayer is called ‘talking to God’.  They really are not separate.
I loved walking into the Self Realization retreat centre this visit. . There were monks and volunteers there cleaning and caring for the facility. I spoke to a couple and they reminded me of the monks I’d now had the priviledge of meeting around the world in my travels. There is something wondrous and peaceful about these soulful people. I still recall fondly the Greek Orthodox monk in Meteora who gave me a cookie and sat with me for a time.  I’ve prayed and meditated in so many churches, temples and shrines.
Its was from Yogananda’s writings I learned the prayers, “Saints of all religions, I bow to you all, may thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of my devotion and may I be able to awaken thy love in all hearts. "
I was blessed to recently hear Dr. James Houston bemoan the intellectual difficulties that Christians get into when they start discussing how many angels can fit on the head of a needle.  I’d been asking him about the division between the Orthodox Christian Communion and the Roman Catholic Communion regarding the origin of the Holy Spirit. The Roman Catholic maintains that it comes from the Father and the Son while the Orthodox maintains it comes from the Father directly.  It’s such elements of human pride that cause divisions in churches and keep churches, and nations and continents apart.  The Sunni and Shiite division is about as silly to the outside as divisions in Judaism or among Buddhists ,some of whom are strict vegetarians while others eat meat but do not kill it themselves. Dr. Houston focussed on the love of God in his writings and teachings, seeing love as central to ‘spiritual christianity’.
I suspect that Dr. Houston would agree though that the trouble with too open a mind is that one’s marbles can fall out. He’s so very kind to me that  sometimes I fear he thinks I’ve lost one or two.
I loved that Paramahansa Yoganada also focused on the heart.  His whole relationship with God was as a love song, like the Song of Songs of the Old Testament or the writings of the Sufi, Rumi.  I was introduced to Tagore, who my poet friend Bernice Lever loves,  by my studies in the 70’s.  I loved hearing his songs sung there when I visited Bombay in the mid 80’s.  I had the same joyous feeling hearing Leonard Cohen’s songs in the taxis of  Tel Aviv.  Today I love Hallelujah but nothing lifts me up so much as the music of Third Day who I was truly blessed to hear in concert in Abbotsford. It was like the other special night listening to Stephen Bell in St. John’s Church Chilliwack.  After travelling around the world visiting sacred sitesand talking with world church leaders I so often find that it’s right at home where the heart is that God may speak the loudest and softest if one is listening.
I loved sitting and drinking in the peaceful easy feelings that linger in the SRF Encinitas temple.  I meditated there once again. Then I  joined up with Laura who’d been waiting in the car with Gilbert so we could both go into the remarkable SRF gift shop.  Gift shops are so much fun. We were so pleased to find the perfect pillows, little elephants for gifts, a favourite Yoganada book of writings, and a  pink shirt for Laura from India.
The International Society of Addiction Medicine is meeting in New Delhi in 2019 and I hope to be going so I can take a side tour and visit the Ranchi Ashram of the Yogoda Satanga Society, Indian affiliate of the Self Realization Fellowship.  I’ve been following the journeys of St. Thomas of the Syriac church who made it as far as Kerala and would like to visit a church there as well.
There is a place where  Hinduism and Christianity meet which to my mind is where Buddhism,Judaism, Janism, Paganism ,Islam, Sufiism and all religions touch in the great Venn Diagram of God’s love. It’s not the superstitious fear but that place of awe and wonder and humility.
I once explained it to my two young friends, one Sik and one  Catholic friends when we were out hunting partridge.  "I believe”, I said, " all roads lead to Rome but as an Anglican I believe that I’ll find an even better mansion than my mother’s baptist mansion while you and all the other non Christians will have mansions in heaven, but just not in the best part. Location. Location. Location.”  The truth be told my favourite heaven is found in Mark Twain’s  Captain Stormfield’s visit to heaven’
I was a vegetarianism for years when I practiced Kriya Yoga. My aboriginal friends and I today would say vegetarianism is an old Indian name for ‘poor hunter’. For many historically and culturally meat was reserved for the wealthy while the poor had to make a virtue of necessity. That said when my friend Ganesh’s wife Anita does her classic Indian vegetarian cooking I could see becoming a vegetarian again.
It was uplifting and moving to be once again at the Encinitas Retreat centre.  I am so thankful.  Yognanda’s books still have a special place at Banyan Books in Vancouver.

Best Western Plus Marina Gateway Hotel San Diego

Laura and I really liked this Best Western  dog friendly hotel. The staff were friendly and professional. The cleaning service was terrific. The hotel had everything, including business rooms, and even guest laundry service, a half dozen machines, plus the standard dry cleaning service.
I loved the swimming pool.  It was 80 degrees out and I was reading about a cold spell in the northern US and Canada. I was seeing friends Facebook pictures of icy rain and heaven snow fall.  Nothing makes sitting around a swimming pool after a pleasant swim better.
The hot tub was to die for. Thinking of my friends in Canada I climbed into the the hot tub, then into the swimming pool, then back into the hot tub, with just a touch of gloating along the way. Laura loved the little lawn outside the room and lay out there sun tanning with Gilbert.
We even had a terrific little dog walk where Gilbert scared up a rabbit.  I also walked him further down to the nearby marina to look at the yachts.  The road ran alongside a wildlife preserve with plants more suited for heat.
I’d loved sailing into San Diego harbour years past. It was so hot this day that I had to take off my t shirt before walking back from the local marina.
We had great room service food from Goodies next door.  The salads were delicious. Fish and chips, Burritos. Sliders and mashed potatoes.  Huevos Rancheros each morning.  One day was a lunch mix up that was an individual staff issue the owner resolved..  The restaurant and all the rest of the staff and food were the best.
I love room service.
We were there a few days after the long drive down. It was the perfect hotel.  San Diego is fabulous winter destination.
Thank you Best Western.