It is July 8, 2024. It is hot everywhere: 40 degrees in the Okanagan, 47 degrees yesterday in Vegas (I heard), about 34 degrees here in Barrhead Alberta. We are at a lake 10 miles south of Barrhead, and it is pleasant here. Shade and a breeze.
Last year we went across Canada, but this year we’re less ambitious. Alberta for awhile, the States for awhile, if it ever cools down. A few people asked me if I was going to up from the mud again, to which I said something like, “well, writing is fun, but writing about yourself and your vacation meanderings is maybe not so great. It can be narcissistic, and it probably will be boring.” To which those few people said something like, “get over yourself and write something anyway. We’ll decide if it’s boring.”
So here it is. This year I’m going to focus more on people we meet and what they think, rather than where we’ve been and what we did. Most of you will have been in most of the places we visit this year, but people and their thoughts are of infinite variety and you’ve never met any of them. Maybe that will be more interesting.
So, with that format in mind, the following, starting with where we’ve been this week.
On July 1, we stayed at the Victoria harbor to watch the fireworks. Kinda hohum, I thought. But we cooked some smokies and had a visit with a brother. All good.
July 2. Got the 11 am ferry, drove to Merritt BC. Uneventful, except for people we met on the ferry (more on that later), and going up the Coquihalla. Unlike last year, we only had half a tank of fuel, no water, and Gail drove the car up instead of us dragging it up with the moho. And what happened? Nothing. See, I told you it would be boring.
We stayed in Merritt July 2 and 3. Crowded campsite, but hey, the air smelled nice there, like it always does, and we toured along by Nicola Lake. Very pleasant, but you already knew that.
July 4, onward to Kelowna, with Gail driving the car over the connector. Smarter
than last year. We were there two days and nights, with some significant human encounters. More later.
The plan was to hang around in the Shuswap for a couple of days after Kelowna, but the weather forecast got ominous—big heat on the way. So we cancelled the Shuswap stops and left Kelowna on Saturday night at 6 pm, the theory being that the old moho and its old driver would both function better in the cool of the night than in the heat of the day.
Which they did. Slept in Clearwater behind Kal Tire for a few hours, made it to Lac La Nonne on Sunday afternoon with no issues. Last year we had a big breakdown which was exciting, but this year nothing went wrong. Boring.
So here we are in Alberta. It is hot here, but we are by a lake in the shade and the living is fine.
And the encounters we had? Well, I’m not going to tell everything, because some of those conversations were with some of you, or with someone you know. But some were with strangers, such as the folk we met on on the ferry sundeck.
I am not terrific at meeting strangers. Gail is better, so sure enough, she struck up a conversation with the lady of a middle aged couple. Turns out they were from the Netherlands (Rotterdam), and they are commercial orchid growers, which they ship all over the world. Their kids and grandkids are involved; they are established, successful, generational type folk.
Of course they had lots to say about their lives and their business, all of which was interesting, but I’m always waiting to hear what people will have to say about their political awareness, and beyond that what they make of this universe and their place in it. I’m more tuned to that channel than the business world.
On those subjects, we learned that immigration in their world is a problem and they have nerves about it. We learned that they had to take English as a second language in school. We inferred that they value tradition and family, although they never got around to talking about why. They are both amused and alarmed by Trump. Of course they like Canadians.
If the ferry ride had lasted longer, I would like to have heard what they think about the “big questions” in life. I’m always curious about that, but the ferry ride ended and we will never see them again. Which might be just as well; maybe they don’t like talking about stuff like that.
If we didn’t get around to issues of substance on the ferry, we certainly did with later visits in Kelowna and Barrhead, but those people will probably read this so I’m not going to say much. Topics such as world destabilization, good and evil, genealogy, the price of cherries, all got kicked around in due course. One such gabfest lasted an epic 5 ½ hours, which has to be a record for me. But it was good.
So, it is hot, we are in Lac La Nonne Alberta, visiting our faces off. Not so bad.
Now, in order for this to be dialogue and not monologue, kindly answer the following question: What is the attraction in travel? Why is it better to travel than to arrive? Why on earth do people go to so much trouble and expense to go places when the place that they left is better than any of their destinations? Why can’t people just stay home and enjoy life where they are? If you can answer that, you pass Philosophy 101. If you can’t, we are condemned to wander for another week. So write back.
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