Posted on January 10, 2015 under News & Updates with 2 comments

The Waffle Wagon would fit in with hundreds of other food trucks in downtown Portland, Oregon

 

 

After travelling 9,523 kilometers, through three provinces and 17 states, we have arrived safe and sound in Vancouver, B.C.

The last leg of our trip took us through Northern California, Oregon and Washington State. After spending a full day in San Francisco, we travelled up the road to Redding, California. Checking my e-mail in the morning, I discovered that there was a family friend living in Redding. Receiving assurances from his mother in Nova Scotia that he would be awake, I dialed him up at 6:10 a.m. We had a nice chat and while his heart still longs for Nova Scotia, the prospects of -30 degree weather, will keep him firmly rooted in Redding for some time to come.

On the advice of several people, we headed due west towards Eureka and the Pacific Ocean. Within a half an hour , we were on one of the windiest mountain roads we had ever been on. It was a series of hairpin turns with very few straight stretches. Most of you have driven around Cape Smokey on the Cabot Trail. It was sort of like that only it lasted for 3 ½ hours. I was behind the wheel and it was the toughest few hours of driving I had on the trip.

We spent some time walking a beautiful stretch of beach on the Pacific Ocean. This was at the entrance to the Redwood Forest National park. We noticed several signs along this stretch of the highway with Tsunami warnings. ( not for that day but a general warning ! ). Even though it was a very calm day, the waves were very impressive.

The drive through the Redwood Forest was amazing. We stopped at one of several sites and did a short walk on an interpretive trail. It is hard to imagine that some of these trees have been there for thousands of years. A camera does not give you the scope of the size.

We continued up the coast and then crossed over into Oregon.

I realize that Facebook is a mixed blessing. I spend a fair bit of time using social media as a way getting my stories out to the public. On a long road trip, having Facebook is like having extra passengers in the car. With the possible exception of the Redwood Forest, we were able to easily connect to the internet just about any place, anytime. It was great to be able to share pictures and commentary and hear back from so many of you. I think that my picture at Haight Ashbury garnered the most “likes.” Must be a lot of old hippies out there.

So, we’re on yet another long stretch of Interstate highway and I’m checking Facebook when I notice that my nephew, Dave Brosha  is flying into Portland, Oregon for a week of photography workshops. A few messages later and we arrange a breakfast the next morning in downtown, Portland.

The hotel arrangements were made by phone. I spoke with a pleasant enough agent who was making the reservations from his home base in Honduras. I insisted that our hotel be located in downtown Portland. Well, when we took the ramp to the hotel and noticed a sign for the airport, I knew something wasn’t quite right. As it turned out, this was yet another stroke of good fortune because right beside our hotel was a rapid transit train.

Yesterday morning, we hopped on the train and rather than fighting the morning rush hour traffic, we drove in comfort and 15 minutes later rendezvoused with Dave for breakfast.

So, here is what I can tell you about Portland after spending less than 15 hours in the city: it is the craft beer capital of western civilization according to our waiter. It also has a stunning number of food wagons with every conceivable kind of food known to mankind. And it has a preponderance of topless bars. I didn’t sample any of Portland’s fineries except for some donuts from Voodoo Donut shop.

After a couple of very pleasant hours with Dave, we hit the road for the final push to Vancouver. We stopped at a Walmart in Washington State so that Peter could buy a hair cutting kit. When we got to the border , we had to do a bit of juggling to make the numbers work for amounts of money spent on merchandise. I ended up having the hair kit included in my amounts. The border agent actually asked us the nature of our purchases. I told the truth but luckily it was dark and I had a hat on otherwise, we may have been hauled out of the car for a thorough inspection!

We ended the day enjoying a terrific meal with my brother at a small Indian restaurant.

But, as Yogi Berra said, “ it ain’t over till it’s over.” Today we will hop on the ferry and make our final stop in Victoria at brother Tom’s.

I hope to do one giant story summarizing the whole trip in the days to come.

Have a good weekend.

Posted on January 8, 2015 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

I left my heart ( and my wallet ) in San Francisco

 

 

My big transcontinental trip with Peter is drawing to a close. And what a trip it has been. We have travelled through two provinces and 17 states. Most of the time has been spent in the car which is understandable when you’ve put on 10,000 kilometers. But, from time to time, we stopped to smell the roses ( and cow manure…more on that later! ), do some sightseeing and take lots of pictures. Spending close to 10 hours a day in a vehicle gives you a lot of time to think.

The last few days travelling through New Mexico, Arizona and California have been a real eye opener. We had scarcely crossed the Texas/New Mexico border when we saw the largest cattle pen imaginable. We actually smelled it before we saw it as it was a rendering plant. There were thousands upon thousands of animals and the conditions they were spending their last hours seemed less than desirable. I am not a member of PETA but it does cause one to think.

The scenery in New Mexico and Arizona is absolutely breathtaking with deserts sharing space with majestic mountains.

One of our travel days ended in Yuma, Arizona which is right at the border of California and next door to Mexico. I have come to the conclusion that when we win the lottery (! ), Yuma would be a lovely place to spend the winter months. The climate seems ideal and it appears to be a very well kept city. They even have sidewalks in the areas off the Interstate ramps which is an anomaly. In most places, when you come off the highway to an area with service stations, hotels, food joints and shopping malls, there are no sidewalks. I don’t know what the planners are thinking. How is one supposed to get from the hotel to a restaurant crossing several lanes of traffic with no signals and nowhere to walk? Baffling.  But the good folks in Yuma seem to have figured this one out.

On the morning we were departing for California, I received an e-mail from some folks from back home who winter in Yuma. They were wondering if we happened to be passing through the area. As it turns out, our hotel was about a drive and a 7 iron from their house. Even more amazing, these same people were the subjects of one of the stories in my new book. We arranged to meet at a McDonald’s ( which has become the new coffee shop for seniors in the United States. ) We spent a delightful hour and they gave us several tourist tips. The problem with a whirlwind trip is that there is so much to see and so little time.

We did take their advice and left the city via the famous “veggie fields.” These fields stretch for miles in every direction and produce a massive bounty of fresh produce for the continent … it is reputed to be the largest supplier. The Mexican border was just 8 miles away. We had decided early in the trip, that a side trip to Mexico was not in the cards because of time constraints and safety issues. We were assured by Eleanor and Richard that this one , at Los Algodones, was perfectly safe. This small town has more dental clinics and laser eye surgery clinics than all the Tim Hortons stores in Canada. And they do heart surgery. Apparently this is where Danny ( “millions’ ) Williams, former premier of Newfoundland, had his heart repairs done, a while back. Americans, and many others from around the world, come here as the prices are 80% lower than in their home countries.

We parked our car on the U.S. side and walked across the border. We saw the spectacle, had lunch and left two hours later. ( No dental work, Dan! )

And then we came upon a sight that completely caught us off guard. Just inside the California border there is a stretch of land that looks like it was transplanted from the Sahara Desert. The Imperial Sand Dunes stretch for forty miles and are five miles in width. Jaw dropping.

We agreed to take a pass on a planned stop in L.A. ( Los Angeles … not Lake Ainslie! ). However, we still had to pass through East L.A. and as fate would have it, our timing could not have been worse. It was rush hour and we were driving into a blinding sun. Thankfully ( mercifully! ), Peter was driving and he did a masterful job navigating the chaos. We overnighted in Bakersfield… not to be confused with Bakersfield, Texas where we ran out of gas. Besides having the world’s largest ice cream plant ( which we didn’t get to tour ), it is also an agricultural community and yes, thousands upon thousands of cows call this home.

The next four hours was mesmerizing as fruit trees by the millions crowded the landscape. Did you know that 80% of all the almonds in the world are grown here? Besides almonds, they grow every kind of citrus fruit. There is a severe drought going on here and the farmers are screaming bloody murder about water restrictions.

And then that familiar smell hit us. Amongst all of the fruit trees came the unmistakeable smell of cattle. I love going to the dairy farms in Antigonish. They are clean, the cows are well looked after and the scale of the operations are small. The smell at these farms is one we know and appreciate.

We came into an area not filled with trees and there it was: the largest holding area for cattle in the States ( and possibly the world ). There were 100,000 cows according to the Google search. These cows produce 150 million pounds of beef annually, much of it for the “In and Out” hamburger chain in the U.S. After witnessing the conditions, I am not apt to try one of those burgers any time soon.

Early in the afternoon, we crossed the Bay Bridge and slid into San Francisco. We rode the cable cars, did a 2.5 hour sightseeing tour , including passage across the Golden Gate Bridge and had a fabulous dinner at an Italian restaurant two doors down from our hotel. And speaking of hotels, if you happen to come to San Francisco, you should check out the Beresford Hotel on Sutter Street. It is a boutique hotel and the rates are easily the lowest in the city core where you can easily pay $350- $500 a night. We paid $119 + $30 for valet parking. And yes, all you old hippies, our sightseeing tour took us through Haight Ashbury.

Yesterday we spent the entire day in San Francisco and bid farewell to the city as the sun started its descent over the Golden Gate bridge.

Have a great day and thanks for joining us on the drive. It was good to have company from home.

Posted on January 7, 2015 under Storytelling with no comments yet

 All we are is dust in the wind

 

 

“Time is on my side…”

Time is on My Side – Jerry Ragovoy (a.k.a. Norman Meade); performed by The Rolling Stones

When I was young, I listened to this song, hummed it on my way to school and occasionally belted out a line or two.  And I absolutely believed in the title.  When you are a teenager, you think time lasts forever and that you will be running shotgun.  And then you find yourself hurtling toward eternity.

I stood at the end of an empty grave recently waiting for the burial of an elderly family member.  It was a spectacular fall day and the brief ceremony was definitely a celebration of a long, full life.  The deceased, my wife’s great aunt, was a wonderful lady who passed away just shy of her 98^th birthday.  She had been blessed with excellent health for most of her life until her memory left the present to dwell in the past.  No doubt a happier, simpler time.

While waiting for the funeral party to assemble, I glanced at the headstone next to us.  Tammy had only lived five years, ninety two less than Aunt Mary Ann.  She left this earth in 1969.

She may have witnessed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and may have wondered if she too might reach for the stars.  But this was not to be; in this world, anyway.

None of us know the exact number of days we will be granted.

Many of us are old fashioned and still like to have a calendar or two hanging in our kitchens or at the office.  Calendars mark the passage of time and are oh so important to give us visual reminders of things we need to do and places we need to be.  And while we appreciate calendars given to us by local businesses (yes, some of them still do that), it is far more common to see a calendar adorned with pictures of our grandchildren, pets or handsome firemen.

The problem is, The Rolling Stones have it all wrong.  Time is not on our side.

While it can be strenuously argued that a day still has 24 hours, a week 7 days and a year 365 days, why does it seem like time is hurtling along like an out of control roller coaster?

Another November 22^nd has come and gone and I once again remember with absolute clarity running home from school after hearing about the assassination of JFK in Dallas.  I can scarcely believe that I graduated from university 41 years ago and that my oldest child is 31.

Maybe Jim Croce had it right.  “If I could save time in a bottle….”

The happiest people I know live in the present.  They don’t lament the past or fret about the future.

Our wise and long departed high school English teacher, K.M. MacDonald, was forever exhorting us to seize each day.  She was the first person to make many of us aware of the Latin expression “carpe diem”.

Another year is just about over.  December will once again give us a few days respite as the Christmas season draws to a close.   And a new year will dawn again on January 1^st.

Give the best gift possible this year: your time.  Visit the sick, volunteer for the hot meal program, support a local charity.  Read to a child, sing for the heck of it, go outside and take a big, deep breath.

I take it all back.  Time is on our side.