Getting to Glacier

Travelling east along the 2, over Stevens Pass at 4067 ft, we stopped at a rest area where they were advertising 'Free Coffee'. We Talked to the volunteers who were manning the booth about their wonderful Town of Leavenworth, that had reinvented itself when the logging industry had moved out, and decided that they would go Bavarian.
Was a bit Disney but it had certainly kept their town on the map.

We then travelled North on the 97 stopping for lunch at the Lincoln Rock State Park and onto Okanogan where a lot of fruit is grown in the valley of the mighty Columbia river. Turning east onto the 155 and then onto back roads across the Colville Indian Reservation we ended back at one of my favourite camping spots on the banks of the Twin Lakes. It is so quiet here that you can really feel apart of what is around you. Tea'd and porridged we crossed the Gifford Ferry and followed more back roads to Bluecreek and Usk, before joining the 20 and then the 2 when we entered the state of Idaho. The far north of Idaho is very narrow and before we could fill up with petrol we were past Sandpoint and onto the 200 entering Montana. Joining the 56 we travelled north and stopped at a Forest Service camp ground by Bull lake. The weather over the last couple of days had been sunshine and showers but it wasn't cold and the showers weren't lasting very long.

Wondering how long Jill would sleep if I didn't wake her, we didn't rise until 0900 to very grey skies and the chance that any minute it would start to rain. We both thought it would be better to just get on the road, so me in a grumpy mood and getting grumpier, we rushed around packing up while I muttered to myself about what was the point of travel if all you saw was the inside of your eye lids! We arrived in Libby 'the city of eagles'
and had breakfast at the 'Last straw café' (some might say aptly named). We started talking to an older couple on the next table who had retired here after he had worked for Boeing in Seattle. Not being that fit any more and unable to go hunting, from his porch he shot game that wondered into his garden. They were very interested in our travels and without a word paid our breakfast bill, a great kindness.

Refreshed in body if not in mind, we carried along the 37 to Eureka and south east on the 93 to Whitefish, which looked a nice theme town and onto Columbia falls and the Glacier Inn Motel were we stayed for the next 3 night to try and sort ourselves out. By this point Jill had hit the bottle!

I knew that travelling wasn't going to be all roses, just seeing wonderful places and not having to go to work for a while. I had told friends before we left that I was sure it was going to be a spiritual journey and much as a physical one, but I thought that the spiritual journey would take the shape of great insights and moments of bliss. For me however, it has taken the shape of being overwhelmed with anger, a life long anger that I have done very well to hide for so many years and Jill has been the recipient of this. The more Jill withdraws the more angry I get which makes her withdraw even further and so the spiral carries on. Over the last couple of days we have given ourselves time to really try and understand our dynamic and things at the moment are back to our enjoying each others company, and getting more out of what we are seeing around us. Recognition of the problem helps sort the symptom so hopefully we are both on the path to relationship recovery.

Seattle and the Wallace Falls state Park. 5/9/10

Had to wait over an hour in the queue but finally made it
without even a 'have a nice day' as the guard was taking his duties very seriously and probably was coming to the end of a 8 hour shift. Rushed down the 5 to Seattle where we had planned to go shopping at REI to get new sleeping bags as ours weren't up to keeping us warm at night. We were both fed up of getting dressed to go to bed! They advertise a great 50% sale so didn't buy in Canada looking for that bargain. Of course everything we wanted wasn't in the sale so we ended up spending more money than I'm willing to but on the blog getting 2 very nice down bags that would keep us warm down to -10C before getting dressed. We donated our old bags to the REI community support to use as they thought fit. Having also purchased some waterproofing for our boot and a map holder for Jill so she can have her own map and see were we are, we high tailed it out onto the 2 and stopped at Gold Bar where there was one camping space out of only two empty at the Wallace Falls State Park. It was Sunday night of the Labour day weekend and I think we were very lucky. The next day having checked out the HT leads and put new spark plugs into Nancy we headed off towards the falls. (Nancy is still running a bit rough, but better, at different rpms like one of the plugs isn't firing. It's twinned plugged and the resistance on 3 of the HT leads is 5.5 and on the 4th is 7.6. Could this be the problem? Do I need new HT leads? Anybody in the know please email. Thanks ). The walk was quite strenuous and after about 30 minutes it started to rain. Here is Jill looking wet and pissed off. It was very beautiful rain forest
with fallen red cedar stumps and dense fern and moss. The falls, when we got there, were very impressive the one in the background, Middle Falls, having a drop of 265 ft.
We retreated back to camp some 4.5 miles later very wet. We both stood in the respective wash rooms under the hand dryers trying to get the worst off our clothes. We spent the next 3 hours in the tent watching a small stream getting bigger and bigger until we were both rather concerned that we were going to get very wet, So off to the park warden I went and found out that they had a cabin free and it could be ours in exchange for the usual fee for 2 days, just long enough to dry out and write up the blog. The warden was very kind and returned our 2 days camping fee and allowed us to use the employers showers as there were none on the site. So here I am writing up the blog
while Jill dries out. Everything dried we set off towards Glacier National Park.

The Sunshine Coast.

We caught the Queen of Burnaby ferry from Comax to Powell River a 1 hour 20 minute crossing and travelled down the 101 to Saltery Bay where we picked up Island Sky ferry to Earles Cove a short 50 minute hop. The road from Earles Cove down to Gibsons was a very pleasant one, and we arrived to the ferry terminal to be told there wasn't a ferry for 90 minutes so we went back into Gibsons to look around. Gibsons played host to the longest running soap on Canadian TV called the Beachcombers. was were it all happened. A very floral houseboat was in the marina. Arriving back at the ferry terminal at Langdale for the 40 minute crossing to Horseshoe bay I got talking to some bikers who regaled me with tales of crashing at high speed and breaking down due to poor maintenance. As I don't drive very fast and am neurotic about maintenance could account for the reason I don't draw a crowd and have any dramatic tales to tell. Here is Jill looking windswept on the ferry. We scooted off through Vancouver and headed towards Seattle stopping late for the night at a rather seedy and Cedar Lane Motel (which seemed to be home for the dispossessed) on the Canadian side that accepted all our Canadian loose change as this was our last night in Canada.Jill added It was a bit of a low note to end our travels of Canada, which is a very beautiful country so long as you can cope with bears, mosquitoes and have a very deep pocket. And over the course of nearly 4 months most of the Motels we have stayed in, have been in reasonable condition-this was the worst-it did not appear particularly clean-lots of spiders, dirty fixtures and fittings, broken dilapidated furniture, in need of an overhaul about 30 years ago. I grumped around the room, checking the bed for fleas and suspect stains, and eventually only succumbed to sleep on the top covered in her sarong, and fully expecting to be made a meal of by the resident population of fleas and bedbugs, whilst David exhausted from the days ride, slept soundly. Nevertheless we would like to return to visit Canada, in particular Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Labrador. But lets see if we survive this trip first!!

Tofino 1/9/10

Left the camp site by the 1 in 4 exit road and travelled down the 14 to Port Renfrew where we brought provisions and stopped to have lunch at San Jean Point. Travelling along the Pacific Marine Road the rear suspension bottomed out more than once as the tarmac, although smooth, was rather wavy. All this took longer than expected and we made a dash along the 18 to pick up the 1 and 19 before turning into the 4 towards Tofino. It was getting late when we eventually pulled into the Sproat Lake Provincial Park camp ground having driven another 15 miles down the road looking for a camping spot that didn't seem to exist only to have to turn back to Sproat Lake. Jill cooked in the dark and we were able to offer 2 cyclist space on our plot for their nights camping as we took the last one available. We carried along the 4 the next day, the road was now a twisty up and down one, and pulled into the Green Point camp ground just set back from Long Beach We managed to get a place as somebody had just cancelled. The park is a rainforest as can be seen on our walk to the amenities. Having set up camp we travelled into Tofino, which is a fishing and surfing playground outside the national park. Everybody we met said we had to go to Tofino, it was nice but my socks weren't knocked off. On the way back to the camp site we stopped at Combers beach to see the surfing action
and visited the old early warning Radar site with it's wonderful views. That evening we had a walk on the beach as the sun was setting.
The next day we said goodbye to Tofino and Long beach, to it's driftwood makeshift shelters on the beach
where it's possible to search for peace, and headed back along the 4 stopping at Cathedral Grove to be hugged by some more big trees.

We had met Bernie and Helga at the Capilano RV Park and they had invited us to stay with them in Courtenay. We were so impressed with their open hearty smiles that this was one offer that we wanted to take up. They had arrived in Canada about 50 years ago from West Berlin not even being able to speak English. They had made Canada their home and Canada in return had rewarded them well for all their hard work. They showed us great hospitality, and that evening after a delicious vegetarian omelette followed by Helga's home preserved peaches from the Okanagan Valley, and her home made plum cake, we sat outside on their verandah, talking with their son Bernie and his partner Toni-Lee about their forthcoming travels, and all their amazing lives-aided and abetted by a few tots of fire water known as cinnamon whiskey, which managed to distract us from hypothermia as we talked into the night, observed only by the twinkling stars, nestled in the vast arms of the mountains. Thank you for your hospitality and a wonderful evening xxxx

Victoria, Vancouver Island 30/8/10

Having done a bit more internet work in the morning we set off for Tsawwassen to catch the ferry to Swartz Bay. There was a naturalist (or should that be naturist?)on board who was giving an interesting talk on the wild life in the area when suddenly along came the wild life. On arriving we travelled to Thetis Lake Park where we camped for the next 2 nights. The lake was very beautiful and a nice hike was had by us both around it's perimeter. The next day after I cooked the breakfast under the umbrella as it was raining, then we drove into Victoria to look around. I left Jill in Starbucks where she wrote this entry.

Starbucks 31/8/10 11.30h
So Abbas beamed a warm open friendly smile, set in warm chocolate brown eyes, from a face I somehow knew, and bid me farewell.

Abbas is Iranian, but has lived in Canada for 10 years, first in Quebec, then Montreal, now in Victoria. He works as a painter, but as it is grey and raining today, has taken the day off. I was sitting at a table beside his, sipping my coffee and preparing to look at the Blog, when he said hello and asked me how I was. I replied that I was okay (bit of an overstatement right now) and in return I asked how he was. He replied that he was “balanced” that he likes balance, that balance is good. The idea of balance struck a cord with me. It sounded like a utopian emotional state, one I might learn from right now.

I had noticed him earlier, standing in the coffee cue, waiting to be served, as he struck up a conversation with an embarrassed young blond woman. For all the Canadians openness to conversation with strangers, and we have benefited from this enormously, perhaps there is nevertheless some reticence to engage, when a lone male attempts to strike up a conversation with a lone female.

But I had other things to attend to and moved my attention to David, who was about to depart on his walk, having deposited me (to recover from my 'mood') at the coffee shop. The day had started badly. Well when I opened my eyes at around 07.15h this morning, I felt fine. A few minutes later, I heard David stir and asked him the time. His response as he was dressing was “it's pledge time”. Now some of you may remember that in a rash moment on a beach at Pukasaw camp ground, I wrote in sand my pledge to rise at 07.30h each day. This was after weeks of grumbling by David at my tendency to lie in beyond this time-only I might add until the unearthly hour of 8-08.30h. My habit had caused no end of moods from David, and the more moody David became the more I dug in, but not without feeling a sloth and very guilty about it. I was tired, in fact dog-tired and mornings just came about too soon. In the end, as the start of the day misery leached all my energy for travel, I began to plot my return home when we reached Vancouver. I think we have charted already some of our ups and downs, not because we have an unhealthy desire to 'wash our dirty linen in public', but because in all our hearings of accounts about this sort of travel, people never talk about relationship with other. That is how do two people travelling together make it work so that each person gets what they want, or discovers what they want, from the experience. We have heard stories about planning the trip, what to take, two bikes or one (if travelling with a partner), first aid, countries visited, crossing borders, taking happy snaps you will be proud of, keeping safe from wildlife, and bike maintenance to name a few. But little mention of what I think are two key components: money: how much does it all cost and budgeting and relationships with ones travel partner.

Ok so at the ladies only session of Horizon's Unlimited Traveller's meeting, the almost taken-for-granted challenges for a woman travelling with a man, are bravely laughed about. But beneath this laddish veneer is an unspoken acknowledgement that these challenges can turn a dream into a nightmare. And the everydayness of relating at home, with all it's trials and tribulations, is brought sharply into focus when your home is a motorcycle and a two man tent. It's rather like committing yourself to living completely, in the smallest room of the house. There just ain't no place to go when the going gets tough.

So we thought we might have a go at charting some of the emotional ups and down's of travelling. Now I am not too excited about this because like most of us, I would rather gloss over the lumpy texture of our relationship. But I have been round the block more than once, and know from experience that relationships have highs and lows. When it's good we exude a 'smug marrieds' aura. And when it's bad, ashamed that the façade has slipped, and fearful of other judgements, we hide away and nurse our aching hearts.

Have I learned anything so far? I'm not sure. But the reality of this type of travel is that it is hard in more ways than one. Yes almost without exception as John Steinbeck noted in his book Travels with Charley written in 1961, and no less relevant now, when we tell folk we are travelling, a wistful, dreamy look washes over their face as they tell us they wished they too could get away from it all, and aren't we lucky. But far from being a panacea it carries with it all manner of new and not so new challenges, which one way or another if the thing is to succeed, need to be navigated.

And so back to my new acquaintance Abbas. Amongst other things he told me I did not look not pure British, but an ethnic mix, that he hoped to travel to Central and South America in January-perhaps we might met up, the politics of Iran, and poetry. He told me his most treasured poet is Hafiz, an Iranian poet. He eagerly showed me how to locate some of his work on the internet (I had brought the Netbook so that I could spend some time answering emails, and writing the Blog whilst David went for a walk). I resisted his enthusiasm to sit beside me, partly out of fear but also because I thought he might be difficult to dislodge. Nevertheless, he showed me Fal-e Hafiz' divination through his poetry, and said that if I was feeling troubled I might want to use this as a way to help me see my way through it. I was a bit startled by this because although I was feeling thoroughly fed up with David again, and troubled about the future of the trip, and what I want from it, if anything, planning my return, but I didn't speak of it. As he reached for his red jacket and rucksack, Abbas offered this poetry as his gift to me, wished me well, and disappeared.

Out of curiosity, I clicked into Fal-e Hafiz, did as advised and thought deeply about how I was feeling right now and this poem presented itself:

Ghazal 483

A traveller in a strange land
Took a stranger by the hand,
You will only see clarity of the wine
If for forty days you let it stand.
God keep us from the dervish’s cloak
That conceals an idol in every strand.
Though virtue needs no recognition
Let helping the needy be your errand.
O you, the owner of the harvest
Keep your harvesters from reprimand.
Where has all the joy gone?
Why is the pain of love so bland?
Every chest is gloomy, dark and sad;
Let love’s flame in hearts be fanned.
Without the finger of lovers
For golden rings there’s no demand.
Though Beloved seems to be so harsh
The lover accepts every command.
Walk to the tavern and I will ask,
Have you seen the end you have planned?
Neither Hafiz’s heart is in lessons so grand
Nor the teacher can fully understand.

You may remember I have recently finished reading A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth, in which Ghazals are referred to a lot, I tended to skip over them, but I think like a lot of poetry, meaning can change according to the colour of your own mood as you read it. For me this Ghazal resonated. I showed it to David who was singularly unimpressed! Each to their own. Thank you Abbas.

Meanwhile I (David) walked around Victoria looking at the waterfront with it's sea planes, it's wild life, the cute water taxis and the outside of the parliament building. I checked out the Bay shopping mall that had an interesting clock and the Empress Hotel that had 2 tree creatures guarding it front. The site was much prized by the First Nations people for oysters before being filled in for the hotel. I met up with Jillie and after lunch we went on a tour of the parliament building which is the capital of British Columbia and holds strongly to its links with the Queen and Country. We went into the RBC Museum and saw a presentation on how many people BC could hold if in another part of the world. 212 million if in the Far East and 167 million if in Europe compared to the 4.7 million that do live here. As it was still rather damp a meal out was called for as cooking in the rain ain't much fun so we went to John's Place on Pandora and had a very nice meal of salmon and garlic mash with al dente vegetables.

Vancouver 28/8/10

I would like to start by thanking all the people who have email us with concerns for our relationship. As Jill has added later, travelling isn't easy and our relationship is a very large part of what we are doing together along with the physical experiences that we are travelling through. I hope we are strong enough to weather these storms, but they aren't easy at the time. As my brother Mike said maybe Nancy and both of us need a overhaul after 12000 miles. (Maybe 2 weeks back at work would do the trick!)
We ended up staying in the Capilano RV Park which, as Jill pointed out it reminded us of what it must be like camping in Bretonside bus station with rows of RV's
right next to a main highway-check out the cyclist above David's head! with barely enough space to pitch our tent so we went over into the next plot. And all for only $39.50 a night with discount as I was a member of the RAC! We ended up spending 3 nights there. First day we did all our washing, sleeping bags included, Jill had a long desired swim in the site pool then we rushed off to 2 BMW garages to get a ring washer for the idle jet. BMW parts in Canada are really expensive and the list of spares that I brought with me isn't that extensive so we have to pay really high prices for things that we need for Nancy. That evening we went for a very good Thali in a Indian restaurant around 530 Broadway for $5.99 + tax each, but I can't remember it's name. Day 2 we walked across the Lions Gate Bridge and around Stanley Park which is to the Northwest of the Down town area and full of wild life. If while crossing the bridge you become light headed due to all the fumes there is always the yellow phone to help you on your way. The RV park is right below the far side of the bridge. The park has a great sea wall that runs around it where people were walking, riding and roller blading on this grey Sunday morning. Later we went into town and brought some maps of Central and South America from Travel Bug a funky travel shop. There is a really good map producer in Vancouver, and we looked around Mountain Equipment Co-op a huge emporium of everything camping but decide to wait until we get to the US as things are cheaper there. We found a very good Japanese Sushi bar that fed us both for $13.00 on wide variety of fishy dishes. Drove back through Stanley park to look at the Totem poles and the west coast answer to the mermaid in Copenhagen before trying to catch up on the Blog and prepare for leaving tomorrow, but not before meeting Bernie and Helga who very kindly offered us to stay with them in Courtney on Vancouver Island.