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Perthster
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Country: Canada
State: Ontario
Metro: Sudbury
Interests: 
Expertise: Wisecracks from the back of the class, high-school style
Industry: Chinese souvenirs....made in C
Message: message me
Member Since:
3/26/2006
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| Hey there,
along the way back from BC I had a lot of time to think, so i'll try to update this blog with some of those thoughts that came my way while driving across the country.
so here's the first.
Saskatchewan sucks... sometimes
On monday, Heather and I left Vancouver after spending two nights in her friends apartment...unfurnished apartment.
we drove through the rockies that day. It was awesome once again. This time there were a lot of clouds everywhere as we went through.
We drove through Glacier National Park, along Kicking Horse river which is has a nice azure colour to it, but is also as fast as the cars on the highway next to it. We got to Calgary around 8 that night, we had planned to stay in a tent that night, but after spending 2 days sleeping on a floor, I wasn't looking forward to a night in a tent. So we stayed in a cheap little motel. slept pretty nice. woke up at 7 to pouring rain and 9 degree temp. So damn glad I did not stay in a tent.
It stayed pretty gloomy all day, raining on and off, always windy. It was nice in Alberta, the rolling hills and river valleys were lovely.
Then we got to Saskatchewan. It was still gloomy, but now it was flat, the roads were bumpy and there wasn't much to look at except the tumbleweeds.. I actually hit one as it crossed my path.
I was bored. So I went for a 'walk'... in other words I had a 'safety committee meeting' in my car...let's leave it at that.
That's when Saskatchewan became beautiful. The grey sky was everchanging, the sun broke through the clouds from time to time to shine on a the golden fields of wheat along the road. Colour were alive everywhere I looked.
as I was watching nature at work, I got excited... I was seeing lots of rain, cool wind moving over warm ground... could we see a tornado today!?!
I was now on full tornado watch, suddenly a tall tower miles away looked like a small funnel cloud...
not satisfied with looking ahead for tornadoes, I was moving my side-view mirrors around to see if anything was behind me... maybe all this time I was looking ahead, I was being chased by a tornado. A truck passes by, the passanger looked like Helen Hunt... or did she?
Later that night we got to manitoba, heading to a friend's house we drove in a straight line south. The setting sun on our right, a lighthing storm on our left. for 20 minutes we anticipated the next strike, everytime we saw some light we turned excitedly towards it, sometimes it was just a warning light on a tower, but most times it was a beautiful bolt of lightning.
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Greetings from Victoria in beautiful British Columbia. For once I’ll agree with the license plates.
I was working in Belleville until last thursday when I told my boss at the call centre that I had to ‘go back home’ for a while. That didnt go over so well with her, but after picked cursed me out in her head, wished me luck. And i can actually go back there when I ‘sort things out at home’... which is actually when ill be going back to school.
All i care about is that I have a part-tie job when i get back to Belleville.
so I packed up all my things on thursday. Moved most of it in the house I’ll be staying in for the school year and then went to pick up Heather at the airport. Obviously, picking her up was way more fun than dropping her off.
We then started our road trip. First stop was Bracebridge where my dad was getting married the next day.
The wedding was pretty nice, I got to see a bunch of family I hadn’t seen in a while. I wanted to say ‘hi’ to some of them before the wedding started but I ended up catching two uncles and a cousin with their pants down while they were getting dressed.
(Heather took most of the pictures I’ll put up here)
My dad and I.
And the new, extended family.
After the wedding, we went back to the campsite where we were staying and gathered around a campfire with my sisters and new step-brother and their partners. My sister and cousin had to ‘borrow’ some firewood from our neighbours...
that’s what little sisters are for, taking the rap.
Then on sunday was the real start to the road trip, leaving Bracebridge for Victoria, with a few stops in between.
first stop was in a little town called Raymond where Heather’s grandpa has a house, although he spends most of his time in Toronto. We coulndt not take a picture of their sign.
we then stopped in Sudbury, to see LU a bit... we just drove around campus. I doubt anyone would have been there on a sunday at noon. Saw the nickel of course and more than a few creepy signs..
We also stopped along the road from Sault Ste Marie to Wawa. Nice views of lake superior, and we left our mark too.
Next stop was a town I had told many of you about, but that none of my friends had actually seen, well here is a bit of proof.
My house
Stayed in Dubreuil after driving about 10 hours.
This would be the shortest day of the trip.
Day 2
We left at 7 the next morning, heading to Minto Manitoba where a friend of ours was letting us crash at her place. Saw some of that good ol Canadian shield. Stoped at the Terry Fox statue to make a sandwhich. We got the only rain of our four day trip on the way out of Ontario, I had to make my sandwhich in the car in the wal-mart parking lot.
This being monday of the long weekend, a lot of people were trying to make their way back in Manitoba... so we got kind of delayed there.
forest fire in the canadian shield
Heather sleeping
making a sandwhich
line up to get in to Manitoba
we ended up in Minto after 16 hours on the road, after switching time zones.
Day 3
after a good night's sleep, where we got to sleep in till 7, got some kick ass chocolat chip muffins from Courtney we left for Alberta. We finaly saw the flatness of the prairies in their full glory. It really is big-sky country out there.
the feet in manitoba
eyes on the road!
(saskatchewan not pictured, lack of relevance)
the feet in alberta, we can see the start of the rolling hills...
wind turnines, saw more of these in Alberta than anywhere else... actually, its the ONLY place we saw them. and they had lots.
Sunset in Lethbridge
we got as far as Lethbridge that day. found a provincial park with an honour system of paying fees... which means, another free night of lodging! Made a fire that night... which we could have use in the tent. It got pretty cold during the night
Also, along the way, we listened to a lot of music of course but not just that, some Twilight Zone radio dramas.. which were a bit hit and miss. Some were a bit preachy with their life lessons. But they were pretty good at making you imagine everything that was going on, which was really the point. From time to time I'd hear a voice I recognized. The narator was Stacey keach who was Titus' dad on that one season sitcom, I also heard Ed Bagley, AKA Stan Sitwell from Arrested Develepment. Anyway, on the day 4
Day 4
left Lethbridge after a tough night in a tent. The ground was hard, the air was cool, the birds chriped early and no shower to be seen... but that,s all right, we were going to be in BC today.
I like big things, big machines, big events etc. but there's nothing I love more than big nature.
The prairies were cool in their own way. But the rockies are just fucking insane. The steep climbs, the sheer drops, the random mountain sheep which we almost hit on our way down a steep hill, the trees that cover everypart of the mountains in some places, the snow caped peaks, coming down a hill and finding yourself in wine country where you see a sikh in full dress aqnd turban picking fruit in near 40 degree temps.
Fuck I love this country.
In the rockies
do NOT go over that limit in the curves..
Osoyoos, a hot tourist spot in wine country behind the lovely Heather
we made it to White Rock that day, that's where Heather grew up and where her brother live too. Its right on the US border, there's a nice beachfront scene and on a clear day we can see Mt Baker in Washington state.
Day 5
We were both tired as hell from 4+ days on te road, got a couple ZZZs on the ferry over to the Island.
So now I'm in Victoria for two weeks.
After just over 24 hours here, I still can't find anything to dis-like about the place.
I mean, its not everywhere that you can find 'free range, free run, grain fed, non-imunized chicken', well actually, here you can find it in pretty much every store.
We had lunch on top of hill today, i could see as many trees as houses when looking towards downtown.
Kids were long-boarding down the hill. it seems like the temperature is always 15-22 degrees with a bright sun. ...
I love this place already and I still haven't seen the bunnies at UVic, but that'll be this weekend.
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| So I think I'm due for an update.
Been a little while since the last post.
I went to Dan Lalonde's bachelor party, which consisted of picking him up at his house in Hawkesbury, dressing him up in a dress and going out on the town... well to McDonalds where he worked for about 7 years, and then to the grocery store where he saw a few people he knew.
I even got the store manager to announce his name on the PA, and right after that an old couple walked by him and did a double take, 'Oh so YOU are the one getting married!?'
Funny stuff.
I got myslef a job at a call centre. Going to be a Dell Tech Support Professional, so if you have problems with your dell, and you call tech support, you might get me one the phone... oh, only if you choose service in french...
Thing is the training is 4 weeks long, which is cool cause I get to learn about the computers and get paid 15$/hour.
But the training is long, and quite boring. There's a few young people, and there are all quite cool. there's even a guy that went to my high school.
So we exchange stories about back home and the rest of the people are just baffled that we are not coke heads with a couple kids out there in the world...
I feel a bit bad though, cause 4 days after I'm done training, ill be going away, first to my dad's wedding, and the to victoria...
hopefully they won't be too pissed and I can come back in the fall.
Last week was Dan's wedding, it's the first wedding I've been part of. It was really nice to see my friend so happy like that. I had met his wife before too, and she was really nice too. So the whole thing was just great. The reception was fun too, although I knew about 4 people there, Nathan and I had a blast. I am convinced that if people tell stories about two guys dancing non-stop all night, they are talking about Nathan and I.
At one point I tried to do the worm (yes, I was hammered), the worm failed, it looked more like a fish trying to find water again.. sensing panic coming on, i had to salvage what little dignity I had left, so i spun around on my back and tried a break dancing pose... i don't know what it looked like for the people in the circle... but I can only imagine the fear of a foot in the groin was on the guys' minds.
I even made it through my speech without breaking down, the couple times I thought I'd start leaking, the people clapped and that bought me some time.
So now I have just over two weeks left here. We just found a place to stay in next year. a 5 bedroom house in a residential neighbourhood. Heather and I and 3 other people from the Photjournalism program. We even have a big back yard... can't wait to get in there, especially since I'll get the big room... lol
I leave you with an itenarary of my trip west... I can feel my ass gettting numb already
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| Hello hello,
I'm afraid this post will not have nay pictures or videos or anything else like that. Kinda new for me but that's because the wi-fi in rez is kaput for some reason.
School is over for the summer, last class was last thursday, well, it was friday but I sorta skipped on that.
It wasn't a day I looked forward too all that much since I knew that once school was over, Heather was going back to BC for the summer.
I tried not to think about it all that much but its not like ignoring it would somehow push that day further. So Friday morning, everyone said their goodbyes see-ya-laters, and I drove Heather and Courtney to the airport in Toronto, Courtney was flying back to Manitoba. Crazy right, Manitoba has an airport. Who knew.
Up until now, all those new security measures they are doing at airports never affected me, even when I flew. But the fact that I couldn't wait with Heather at the departure gate.. and that really sucked. sitting on the floor right before the security checkpoint is not my ideal way to tell hte girl I love that I'll miss her and write everyday.
But that's how it was. Fuck you over-zealous security policies. seriously, I had nothing on me, just a camera and my iPod so we could listen to music together while waiting for her plane to take off.
But no, I had to leave pretty much right away. Well, almost. I kinda stayed in my car for a solid, 10-15 minutes, looking at the pictures we had taken on the way down from Belleville. I missed her the second I walked out of the airport.
I miss her more everyday.
The only thing keeping me sane right now is Skype. Seriously, Skype is fucking genius. Free video calls rocks.
Now I can see her everyday. We even watch movies together. We download the same flicks and start them at the same time.
Its not my ideal date night, but seeing her pull the blankets up when a scene is about to get scary is so cute.
Having another one today.
This weekend is my friend Dan's bachelor party. Not going to be a typical party as he doesn't want to go to a strip club, and that's fine by me, cause I find them depressing. We're going camping for a night, and since Nathan had a bunch of booze left over form his wedding, we'll have free booze too.
Speaking of Nathan's wedding, it was pretty awesome. They really made it fun for everyone there and it was so fun to see all much fun to see them so happy. I didn't get the garter but I came in second place. to Pat.
Also, on the friday before that wedding was Eric's moving away party. That was pretty awesome too, got to see most of my friends from school. A lot of you are on Xanga, so to you all, it was nice to see you all again. I had a great time.
After driving from Toronto with a heavy heart and feeling sad, it was nice to see you all and share some laughs.
I hope we see each other soon.
bye for now.
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