british columbia
where to find help when-
afraid, anxious, backsliding, conscious of sin, discouraged, dismayed, friends fail, hopeless, ill or in pain, insecure, leaving home, lonely, needing inward peace, in sorrow, in temptation, thankful, in trouble, under pressure, weary.
-from the gideons bible
customs at the u.s. canada border is a very irritating place. when i entered they asked me a bunch of questions and then told me to proceed to the customs counter. there i was interrogated by a woman who wouldn't look at me. the conversation went something like this.
her "how much cash do you have?"
me "thirty six dollars"
her "how do you expect to make it to alaska with thirty six dollars?"
me "oh, i have a bank card."
her "and how much money is in that account?"
me "about $900."
her "...................ok sir i need you to go back over the u.s. border and get out $300 to prove to me that you have enough money to get to alaska.
me "uhhh, ....what?"
her "you need to go back over the u.s. border and get out $300 to prove to me that you have enough money to get to alaska. then come back here and show me that you have the money and you'll be admitted to canada."
me "thanks,....do you know where i'll be sitting?"
her "....................................."
so 2 hours later, after sitting in line at the border, again, i was "admitted" to canada. by this time the sun was setting. i stopped at a husky gas/shower/resturant and got some food. there was a beautiful woman sitting across from me, so i began to flirt. i have never seen a worse set of teeth in my life. but it was too late, i was already engaged in conversation with the black toothed woman in the next booth. i thought of that tom waits line, "nothing wrong with her that $100 wont fix.".
i drove all night through the mountains. driving at night was a habit i was trying to break. i reached prince george and pulled into a gas station. there i met two kids that were about the nicest folk i have met in a while. we talked for at least an hour. the girl there called every motel in town until she found the cheapest one. i gave them cd's and then split for the queens way motel. an awful place. hair on the pillows and it smelled like a hospital. luckily the fridge worked so i was able to freeze my coolpaks used to keep the insulin from going south. the next day i stopped at the local 7-11 and got myself 560 ml of coffee. then i proceeded to my next destination at 110 kph. lots of pine trees and pretty mountains. and pine trees,....and pretty mountains. i got so lost in thought that the next thing i knew i was 400 km (182 miles) from anything open. so i pulled over at a rest area next to a lake to sleep. the more my eyes adjusted the more i could see the lake and the mountains surrounding it. there were still embers in the fire from whoever was there before me. so i sat and looked for a little while. looked at the stars. looked at their reflection in the lake. then slept in the car for a couple hours. about 5 am i woke up and headed out on the road again.
there are two roads that converge about 600 miles from the alaska border. these are route 97 (mostly paved), and 37 (barely paved). i decided, against my better judgement, to take 37. you see, at the intersection of route 16 and 37 there is a reservation where they have some original totem poles and native american art from the turn of the century. aparently quite a nice collection. the problem was i forgot that when the sun goes down it gets dark and things close. so it was too dark to see the totem poles and the "gallery" was closed. though while stopping for gas i was invited to a sweat lodge with mushrooms and dancing..... aparently some of the indians do this thing where they put on a sweatlodge and give a bunch of ignorant honkies mushrooms and a fake sweat for lots of money. though i would have accepted the offer for a sweat, the mushrooms didn't thrill me and i don't think that a sweat you pay for is being put on for the right reasons. though i wish the indians the best of luck in taking money from any certified cracker that comes their way. so i proceed up route 37 into the darkness. ....when i say barely paved, i mean basically gravel covering a road that was built during WWII. to keep the dust down they mix gravel with a sort of tar that they spray the roads with. and that acts sort of like a sand blaster against the bottom of your car. so as i tryed to pull over for gas at a place called jade city, suddenly my car wouldn't move. i had blown a cv joint at 7 am in a town with radio phones and grenorator produced electricity. jade city, population 9. there was a gas station/resturant that had been closed for about a month. the tale was that the the waitress ran off with a truck driver so the cook, left alone to run the resturant, closed down and split too. the next day when the owner came in he just shut it down. and it hasn't opened since. so i went to a large gravel pit with a building in it that turned out to be a gov't highway workers outpost. there i was greeted by the nicest people with the bigest sailors mouths in the world. these guys could cuss a blue streak while talking about shoelaces. so while increasing my vocabulary, they radioed to the next town with phones to call a tow truck. then i went back to the car where i ate apples and listened to the entire 6 tapes of joseph campbells power of myth. 20 hours later the tow truck showed up and hauled me to a town called watson lake where i spent the next 6 days. i checked into a motel called the cedar lodge just 100 yards from the garage. the owner of the cedar logde was a man named peter. a true gentleman with a love of 2 stroke motorcycles. he has a yamaha 125, single cylinder from the late 50's or early 60's. the part for my car had to be shipped in from alberta so it was going to be 6 days until i would be able to leave. after 2 days at the cedar lodge i decided i wasn't going to be able to afford staying there. so i made the descision to move to the camp ground down the road. there are certain times when nothing goes how you planned it. and though you know you should be upset, your emotions remain steady like a wine glass having the table cloth pulled out from under it. balance maintains itself. car broke down, motel owner let me stay in exchange for work. i ate, wrote and took walks through what looked like a wonderland of the most bizarre forest. strait out of narnia. i dug fence post holes and ditches for a weather station. saw a dog sitting on the roof of a house, heard stories of bear and moose attacks. went to a hot dog roast with peter and his family. and without knowing it i saw the northern lights. walking up the road in the dark i looked up and thought, "those are some strange clouds...in the dark...glowing".
at one point i had been told that there was a library in town that had a computer that was hooked up to the internet. it was probably 2 miles if you walked the roads or 1 if you cut through the woods around the lake. so out of sheer laziness i opt'd for the wooded route. these woods were so quite i became paranoid that i was being stalked by grizzly bear. so i pulled out my trusty pocket knife and became stealth like a chubby little comando in red wings and a guyabera. my eyes darted from side to side. my breathing became apparent. in through the nose out through the mouth. knife locked open. 5 inches of sharp cold steel ready to give that grizzly a nasty scratch...that's right bear, bring it on! for those of you that have never sceen a grizzly bear, they're huge! they would pop my head like a grape. so the thought that i would even have the chance to give this mammoth animal a papercut was utterly rediculous. after reaching the library, feeling silly i was told that your supposed to make alot of noise. otherwise the bears think your trying to sneak up on them....oops. now completely immasculated, i walked home through the town stopping to get some soup to nurse my ego alive.
being in a place like this is like a strange dream. everything is different but the same. and just like a dream it ends. when my car was ready i wasted no time in getting on the road. the trip back was beautiful. i have never seen country so beautiful in all my life. there is a gas station that makes up the town of steamboat. and just past it is the most beautiful view. words alone cannot describe this kind of beauty. it's like those akward moments when you realize your in love. watching her sleep. the sunset putting it's head down into the trees so that just one eye is showing. dressed in pajamas with the sleeves to long.
i drove the 1630 miles to my brothers house in 30 hours. passing the the miles of telephone cables that line the highways like lace. driving out of the mountains, laughing out loud at the emence beauty. retread on the side of the roads turned into giant sleeping cats. i made it to seattle with $40 to my name and alot of silent memories.
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