Well, that's the general idea from here. While enjoying Deb and Wes's hospitality, and generally getting things sorted, you know, supermarket, haircut, clean the bike, laundry, weathers forecasts, steak, shiraz, that sort of thing, I was introduced to the Greater Vancouver Motorcycle Club. Roger had been there before, but it was new to me. The club has been going since 1922 (we think!) and has a lot of history, and a lot of members. We were warmly received, and enjoyed a great night. These guys aren't silly. It was raining, and apart from us, pretty much everyone else drove to the meeting in their cars. Glad I spent all day cleaning the bike.
Anyhow, Roger and I decided to head out towards Jasper, which was a bit further east than I had anticipated. However, this gave us the opportunity to see some very scenic countryside, then head up through Grande Prairie, then pick up the road north from Dawson Creek. Apart from that, Roger had been all the other ways before. I had been to Jasper in 1985, but it looks a hell of a lot different now, and so do a lot of the other places I had visited previously. Time doesn't stand still, that's for sure, except maybe in my head. Formerly nondescript towns like Kamloops had a real boomtown air about them. Lots of new infrastructure, shops, houses popping up like mushrooms, fast food outlets, etc. And it all looked like it had been built in the last five years or so. In fact, some of the franchise outlets had already gone bust, and some of the shops were up for sale. This typically suggests that there has been a boom, and now follows the inevitable bust, for some people anyway. In the capitalist system, this is called a correction. In the former communist world, it might have been called a crime against the people, and worth a stretch in the gulags, or worse. An idea not without some merit, given the recent GFC fiasco. But I digress.
Keen to get to the bottom of this economic surge, we made a few inquiries of some of the locals. The bimbo behind the reception desk at the local Super8 motel didn't have a ****ing clue, but that was always a long shot, and Roger is such an optimist. It turns out that in the case of Kamloops anyway, the catalyst was coal. Yes, that dirty, greenhouse gassy, obsolete, out of favour fossil fuel, was in fact being dug up and sold to Japan as fast as it could possibly be got onto the nearest ship. Just like in Australia! And there was me thinking wind and solar was going to save the world and stop climate change from ruining the planet and melting all the glaciers. Not really, given the way snow and ice have buggered up my plans in the last couple of weeks! But I digress again.
Here's something you don't see every day, and sadly, you're not going to see it anyway, because I forgot to take a photo. Roger and I stopped for lunch in Lytton, where the Fraser River and the Thompson River converge. While standing there watching the waters merging, some guy wandered past collecting discarded bottles and cans, and we gave him scant regard. All of a sudden he starts whooping and hollering, we thought he might have been bitten by something, but it turned out he had just picked up an indian (native) spear tip. There it was, fully intact, about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide, with serrated edges, the real deal, apparently made from stone of some type. He picked it up at the bottom of an earth embankment below a road that had recently been built past the local school. More valuable than any empty can, and good luck to the guy. How about that ?
Moving on to wildlife. And I'm not talking about my visit to Rio de Janiero last year, but I was tempted to do so, just for a bit. There are all sorts of critters that can run out in front of you on the roads around here. In my particular case, the smallest was a squirrel. Didn't scare me a bit,and it did actually cross my path. However, deer are a different proposition, and we have seen heaps of them. I had to brush up on Zoology 101, to distinguish deer from elk and caribou. Moose I can recognise already. Anyway, the point being that they are all bloody big, and I suspect basically stupid where traffic is concerned, and represent potential pain to the average motorcyclist. Today, on the road between Hinton and Grande Prairie, we saw umpteen deer, but the highlight was four moose. (Should that be mooses, or possibly meese? Help me out here.) All worth stopping for, but they are a bit flighty, and tend to bugger off when you try to get in close for a good photo. Fortunately, none of them crossed the road in their buggering off. However, I intend to get a decent photo of one of these comical looking animals before this trip is over. Mother Nature definitely has a sense of humour.
Anyhow, Roger and I decided to head out towards Jasper, which was a bit further east than I had anticipated. However, this gave us the opportunity to see some very scenic countryside, then head up through Grande Prairie, then pick up the road north from Dawson Creek. Apart from that, Roger had been all the other ways before. I had been to Jasper in 1985, but it looks a hell of a lot different now, and so do a lot of the other places I had visited previously. Time doesn't stand still, that's for sure, except maybe in my head. Formerly nondescript towns like Kamloops had a real boomtown air about them. Lots of new infrastructure, shops, houses popping up like mushrooms, fast food outlets, etc. And it all looked like it had been built in the last five years or so. In fact, some of the franchise outlets had already gone bust, and some of the shops were up for sale. This typically suggests that there has been a boom, and now follows the inevitable bust, for some people anyway. In the capitalist system, this is called a correction. In the former communist world, it might have been called a crime against the people, and worth a stretch in the gulags, or worse. An idea not without some merit, given the recent GFC fiasco. But I digress.
Keen to get to the bottom of this economic surge, we made a few inquiries of some of the locals. The bimbo behind the reception desk at the local Super8 motel didn't have a ****ing clue, but that was always a long shot, and Roger is such an optimist. It turns out that in the case of Kamloops anyway, the catalyst was coal. Yes, that dirty, greenhouse gassy, obsolete, out of favour fossil fuel, was in fact being dug up and sold to Japan as fast as it could possibly be got onto the nearest ship. Just like in Australia! And there was me thinking wind and solar was going to save the world and stop climate change from ruining the planet and melting all the glaciers. Not really, given the way snow and ice have buggered up my plans in the last couple of weeks! But I digress again.
Here's something you don't see every day, and sadly, you're not going to see it anyway, because I forgot to take a photo. Roger and I stopped for lunch in Lytton, where the Fraser River and the Thompson River converge. While standing there watching the waters merging, some guy wandered past collecting discarded bottles and cans, and we gave him scant regard. All of a sudden he starts whooping and hollering, we thought he might have been bitten by something, but it turned out he had just picked up an indian (native) spear tip. There it was, fully intact, about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide, with serrated edges, the real deal, apparently made from stone of some type. He picked it up at the bottom of an earth embankment below a road that had recently been built past the local school. More valuable than any empty can, and good luck to the guy. How about that ?
Moving on to wildlife. And I'm not talking about my visit to Rio de Janiero last year, but I was tempted to do so, just for a bit. There are all sorts of critters that can run out in front of you on the roads around here. In my particular case, the smallest was a squirrel. Didn't scare me a bit,and it did actually cross my path. However, deer are a different proposition, and we have seen heaps of them. I had to brush up on Zoology 101, to distinguish deer from elk and caribou. Moose I can recognise already. Anyway, the point being that they are all bloody big, and I suspect basically stupid where traffic is concerned, and represent potential pain to the average motorcyclist. Today, on the road between Hinton and Grande Prairie, we saw umpteen deer, but the highlight was four moose. (Should that be mooses, or possibly meese? Help me out here.) All worth stopping for, but they are a bit flighty, and tend to bugger off when you try to get in close for a good photo. Fortunately, none of them crossed the road in their buggering off. However, I intend to get a decent photo of one of these comical looking animals before this trip is over. Mother Nature definitely has a sense of humour.
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