Tuesday March 20, 2012

I am in Whistler British Columbia Canada, barely. I left out of Spokane yesterday morning but not until after I had my free breakfast. It was a very special french toast from Frank’s Diner and it was delicious. Thanks Frank and Ryan. The drive to where I am now was about 8 or 9 hours, no problem. I rolled over to Seattle and started heading north without any issues or hold ups. I got to the Canadian border and waited my turn in line to drive through, about 10 minutes. I pulled up to the window and was as pleasant and conversational as I know how to be. Even though I have nothing to worry about, it feels like there could always be a problem. After the initial stop and round of questioning, which I found pretty in depth already, I was directed off to the side to park my car and go inside. Long story short (which I have written but won’t post here) I was detained for 2 hours, subjected to a ton of questions, and a vehicle search. It was immediately apparent this was not random, but because of my past as a shithead. The officer was really nice the entire time and kept the aura of nonjudgmental and helpful. Whatever, luckily I made it into Canada and am now at Whistler.

I got in here last night just around dark. I unloaded the cruiser, brought everything up to my room, unpacked a bit, and went out into the village to find food. I could tell immediately, even in the dark that this place was impressive. The mountain village area goes on forever. Much bigger than any other mountain village I have seen. This place is 2 giant mountains side by side. Each mountain in itself is bigger than most others, but to have both next to each other? Come on, that seems selfish. They share a base area with a gondola that you can ride up either mountain. There is also a “peak 2 peak” connector, it was closed today. The terrain is so big you could ride lifts all day and not get to the tippy top. I rode 4 lifts this morning before I ever started going downhill. I can already tell the new answer to, “what was your favorite place” is most certainly Whistler.

I road a lift today with a ski instructor from Edinburgh, Scotland. Nice kid, he really is living the dream. He is on the mountain almost year round. He works here and then heads to New Zealand during their winter and skis there. I’m gonna have to figure something out. I did get to say “cheers” to him, that made me happy.

I’m in another country so I don’t really want to use my phone. And I have the data turned off so that doesn’t work either until connected to the internets. It is amazing how often I instinctively just put my hand in my pocket when I want to know something, see something, jog my memory about something, or have 5 minutes to kill playing a game. It took all day but I think I stopped reaching for it. At dinner tonight I just sat there and started straight ahead like David Puddy waiting for the phone to ring.