Vancouver Island Showers

Into every life a little rain must fall—somehow I feel I’ve had more than my share lately. I’ve spent the past week on the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island, much of it looking out at the rain. Between showers I managed to make it up to nearby Sidney to get groceries and back again to look through their bookshops and find a book of poetry by my favourite West Coast Poet Tim Bowling. On Good Friday drove into Victoria to drop in on an old friend I haven’t seen in a quarter century. On Saturday I just went exploring and saw farmers working their strawberry fields rhubarb for sale. The Islandview Campground in the middle of the park of the same name looked cramped, windblown and desolate—made me thankful for the site I have. Got my kite out for a flight—no lack of wind. Sunday dawned with torrential downpours making biking uncomfortable at best and even the thought of going out to unhook to drive an exercise in getting soaked—I stayed in. Later Sunday just after I’d put my bicycle away on its rack the clouds blew away and the sun came out.

Some days everything goes right and some days one just needs a beer. I got myself ready for travel this morning with no particular sense of urgency but arriving at the local ferry dock to see the ferry had pulled away 2 minutes ago added nothing to my day. I opted to make the trip around the bay instead of waiting. Drove up to Nanaimo along wooded highways which afforded little in the way of picturesque views but plenty of hills. The road to my chosen campground is a construction project. Having arrived I promptly ended up waiting 15 minutes for service. The first three sites I was assigned were still occupied. The next disappointment was the discovery that Wi-Fi is not accessible at my assigned campsite. If this is one of the top-rated campgrounds in BC I don’t want to visit a poor one. Reality does not seem to live up to the Living Forest Website.

Tomorrow I hope to have better fortune catching a ferry to the mainland in Vancouver and a visit to the Vancouver Aquarium. Somehow I don’t see me making a 6:30 sailing. From there the nearest campground is in Surrey. Wednesday night I expect to camp in Revelstoke and then it’s on to Calgary. From what I saw earlier today anyone who bought Easter Daffodils from the Cancer Society will be waiting at least a week for delivery.

On Canadian Soil as Last

Spent last weekend in Port Angeles admiring the view of the snow-capped Olympic Mountain Range in the distance when it wasn’t shrouded in fog and mist. Even managed a few decent pictures. Got my propane tank refilled and the RV pumped out. Got the bicycle down and did a bit of cycling though the city is a considerable distance and several steep hills away so I didn’t get that far. Spent some time talking with the owners and their young employee. He’s an artist and I enjoyed talking with him. Cute as well. The Koreans who were in residence were absolute slobs. Two boys snuck down by my RV to smoke outside my tinted windows. Church on Sunday was an experience. Palms in this warmer climate are fresh for Palm Sunday. The organ is under repair so music was a flute and piano. In lieu of sermon an actress gave a dramatic recitation of the entire Passion story from the Last Supper to the Entombment.

Much of my remaining time was spent getting my affairs in order to cross customs Monday Morning. After the expected predawn unhooking and the hurry up and wait at the dock the crossing was smooth as glass and uneventful. Customs was perfunctory but I sat and waited a considerable time to get ‘service’ at the customs shed. Suppose it could have been worse—don’t believe they checked anyone including myself in detail. After all that I was not moved to kiss Canadian Soil.

After six months it’s an adjustment to see speed limits in kilometres. Since I made payments with a credit card I didn’t have to think about Canadian Funds but at least these bills will not be subject to conversion. My chosen campground was on the North Saanich Peninsula on a winding narrow paved road beside a Saanich Indian Reservation. I opted to spend a week here not wishing to attempt finding a site over the long weekend. Once I’d settled I pretty much collapsed in relief.

Yesterday after first seeing Viewmaster Reels over 50 years ago got to visit Butchart Gardens. Highways around here are narrow and encroached by hedges and plantings. Seniors using walkers are everywhere. The road into Butchart is narrow, winding, and broken. Buses use a separate entrance. The gardens was in off-season but still an experience. Spring bulbs and early shrubs were in blossom. The Sunken Gardens were a highlight. The noise from the construction of a Carousel added little to the experience. Gardeners seemed to be everywhere and getting pictures without people in them impossible. I did enjoy the dancing watershow.

Dancing Waters at Butchart Gardens

A two-hour wait for lunch decided that I wouldn’t be having their over-priced food. A gift and seed shop with everything Butchart was complemented by a plant identification centre.

Discovered the local church is worshipping in Victoria on Thursday. Parking at the local grocery stores was cramped and unavailable so I drove home. Today, Wednesday I’ll attempt to cycle up.

Weekly Rant 2009-04-06

I’ve again collected enough ammunition for another in this series.  Let’s start with some witty sayings:

 

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

Robert Orben

 

Don't you wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work.

Gallagher

 

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.

Anonymous

 

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.

Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)

 

Everyone who uses computers is familiar with complaints over the high-handedness of the operating system but when my E-mail failed outbound I was perplexed as to why it felt it necessary to change my account settings. 

 

Ranchers on both sides of our border are sceptical of the restoration of a major predator to wild lands near their farms.  Wolves unlike humans do not acknowledge boundaries.  In South-Western Alberta ranchers are reporting an increasing number of attacks on their herds.  What is important is how ranchers are reimbursed for their losses. 

 

As I write this I’m watching the sun rise over Port Angeles Harbour as I await embarkation of the ferry to Victoria.  At least the sun is shining so we won’t get wet on deck. 

 

As a sign of the times and the fact that bad times can cause a ballooning of the civil service the Canadian Government will hire hundreds of people as it spends an additional $60 million to help process the number of claims for employment insurance, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said recently.

 

Ontario has announced its intention to harmonize the GST and PST.  This has the effect of doubling the tax on items that were not previously affected by one tax or the other.  In particular this will add the provincial sales tax to books doubling the shameful tax on literacy.  Guess I’d better have a look in Alberta where there is no provincial tax.

 

Ontario's  attorney  general has pledged to introduce legislation to  protect  consumers  from overpriced tickets for entertainment and  sporting events in the province after a fury last month over resale prices on Ticketmaster's affiliated website, TicketsNow.  It’s about time something was done about these people in effect scalping their own tickets.  Anyone who over the years has purchased tickets online or over the phone knows they already seem to overcharge for the service and complaints about the unfairness of the apportioning of choice seats abound.

 

Ice  cover  on the Great Lakes has declined more than 30 per cent since the 1970s, leaving the world's largest system of freshwater lakes  open  to  evaporation and lower water levels, according to scientists  associated  with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  Hopefully the amount of precipitation we’ve received this year has made up for some of that loss.  Shipping lines have been plagued in recent years by the need to travel with reduced loads due to shallow channels. 

 

The  Canadian  Broadcasting  Corp. plans to cut up to 800 jobs as part  of  its strategy to make up for a $171 million shortfall in 2009-10. Sell Assets, close regional stations.  This after years of budget cuts makes one wonder if our government actually wants a public broadcaster.  The level of funding we give our public broadcaster is below that of third world countries. 

 

In a sign that desperate times lead to desperate measures fraud artists are finding new and innovative ways to rob the innocent.  A  Calgary charity is warning people in the southwest communities of Woodbine and Braeside to watch out for a phoney canvasser.

 

This from the RBG in a recent newsletter.  Is Horticulture  dead?  Gardeners are over-reacting to the ban on pesticides.  Those  who  still feel the need to keep one of those totally alien manicured lawns may have to use more elbow grease if they want to keep down the dandelions.  I don't understand why anyone feels the need for one in the first place especially when we consider the cost and increasing scarcity of water.  As for the rest, we're just going to have to be smarter gardeners.  It may not be practical to plant some of the more exotic species that depend on chemicals for their support.  A look at any roadside will prove that there are hundreds of native species that have no such difficulties.  After a winter spent in Texas people there either have xeriscape lawns or put up with brown patches. 

 

D-BOX, the encoded synchronized motion system well known to hardcore gamers and high-end home theatre buffs, is testing the megaplex waters with special enhanced seating that allows you to experience every high-speed turn and explosive collision.  We’ve heard of sense surround, 3-D, smell-o-vision but now when Vin Diesel turns that corner on 2 wheels you’ll get to feel it in your seat.  I suppose movie theatres have to do something to attract the public back to their halls. 

 

One Tree Hill, it is rumoured, is dropping Chad Michael Murray from the series.  How can a TV Series survive when they drop the man who plays the principal character.  There has been no word on his making impossible demands or reeking havoc on set. 

 

I survived customs today; in fact the agents almost gave me the impression they thought me a fool for being honest.  At least they didn’t bother to inspect my RV. 

An Olympic Experience

If I sound like one with cabin fever nearly a month looking out of a 22 ft RV at the rain will do that to you. 

 

Before I left Long Beach I took the opportunity to ride the entire discovery trail and walk, then ride through town.  Unfortunately neither of the local eateries I visited impressed me much though they did play havoc with my digestion.  When it finally stopped raining I took a ride down to the nearest grocery store—Sid’s Groceries; then in a spur of the moment decision bought myself a kite, got it assembled, and went out and flew it.  I couldn’t say just what the attraction of kite flying is but it definitely grabbed me.  Shortly after I got back it started raining again. 

 

Tuesday morning I went online to settle my financial accounts and set out to circle Willapa Bay and head up to Grays Harbour and onto another finger of land called Westport.  If Long Beach rolls up its sidewalks early Westport doesn’t have any.  Unfortunately it rained during my entire stay.  Not liking the first place I drove up to settled on a motel/RV complex up the street for one night.  After a night of rain drove up to the point to stay at a second campground—the rain looked much the same there but there wasn’t a code to remember to use the washroom.  Some days are diamonds, some days are hale stones. 

 

After a drive through the port city of Aberdeen headed inland through heavily treed terrain and finally came out onto Olympic National Parks Kalaloch Campground.  The fact that it’s mere feet from a highway with a steep grade that forces trucks to  use engine breaks meant little when I got to my chosen campground on the edge of the cliff leading down to the beach where waves started breaking a mile out to sea and the wind howled through the trees at a full gale.  Anyone who has seen the TV Series Beachcombers is aware of the piles and cross piles of dead timber that litters north-west coast beaches but here the pile extends 30 ft from the cliff to the water’s edge.  The air is filled with salt spume and a foot of foam piled up at the edge of the waterline only to be blown along the beach where it disintegrated as it rolled along.  The Pacific is anything but placid.  During a break in the rain I took advantage of a pocket of sunlight to go shoot over one hundred pictures. 

 

Even though my RV was tucked into a pocket of scrub keeping the interior warm that night with my propane furnace was the price of my fantastic view.  When the cloud and fog lifted slightly I was able to see a tall lighthouse on one corner of a large offshore island on the horizon.  It promptly disappeared again.  I crawled into bed rocked by the wind with the roar of the sea in my ears.  This morning dawned with a clearing sky and the wind subsiding to a light breeze.  Had I not needed exact change I didn’t have and a better supply of propane I’d have been tempted to stay an extra night.  As it was I packed up and drove up to Forks. 

 

Forks is an interior town that capitalizes on the fact that it is the setting for the book series, Twilight.  The movie wasn’t actually shot there so the Twilight tour is fictitious twice over.  Stopped to visit the Olympic Park Information Centre.  Had I had a place to camp staying there could have been fun but I continued the drive inland twisting and turning along the shores of Crescent Lake.  Finally reached Port Angeles and found the ferry terminal so that I’d know where I was going when I decide to cross to Victoria.  Drove west of town to the local KOA which is open this time of year.  The sun came out today but I felt too fatigued to do anything about it.  Do I sound bored? 

Oregon Coastline

Sunday March 29, 2009

Wrote this some time ago and didn’t get around to posting it.

Tonight I’m actually in Long Beach, Washington at a small campground just north of Downtown Long Beach. They claim to have the world’s longest beach but given that ocean currents make much of it unsafe for swimming the argument seems moot. What they do have is an 8-mile-long biking trail along the shoreline which makes for wonderful recreation along with a lengthy boardwalk. To make the place even more appealing the sun finally made an appearance today.

Let’s back up since I’ve been too busy lately to write blog entries. A week ago Saturday on the 21^st of March I drove up the Oregon Coast to Coos Bay. Having set my GPS to take me on a bike route it selected some rather interesting back roads to take me on. The main highway snaked through heavily forested tracks so I didn’t miss much though the clear cut sections I drove past were not pretty. My campground just south of town was busy with Winter Break Campers and a touring group but the main attraction was the Ocean View which gives the place its Oceanside Name.

The booming surf is always within hearing. Took a ride 2 miles south in the rain to see Shoreacres, a state park encompassing the gardens that once surrounded a lumber baron’s estate. The gardens are rather formally laid out and with the season delayed by cold weather not much was in bloom. In the end surf watching here is the chief attraction.

Tuesday morning I drove up to town and shopped at Albertsons; then checked out a local bookstore before heading north on Hwy 101. Stopped in Florence at the visitor’s centre and walked down to the harbour to have a bowl of oyster chowder and crab sandwiches at Mo’s an eatery specializing in fish built on posts over the water. The views of the harbour and the bridge from my window were special. Plenty of gift shoppes to browse.

Another 20 miles on reached Newport, Oregon. Spent most of my two days in Newport squinting through rain and fog. Stayed in the Port Authority RV Park next to the 350 boat Marina Basin. Found a kindred spirit in the blonde-haired green-eyed campground attendant and was immediately initiated by the campground host who filled me in on all the sights. After settling in promptly sat down and fell asleep for 4 hours.

Across the road is one of Oregon’s major attractions, the Coastal Aquarium. Their motto is Oddwater: where it’s OKAY to be Weird. The place is well worth the $14.95 admission fee though I could have done without getting almost as soaked as the seals outside. The majority of the exhibits were smaller aquaria backlit and at child’s eye level. The various rooms featured inter-tidal, shore, coastal and reef zones every attempt being made to include the plant life and rocks the creatures would inhabit in the wild. One of the more popular attractions was the petting aquarium with sea urchins, abalone, skate and stingrays. Outside was a netted exhibit of sea birds, an octopus, seal lions, and sea otters. The sea otters are the clown princes of the aquarium.

Rogue Brewery is across the street and stacked beside their warehouse are pallets of beer kegs and barrels. Their Restaurant and Pub are accessed by walking among the vats in the brewery. Nearby at Rogue Distilling one can sit at the bar and watch the libations being distilled behind one through a glass partition. One of their specialties is a green coloured gin made in part with spruce buds. Near the harbour is the Marina Store which stocks everything a marine angler could possibly need. The marine weather plays non-stop outside and the walls inside are decorated with trophy fish and pictures of prize catches the successful fishermen.

Up the road is the University of Oregon’s Marine Research Centre where a visitor’s centre has displays that highlight their research and findings. An excellent bookstore and another petting area complete the picture. One chilling exhibit documents the Newport Disaster in which an earthquake caused a large section of the ocean front to drop into the sea and the following tsunami devastated the low-lying sections of town that remained. Since I could barely see the bridge that towers over the harbour for fog and rain whale watching seemed a fruitless venture so I got in and began the process of drying off. Having had my shower and done laundry before daybreak my RV was rather steamy at this point.

Thursday I drove up to Tillamook after braving the ten mile commercial strip that is Lincoln City. In Tillamook cows outnumber people two to one and the Tillamook Farmer’s Dairy is home to Tillamook Cheese. A huge set of factory buildings are fronted by a visitors centre complete with coffee shop, cheese store, gift shop and ice cream stand with 85 varieties of ice cream. I had huckleberry. Glassed in walkways and exhibits allow one to take a self-guided tour of the plant and watch 50 lb blocks of cheese being wrapped by an automated conveyer along with other sections where bars of cheese are packed. A long line-up leads to a cheese sampling area.

After rejecting one cramped and noisy looking campground just north of town I drove back and took Hwy 6 inland along the Wilson River to camp feet from the swift-flowing water. As I sat and read E-mail fishermen in rowboats drifted by my windows. The next morning I continued inland to the Tillamook Forest Centre. This child-friendly centre operated by the Oregon Department of Forests is book-ended by a 40-foot replica of a fire tower and a 250-ft suspension bridge over the Wilson River. Inside a theatre presents the story of the ‘Tillamook Burn’ which devastated 500 square Km of big timber in a fire storm that only the fall rains could extinguish. Fires in 1933, 1939 and 1945 were finally brought to an end by forest roads and the well-planned resource deployment. After the harvesting of millions of standing snags the story came to a happy ending with a successful reforestation program that saw volunteers plant thousands of trees and millions of seeds scattered by helicopter. Among the highlights inside are a lumberman’s cabin and a canvas camp style tent. A steam donkey sits outside. Children have the opportunity to suit up as a forest fire fighter or dress in period costumes.

After crossing the coastal range I continued on to Portland, Oregon in Washington County to visit some big box stores and drive past the home of Widmer Beer—I couldn’t find parking. A massive bridge crosses the Columbia River and takes one to Vancouver, Washington. There I found an affordable campground in the middle of the city. After sitting out a deluge that pelted my RV I headed back west to the coastline crossing the coastal range again and taking yet another long bridge across the Columbia back into Oregon. When I reached the coast a curving piece of highway led to a yet bigger bridge and causeway that led across the river estuary back into Washington State. There I headed north on the narrow coastal peninsula to Long Beach.

Long Beach seems to have more Real Estate Agents than anything else. On Sunday Afternoon half the businesses were closed and most of the other half rolled up the sidewalk between two and three. There are two major kite stores and several yearly kite flying festivals. The kids riding their skateboards in athletic tops seemed to be showing rather extreme bravado given the 48 degree temperature. Since the majority of kids I saw were short and over-weight they had nothing to show off. The shoppes that were open sold ice cream and displayed the kind of tourist trap merchandise one would expect but truly over the top is Marsh’s Free Museum with its odd-ball collection of truly bysantine merchandise. Would you believe a crocodile man?