The Wanderings of busman7

pero the next adventure is looming just around the corner!

Alaska Air flight to SEATAC went well with just normal (or this day & age) security check, none of the DFW Gestapo tactics, Alaska seems to work things in it’s own way, with a bit of intelligence!!

Transfer to Horizon Air for the 40 min Portland leg was smooth (except for the 4000 mile walk at the terminal between gates), not even another security check (Shhh don’t tell Homeland Stupidity).

Reasonably priced motel in the Hollywood district was fine as was the reasonably priced lunch & cervaza at a restaurant/bar a couple blocks away + the walk, the long way around, through the older streets back, took me past some fine older houses, all with brightly colored flower borders & or gardens. A really pleasant neighborhood.

Next morning a mighty fine Amtrak train (have they ever improved since my last ride many moons ago), which was totally sold out, whisked me up to Seattle. An hour wait in the station there, where there was only a couple vending machines, & it was lunch time. NOT impressed Seattle!!

Then the bus arrived for the hour trip to the Canadian border where I was hassled by our “fabulous” (touch of sarcasm there) border personnel over the “HEAVY” tag some woos had put on my normal weight bag in Portland. However nothing new there!

Got dropped off 5 min north of the border where I was met by a forum member from Dos Centavos who took me to their place for an enjoyable evening of conversation that continued on most of the next day, until it was time to leave to spent a couple days at a cousin’s place to catch up on family news & see a bit of Vancouver.

As it was about an hour between the 2 residences, it was decided that they meet 1/2 way, which turned out to be the former residence of one of BC’s more colorful PM’s, Bill Zanderdamn, a combination of a fantasy land castle & a Dutch windmill (the designer must have been on a bad trip).

A couple days catching up on what was going on with that branch of the family ensued, a picnic in one of Vancouver’s fabulous parks, which included a younger sister, whom I hadn’t seen in many snows that turns out to be a kindred spirit. A firm believer in the views of Alex Jones & others, who have seen past the smoke & mirrors show put on by our puppet politicians, to the real agenda of their handlers. One World Government! Guess being a bit of a rebel & cynic runs in the family!

Took the ferry from Vancouver to Swartz Bay (Victoria) & discovered that once you get over the hills separating the prairies from the southern west coast, you are no longer in Crapanada (at least as far as the BC ferries civil servants are concerned. These workers actually possess people skills + do the job they are paid to do (what an original concept), should they be in OnturkeyO certainly they would set a precedent as the first ever gov’t employees to actually be fired, the reason, doing their job!!

Now can see the attraction of this area to Canadians who are fortunate enough to have the means to retire here & are able to ignore the high cost of living, taxes etc + all the political BS that has become a part of life in this country which is fastly returning to it’s roots as a nation of hewers of wood & gathers of water. Personally can’t do dat!!

My first trip to Vancouver in 40 hrs has turned out to be an enjoyable & fitting finale to stage one of an RTW which is destined to continue, with various interludes in different countries, until the Great Turtle deems fit to transfer me into my next incarnation.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 20:40 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.