You are my Sunshine

Well, we are in the Yukon. It is 10pm, the sun is still shining, and it does not look like it has plans to set anytime soon. We are staying in an RV park that is owned by Swiss people, and right now outside the laundromat, the accordions are going strong and have been for the last several hours. There are Swiss people all around us, and I have even had a little bit of a chance to practice some of my oh-so-rusty German. We decided to stay because when we drove in there was the most beautiful sight...a little hut with a kitchen sink for washing dishes. I don't know if I've ever been so happy to wash dishes in running water. Magical. :)
We have been camping for over two weeks now, and we take showers at least once a week whether we need to or not. :) We decided that when we felt the need to limit our forays into places like gas stations, we probably needed to find showers. Not always an easy task, but we did find a rather rustic bathhouse where I learned that Crocs are not really good at killing a spider, but running water will wash them down the drain with enough help.
After several wonderful days of driving the Cassiar, we have arrived in Whitehorse. Our time driving through northern BC included seeing glaciers, my first grizzly, a serious black bear, canoeing, and more attempts to vanquish mosquitoes. While our campsites on lakes were truly lovely, their tendency to be mosquito infested has added an interesting challenge to our travels. There are days that we feel like we are in some version of the Amazing Race as we attempt to find water that is not under a boil order, set up a tent without getting eaten alive, reload the puzzle that is known as our car--again, and head off down the road.
We have certainly seen a little more nature since heading out on the Cassiar. We had a cute young grizzly walking around our campground only about 50 feet from our tent. I was so excited until we headed to bed, and I realized that our tent was certainly the closest to where he had been walking. Makes you think...
We also saw a really awesome black bear on the side of the road. He was certainly not yo' mamma's teddy bear, and he got a little perturbed when I turned the car toward him to follow him down the road. (I know Mom, I would not follow him on foot.)
After only five weeks on the road, we finally made it into a canoe. We had been wanting to do a canoeing trip, but given that we have never been in one together before, we figured that we should try a few hours and "test the waters." Haha. We had a great time, even given that the canoe dude's advice to go left because there is a 1 in 8 chance that the wind will come up from the other direction did not really pan out. Against the wind is harder. And yes JP, I paddled. It was really amazing though, being out in the middle of an enormous lake that we couldn't even see all of, and we were the only ones there. Pretty cool. Hopefully we'll get back out on the water now that we know we can canoe together.
Well, we are leaving Whitehorse tomorrow and heading on to Alaska. Whitehorse is a delightful town that we have had a wonderful time sweating to death in. Honestly, who would think you head into the Yukon for 90 degrees. Hmmm... Well, at least we are leaving with clean dishes, clean laundry, and drinking water. Off to the next challenge.

Burns and Smithers, Smithers and Burns

For those of you not overly pop-culturally inclined, please forgive this post and it's seemingly nonsensical information. For those of you who are, we are in the town of Smithers, located about 45 minutes from Burns Lake. Gotta love it.
We are really enjoying Smithers. The mountains are beautiful, and we have had a great time investigating the ski resort here, twin waterfalls near the glacier right outside of town, and the wonderful little downtown area. Tomorrow we are heading up to Prince Rupert, where we are really looking forward to figuring out kayaking. We have high hopes of purchasing an inflatable kayak, but we will see. We are also trying to figure out fishing up here, but it is rather complicated. We sure miss our serious angling friends/family right now (you know who you are). Apparently there are wonderful fish to be caught, but between buying alien (yes that's us) licenses, finding fishing streams, exploring the world of bait potential, etc...we shall see. If we do catch something, however, you will certainly hear about it.
Well..that's about all from here.
Just one more thing...we found him (see pic). Al Gore should be very relieved. :)

"The Littlest Birds"

If you don't know this song by the Be Good Tanya's, I'd recommend that you check it out. It is a peppy little ditty that gets stuck in your head and brightens your day. That being said, I'd have to disagree with the writers of this tune. While they contend that "the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs," these days I am far more apt to belt out "the littlest birds sing the loudest songs." The other night in the middle of the night, we heard a sound neither of us recognized. Later that day we realized what it was. Here's a link to the sound. Imagine hearing that in your tent at night. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzW-V5pte4Q
Later that same morning, we awoke to a bird that sounded just like Woody Woodpecker. We still haven't figured out what that was, but it was really funny. I never realized how many birds there were in the morning. (I know...no snide comments about my lack of seeing mornings please. :)) Some days it seems like they are almost in your tent, and boy are they loud. Getting used to hearing them has certainly been an adjustment, but sometimes they are really surprising and cool.
In the spirit of both new and flying things, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our excursion....please welcome Mr. Screen House. (Due to the slow speed of this connection, this introduction will have to be without pictures.) Given the tenacity of the mosquitoes here in BC, and our increasing frustration with attempting to eat while slapping ourselves and each other, we went today and purchased a screen house. Hopefully this addition will lead to more pleasant and less painful dining experiences.
This addition is also accompanied by a departure. Yesterday our cooler met its demise in a roadside, bear-proof trashcan. After realizing that we were spending way too much money on ice that was melting way too quickly, I began to eye up the cooler space for greater things. We now actually have storage space for almost all of our food, which is pretty exciting.
Tomorrow is one month on the road, and we feel like we have barely even started our trip. We've certainly covered a lot of miles (app. 3,300), but we are still seeking that rhythm of travel that has seemed fairly elusive so far. There have been so many variables, and no two days have been the same. That certainly has its good points and inherent difficulties, but I think we are beginning to get into more of a groove.
I was thinking today about the concept of home. We were in the store, and I said that I thought we had everything we needed, and I was ready to go home. And then I stopped and realized that I was referring to a 8x10 tent pitched in a backyard RV campground that we are going to move tomorrow, and I wondered if I had incorrectly used the term. Being on the road, we don't really have a home. (In fact, at one point I wanted to call this blog "happily homeless" because I liked the idea of leaving everything behind.) But the more I think about it, I am reminded of a time several years ago when I sat in my parent's living room with absolutely no responsibilities looking at a globe and realizing that I could literally live anywhere in the world that I wanted to. But when I spun the sphere of multicolored continents around, no matter where the ball stopped, the only thing I could think was that I wanted to live "with the person that I love" and that would be home. At the time I didn't know who that would be, but now that I do, and now I know where home is. Tonight it is outside Prince Rupert, BC, and tomorrow we're thinking it will be in Smither's Landing on Lake Babine (if we are fortunate enough to find a campsite there) where we plan to do some canoeing on BC's longest lake. And after that, we'll see. But for right now, I'm pretty sure wherever it is it will include some of the the littlest (and loudest) birds. :)

Whistle while you work...

The past few days have included several adventures including using a family bathroom in a coffee shop to make phone calls on skype, learning that Langley, BC and Fort Langley, BC are not the same towns, sleeping in a tent right next to trains, camping with people we had never met, misplacing a toothbrush, fighting off mosquitoes the size of pennies that have absolutely no problems biting through jeans, and heading down a dirt road for an hour only to arrive at the hot springs when it was 90 degrees outside. Ah yes, just another day in paradise. :) Actually this weekend was really good. We had a wonderful time connecting with a dear friend and getting to meet some of her friends that she has made here at CanIL (a summer linguistics program). While Rodney and I were certainly not in on all the "word" jokes, we enjoyed getting to meet some more people on our journey.
We are now at a coffee shop in Whistler, BC. This place is just like the pictures. There are striking snow covered mountain tops off in the distance and wonderful green fields and glacial streams everywhere. We spent two days in Pemberton, just a short drive north of Whistler, where we shared a campsite with an older couple that was traveling around the interior of BC. They gave us a little insight on the park structure here in BC, so hopefully with that and our newly-acquired, more-detailed BC atlas, we will have a little better luck finding campsites. While sometimes there are signs for places, they are often not very near the turnoffs, so I'm sure we've zipped right past some potential sleeping places completely unawares. On the weekends camping places can be really difficult to find here. Canadians all seem to camp for their summer vacations, and we have been really surprised by the number of people. According to our books, however, it should be easier to find places the further north we go...I just hope that's the case. Driving in frantically trying to procure the last site is getting a little draining, so hopefully all the Canadians will just get back to work soon. :)
In Pemberton we took a long drive out into the country and down a dirt road toward hot springs. What possessed us to do this on a 90 degree day, I'm not sure, but the drive was great. At one point, we looked up and the prettiest red-colored black bear ran right across the road. He was the biggest one we've seen so far and perfectly proportioned. The sighting has renewed my zest for keeping up a clean campsite. :) On the way back, we stopped at a great little vegetable "pay by honor" stand. The info said that three teens run the place, and it reminded me of my own entrepreneurial endeavors of old and lots of berry baskets in our living room. (Thanks for driving, Mom.) We bought some potatoes, and they have been great. We have more left, and I'm pretty excited to get to cooking them. I'm finding that I actually really enjoy cooking outside. Trying to keep everything gluten and msg free is certainly a challenge, but we've had some great dishes like potato curry and garlic potatoes and beef. I am learning that Boulder was perhaps the epicenter of the gluten free world, and I really miss Udi's bread. Well, we are heading north again today. We have calculated that we have about 2,000 miles left to get to Alaska, and we have driven over 3,000 so far. I think we may have underestimated our mileage for the trip. Well, I just looked out the window, and it looks like the clouds here are lifting. Perhaps we will get another look at these famous ski peaks before we head on...

Setting Sail

After far more time than we anticipated, we are finally leaving Vancouver Island today. We've spent the last couple of days investigating the island and have seen Victoria (a city on the southern end of the island) and Tofino (a small vacation town on the far side of the island). Both places were very interesting. Victoria definitely has a European feel, but it is a bit of a mix with a large totem pole on the lawn of the capitol building. If any of you are looking to relocate, there is a job opportunity for you in Victoria--drive a horse and carriage around the town to the tune of $50 for 15 minutes. All I have to say is that must be some amazing narration. Tofino is a small little town that is known for surfing. It reminded us of a mountain town on the water. The beaches were lovely, and while we were siting on the rocks, we could see sea otters playing in the water and a bald eagle flew right over our heads. On the drive back from there, we saw our first bear of the trip who was quickly followed by our second bear. They were fairly close to the road, which was a bit of a surprise, but I was thrilled. I love seeing them (from the car, that is). We're heading back to the city for a day or two, but by the weekend we should be headed north again. We're looking forward to seeing a friend and having a little time to investigate Vancouver. Ahoy...

A little R&R R&B style

Happy Belated Fourth to everyone! Ours was certainly quiet up here in Canada, but we did enjoy a hike to celebrate the day.
Well, we've been on the road just two weeks now. This last week (housesitting) was a wonderful way to spend a lot of time reading, chilling, eating nutella by the jar, having it be light outside until 10pm, and discovering our new found love of hammock chairs. I seriously thought those chairs were strange when I'd seen them before, but oh my...after hours logged in one this week, I can attest to their wonderfulness. One little known fact for all you nature lovers out there...Vancouver Island has the highest number of incidents of mountain lion/people encounters of anywhere in North America. Yeah...didn't know that before I boarded the ferry. Let's just say that I didn't spend a lot of quality alone time outside at night watering the gardens we were taking care of. :) But don't let that keep you away. This place is beautiful! We have spent time in the mountains where we did an idyllic hike near Mount Washington, and we have also walked along the beach where we saw the coolest marine life in the tidal pools all around. (nevermind that despite the fantastic weather we've had all week, we chose the day it was pouring rain to peruse the shoreline, but Rodney assured me that it was probably the rain the resulted in such great wildlife viewing. ever the optimist, that one.)
We also got to sample some locally caught prawns and they were awesome. The people here have been really pleasant and we have enjoyed getting to talk with some of them and learn more about life here in the Comox Valley. They are funny though...we told one lady that we were driving to Alaska, and she said, "How did you end up on the island? The road doesn't go here." Yes indeed. I think that is kind of our theme for this trip. We aren't exactly sure where the road is going to take us, but we are having fun following whichever ones are in front of us.
For those of you who have been waiting for more of the wild report, just wait. We are leaving here, swinging through Vancouver to see a friend, and then off to northern British Columbia. We'll keep you posted.