HOUSESITTING IN BEND OREGON

POST # 280

This seems like good advice, especially if it's good quality ice cream.  I discovered this sign at the Sandy bakery, in Sandy, Oregon, just a couple of days ago.  My friend Mary and I were en-route to Bend, Oregon to do two separate housesits.  Mary lived in Bend for a while, so this is an opportunity to have a visit with her daughter and son in law, and her two grandchildren.  I on the other hand have only one furball to care for by the name of Sofi.  Sofi was part of the tag team of Sofi and Ziggy until just recently.  Ziggy has now gone to the great furball graveyard, and Sofi is left to fend for herself, with the help of this imported housesitter.  She's the invisible furball, or almost.  The only real way to tell that she is here is that the food gets consumed, and the litter box gets filled.  If it wasn't for those two things, you would be hard pressed to even know that she exists.  Sofi is VERY low maintenance.
Mary will be just down the road at another house with only one bonehead to take care of by the name of Henri.

The drive down to Bend from Bellingham was uneventful, and we had clear weather all the way.  A few short weeks ago it would have been a much different story due to all the wildfires that were burning.  When we stopped at the Sandy bakery, I detected the smell of smoke still in the air.  I mentioned this to one of the staff there, and she said she couldn't smell it.  Compared to what they had been through recently, this amount of smoke was insignificant.  She pointed out the window to an intersection very near by the bakery (maybe only 300 feet or so away), and she told us that earlier in the month, you couldn't even see the intersection.  Now THAT'S a lot of smoke indeed.

We on the other hand had clear skies all along the way as can be evidenced by the two photos below.

MOUNT HOOD 

CLIFFS NEAR WARM SPRINGS

I imagine that these two scenes would have been invisible to the naked eye only a few short weeks ago.  We were fortunate to have done the trip when we did.

And so begins yet another house/pet sit.  Both Sofi, and Henri will be in good hands for the next couple of weeks with two very experienced sitters.  They should count themselves lucky indeed.

On a walk in the woods today, I took a couple of photos.

 A PLEASANT AUTUMN SCENE

EVIDENCE OF AGEING HIPPIES IN BEND

This is the final post for September, and when October 1st rolls around, it will mark the date that The Thoughtful Wanderer said his final goodbye to his sailboat in Vancouver in 2011, and headed out on his life of intentional homelessness.  It has been quite an adventure so far.

living a life of simple acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

THE JOURNEY THAT ALMOST DIDN'T HAPPEN

POST # 279

 MADONNA'S BAR AND GRILL in REPUBLIC WASHINGTON

I'll get to Madonna's bar and grill in a moment, but that is jumping ahead in today's story.  Let's start from the beginning.

Wandering is what I do best, and as I have come to realize at this stage in my life, a wanderer is who I am, not just what I do.  With that in mind, and with my continued view that what we now all take for granted, (this continued way of life) is about to take some rather sharp turns for the worse in the not too distant future, what better time than now to go on a road trip?  At least that was my plan a week ago.  To that end, I rented a car for a week, with three goals in mind.  Visit with my friend Mary, do a camping trip in Washington, and round it out with a  return visit to Grand Forks BC.  I wanted to re-visit  and climb my leg breaking hill for the third time, and have a visit with the people I house sat for in 2012, in addition to meeting their new dog, "Bella" who now has the job of filling the boots (paws) of "Sadie" who died earlier this year.  Well that was my plan, and I did pull it off, but it didn't look like it was going to happen at the beginning of the journey.

I picked up the car and headed to the border.  I've crossed into the US so many times over the past six years, that I have my "story" ready to go when I talk to the US customs agent.  I didn't anticipate a problem, but this guy was like a pit bull chomping down on its prey, and he just didn't want to let go.  Suffice to say, that after many long minutes, and multiple questions, he reluctantly let me in to the country. One of the questions asked in the last two crossings is, "are you planning to move to the USA?"  I answer with a simple "no" but what I would like to say is, "this is the last place that I would chose to move to", but of course if I said that, it would probably cause me even more grief.  He looked angry, and was quite aggressive.  This seems to be the norm nowadays, and it's the second time in as many crossings that the transition from Canada to the USA has been shall we say, less than pleasant.  I imagine it will only get worse as time goes on, and after the latest incident, I wonder if I'll be able to go in again?  I'll find out soon enough, as I expect to be crossing over tomorrow.  It should be an experience.  Perhaps he was just envious of the fact that I am free to roam around, and he's stuck there, breathing in exhaust fumes for eight long hours every day while he asks the same questions over and over again?  Who knows? Who cares?

After a brief visit with Mary, I headed to Baker Lake and spent another evening camping with Hambone and his little dog, Sancho Panza.  Another video was produced, which is linked below.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAO2OwmFnJA

The next day I continued heading East into the smoke filled state.

 ALL SMOKE AND NO CLOUDS- UGGGHH!!!

Eventually and thankfully, the smoke dispersed, and I continued my journey, passing through some interesting little towns along the way.  One of these was the town of Twisp, and I am surely not the first person to make fun of the name as can be seen in the video below.

 After Twisp, I arrived in the town of Republic which is where Madonna's Bar and Grill is located.  My mom would have been happy to know that there was a bar with her namesake.  Well not quite.  I went in to let the waitress know that this was my mother's name, and asked her how the bar got its name?  She told me that the original owner was named Donna, but everyone just called her "Ma" so she put the two together and called her establishment Madonna's.  

Somewhere along the way I came across this scene, which might help to explain the predicament we now find ourselves in on the planet.  Forests burning down due to abrupt climate change?  No problem, just build a bigger house right in the middle of it.  What could possibly go wrong?  And how about that view?

 I spent the night car camping just outside of the town of Kettle Falls, and crossed back into Canada near Christina Lake, BC.  For the first and only time in my life, I was the sole person crossing in either direction, which was kind of strange.  Compared to the US border guard from earlier in the week, the Canuck spent all of about 30 seconds with me, and I was on my way, arriving later in the day in Grand Forks.  I had a pleasant visit with Bev, Brian, and their daughter, Elly, and accomplished my mission of climbing that damn hill just one more time.  My new companion, "Bella" was more than happy to join me in my quest.

THE START OF THE JOURNEY

AT THE TOP OF THE HILL

I had a quick visit with the neighbours, the dear folks that saved me after I had fallen down the hill back in 2012, and then before leaving Grand Forks, I met another loveable bonehead in town, so I had to take a photo.  This mutt is 17yo but I can't remember her name.

OLD DOGS ARE THE BEST

Almost done.  One more night car camping, and then I continued on my journey, which took me through an unexpected snow shower.

Finally, a trip in Canada wouldn't be complete without a beaver, and this is one of the nicest looking and certainly the biggest beaver, I have ever seen.

NICE BEAVER EH?

And so ends the journey that almost didn't happen.  Soon I'll be on the road again, or at least that is my plan.  Whether or not the US border guards have a different plan, I'll find out in due course.

living a life of simple acceptance,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

AND... IT'S GONE. I MEAN, AND...IT'S DONE

POST # 278

What just happened?  It seemed like I was just getting ready for my second trip to Belize, and now it's already history.  Time is going by way too fast these days.
As mentioned in the previous blog, my original plan had to be adjusted due to Hurricane Harvey, and so after a delayed departure from Vancouver, I travelled via Toronto and Miami to my final destination of Belize.

 SMOKE OVER BC EN ROUTE TO TORONTO

 I arrived just after midnight in Toronto, and our flight from there to Miami was the very first cab off the rank at 6am local time the next morning.  We left the gate right on schedule and began the long roll down the taxiway to the runway threshold, arriving there at 6:15am.  At that point the captain came on the intercom, and said, "Ladies and gentleman, I've got good news and bad news.  The good news is that we are at the head of the line for departure, but the bad news is that Toronto airport has a curfew, and we cannot depart until 6:30am."  Well, I've never experienced that one before.  One might ask the Toronto airport authorities why they would schedule a 6am departure, if you can't take off until 6:30am, but whatever.  So we sat there idling the engines for 15 minutes and then we were on our way.
I enjoyed some pretty spectacular cloud formations on the journey south, as can be seen below.

Our route even took us over Melbourne, and even though I was thousands of miles away from the Melbourne that I am familiar with in Australia, just seeing the name brought back many pleasant memories of my years spent there.

Just prior to touchdown in Miami the captain mentioned that there was the potential for a rain shower upon arrival.  We landed on a dry tarmac, and a few moments later after arriving in the terminal, the skies opened up, and the visibility went to virtually zero.  It shut the airport down for more than an hour, so we lucked out with our arrival time.

THE SKIES OPEN UP

Eventually we were back on board and on our way to Belize.  As I gazed down at Miami, I pondered what the future would hold in store, now that Hurricane Irma was threatening the area.

I opted to take the local bus from the airport out to San Ignacio which all went according to plan, albeit with some help from one of the locals, and soon after I was greeted by my friends for the final journey to their place.

The time there went way, way too fast, but it was time well spent in my humble opinion, and I made some new friends as well, which is always a good thing.

Here are a few photos taken by Pauline while I was there.

 A SCARY LOOKING FROG

TWO SCARY LOOKING HUMANS

L-R Pauline, Guy, Me, Sara, and Glen at the Maya Mountain Lodge, after the most recent Nature Bats Last radio show.

A NEW BATCH OF CHICKS

Plus a view from their deck, while Guy was getting ready to tape an interview for a journalist in Australia.

But before I knew it, September 11th had arrived, and it was time to say goodbye.  Guy, Pauline and Sara headed to New York, and I headed back to Canada, via Houston and Calgary.  Houston airport was like a ghost town. Plus, it was strange to be spending a night at the airport in Calgary.  I haven't been to Calgary for a decade. 

FLYING ON SEPT. 11TH.  WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

MY ONGOING SEARCH FOR THE BEST AIRPORT "BED"

And so ends the story of round two of Belize. I am extremely grateful for being able to spend time with my friends there.  Only 6 more visits to Belize, and I'll break my record for visits to the Mud Hut in New Mexico.  The odds of that happening are about as good as the odds of ever being born.  Very slim indeed, but it's nice to dream.


And it's GONE link.  Enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGwZVGKG30s

living a life of simple acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

"HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM"

POST # 277

HELLO HARVEY

The 29th of August was an eventful day. Boltbus to yvr, then the two plus hours at the United counter to try to find a way to get me to Belize.  Stephen the ticket agent certainly tried every option possible or so it seemed to me. He even had two other people helping, and they looked at all sorts of combinations and permutations, including flying via, Guatemala or perhaps Panama, and there was even talk of via Germany.  After all was said and done, he found a combination via Toronto, then Miami and on to Belize from there.  Only thing was the date has changed.  It wasn't the 29th of August, but rather September 1st to Toronto, arriving around midnight, followed by an early morning flight to Miami, and then on to Belize to arrive about noon on September 2nd.  Am I complaining.  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  It's fun,  and it's all part of this adventure. Of course, with tropical cyclone Irma now forming in the Eastern Atlantic, anything could happen between now and Saturday, so we'll see what happens.  Who knows, Miami or Belize City might go the way of Houston, and I may never get there.  But until then I'll just continue to go with the flow.

Speaking of Houston, it sounds like a real mess, and the airport staff said that they didn't expect the airport to open until the weekend.  Something tells me that that is just the start of their problems.  Now IF, I do eventually get to Belize, and IF what has now been upgraded to hurricane status,  Irma doesn't decide that it wants to mess with The Thoughtful Wanderer, then perhaps I will be able to survey some of the Texas coastline on my return journey which is still booked through Houston.  Any way you slice it, the first part of September is shaping up to be anything but normal.  But then again, what's normal nowadays?  I'll update the blog prior to posting on September 7th.

UPDATE:
I'm  writing these words, while sitting at The Table Rock Jungle Lodge in Belize, in preparation for the final Nature Bats Last radio show, with my friend Guy as the host. Pauline will be recording the show, so once that is up on the web, I'll post a link.
Since my arrival, IRMA is now a category 5 hurricane. As of last night it looked as though Belize was on the track to hit us here, but now Florida is in its sights. The bottom line is that its going to be an interesting weekend ahead.
I may or may not get back to Canada on September 11th. In the meantime, I'm very fortunate to be spending precious moments, with good friends here in Belize.

Show link below.
https://naturebatslast.podbean.com/e/nature-bats-last-–-090517/



 All things being equal, there is still time to enjoy the beauty of a late August sunset, like the one I experienced prior to departing Vancouver.  It was a rare non smokey day.

 

living a life of simple acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer