Wednesday, November 17

Snow is trying to come down.

Forecast says every day for the next week it will continue to try to snow. Temperatures are dropping like a rock to double digits in a couple days (Friday) with a low of -17 headed our way.

Yeaaaah. Insert McDonald's "I'm lovin it" tune riiiiight here.

Did I mention that Chemainus BC is the mildest place in all of Canada? Because it is. The Cowichan Valley
was named by the local West Coast Salish bands. "Cowichan" means "the warm land". Last time I travelled there was the Fall of 2004. I went there for a solo vacation for one week, hit many of the art galleries, wandered around and just sucked it all in. I still have a hand painted ceramic tile that sits on my desk from Cobble Hill Pottery as a reminder.

Years before that, when I was a kid, our family went to Rathtrevor Beach and visited my mom's Uncle and Aunt in Qualicum. I remember clearly the size of the beach, the numerous sand dollars, and that I found a wide silver carved
Indian ring in the sand that I stepped on under the water. I can't quite recall what carving was on it (I think it was Eagle), but it had broken at the weld and was smooth and grayed from being in the water. I pocketed it and kept it for a long time, until my dad in one of his cleaning frenzies cleaned out my room and turfed it along with my Canuck's autographed puck by Tiger Williams (...don't get me started. Packrat my ass. It's called COLLECTING. And you don't throw people's THINGS OUT even if they are 10 yrs old "and it's your house" OKAY!? Grrr. Apparently I hold a grudge LOL) I'd say it was in the mid to late 80s, that trip. We went through Duncan, Nanaimo, through Cathedral Grove, Chemainus & onto Salt Spring Island then too. I remember because it was one of the trips we kids got to "ride in the camper" while mom and dad drove the truck. Which was great until we would inevitably hit a speedbump too fast or stop too quickly, getting tossed around like ping pong balls in a bingo ball machine LOL! That was awesome.

We did a lot of travelling around BC. Every summer we usually did some sort of road trip in dad's 1969 Ford truck with the hot plastic bench seat, long stick shift, rubber floor mats and enough space under the dash that I'm sure was large enough for 6 Mexicans to curl up into. I remember the cab of that truck being so basic, and so large. And if that truck didn't overheat on EVERY TRIP. Oh, we got stranded and called BCAA all the time- I bet they knew us by name. We'd break down in the plus 40 heat, somewhere along the narrow passages of the Canyon on our way home from the Interior... oh, oodles of places. It was all part of the experience =) We chronicled our trip on the silent Super 8 Kodak camera,
always starting out with dad taking a picture of the chalkboard in the basement with the trip destination and year written on it so we'd know where the pictures were from... (Or maybe so people knew where to find us when we broke down? LOL) Besides the Island, we went to the ghost towns of BC in Fort Steele (the Kootenay Rockies) when I was really young, and more often we would do Penticton, or Kelowna, or 70 Mile House and a couple trips down to Mt Baker in Washington state. We'd go to Lynden Washington more than a few times, to see the county fair and watched Johnny Cash perform live -something I know I'll never forget.

Probably this is the biggest drawback living here, besides
the extreme weather, is that lack of cities or communities to travel to within a 2-3 hour travelling radius. I guess I could get my passport and go to Grand Forks ND just to say I can. I think it's as big as Abbotsford (or at least as populated) and they DO have a county fair which I'm sure would be good.

Travelling is good. I think a road trip is coming !!!

2 comments:

~n~ said...

north dakota is HIGHLY overrated, especially this time of year. If you're going to drive anywhere, drive west... for a LOOOOOOOOONG time. eventually you'll get here. ;)

it's very green here today. and about +8 at the moment, i'd guess. :P

holymotherofgod said...

Yes, and then look at NEXT weeks forecast!! It's MINUS 17 in Abbotsford even!!! I'll send you the link!!!! I'm stunned.