Good bye Vancouver, Hello world.

Well Hi,

i keep promising to get better at this but i haven't really been traveling or seeing or doing all that much. i have just been living but here are the high lights and the cool things that have taken place in the past two and a bit months. i promise that the blog postings will become more common once i am on the road (cant promise the same for photos but i will do my best). having worked during the Olympics, work has been light on, even though i had a store i was in go "are you looking for work" that was this week and a bit late.

after the olympics came the paralympics. i was inspired, i was lifted, i was taken by the magic of it. i went to the opening cermony with Kit and Patti at BC Place. it was amazing and managed to hit all the right heart notes. what i have begun to hate with olympic cermonies is that they are over done and dont seem to quite hit the mark for me any more. but the parlympics was done realy well and i truly enjoyed it.
during the parlympics i found my way out to the few free thigns i hadnt made it too during the olympcis that were reopend for the second event. i also went to the wheel chair curling (sooo much like lawn bowls) and the ice sledge hockey (and i thought normal hockey was brutal). at the vairous venues you were able to try a fwe diffrent things, in a simulated enviroment, such as curling, sledge hockey & visualy impiared shooting. gave a great perspective and was alot of fun to try them out. the atmosphere was just electric and i realy enjoyed my parlympic experince.

and then it was April.

it has started to warm up. the cherry blossoms have come out. (soo pretty) i suffered from pretty bad hay fever due to the new and exciting pollens in the air.
and then it was Easter. and i manged to finally find my local parish and have been going there ever since. also since i have been here i have started walking. now when most people walk they walk a few kilometers. then there is me. on Easter Sunday after being at church for the Vigil and the main service (i was asked to read a passage at the vigil, and it was my second time there!) i decided to go for a walk. having walked to church i kept walking along 41st. and i kept walking. and i kept walking. and then i reach SE Marine Drive. when it was all said and done i walked around 20kms on Easter Sunday. yes i am a bit special. but i felt good for it.

a few days later it was time to take a boat ride over to Victoria, on Vancouver island. because some genius decided to name two terminus stops near one another with words starting with Bridge and brig (and because of my special brain) i missed by bus to Twassen ferry terminal. so after a not so cheap taxi ride, i got onto the boat and headed over to see the Barenaked Ladies, a candaian pop/alt rock group perfrom. and it was worth the money. it was their first show of thier national tour and it was great to see these guys perform live. the following day, after getting home from the pub (where they had a small army of beers on tap, i wish i had the time and the money to try every one of them), we wanderd arround the heart of Victoria. victoria is belive it or not very english feeling. more so than vancouver. also curiously if the line that defined the USA and canda continued and they split the isaldn, then Victoria would be part of the USA.

then came ANZAC day weekend. Saturday i traveled out to UBC and met up with the rover crew and we set up the crews activity for Nite Hike. then with Mark, Kit & Amanda we set up to register and participate in the 26 station, 24km over nite hike. it was a lot of fun and was a test of the body & mind. at one stage the symbolism was significant to me, and don't tell the others, but i did have a slight moment, in the predawn glow. after helping the crew to pack up and have breakfast, i headed down town for the Memorial service. this was important to me and after that i joined the others at the pub for lunch (there is an Aussie themed pub in Vancouver, its cute but odd).

the following week i was invited to head over to the sunshine coast, where PJ was held (@ Camp Byng). i wanted to go over there and just see it for what it was. strangely enough, the feeling of extreme familiarity that i have had in Vancouver Island was also still present for me on the sunshine coast. after a day of driving around and exploring and a lovely dinner provided by Patti's folks, it was time to return to the main land. the sunshine coast and Vancouver island are two areas i strongly recommend visiting and making the time to see. they are just so beautiful and would not be the first places considered by tourists due to the boat ride to get over to those destinations.

well that is it for this posting. photos are above as allways and i did a test video posting the other day and that is visible below but it really is just an experiment, as whilst i am on the road i may not have the energy or the enthisam to write but may feel up to doing a video.

well, im off. a route plan will be up in the next few weeks, for my cross north america trip. and the log of RPM85 (my personal blog) will possibly also get some of my other musings as the weeks go on.

Adios Amigos and keep Smiling

Gonzo