Canada!

We left Fargo on Monday and it is now Friday.
Where did the time go? Driving.
Bob does most of the driving. At first I just sat in the passenger seat either meditating, talking or sight seeing, but after so many days of constant driving sitting like that wrecks the body. Not like long hours of sitting cross legged wrecks the body... That causes pain for sure, maybe more pain, or maybe it's just the lack of distraction that makes it so intense. Sitting on a cushion with a straight back hurts, but it leaves me feeling strong. Sitting in a car makes me stiff and it is difficult to breath fully. I am used to long car rides so I already knew what to expect, but this is the longest, most prolonged trip. We drive all day with few stops and well into the night, or all night. This is not the way we planned it. At first I was upset. Both Bob and I had rough a rough day on tuesday into wendsday night. We drove all through the night, it was only my second time driving and I only drove for about 4 hours. In the morning, we were both feeling much better as if we defeated an enemy in the night. I have thought many times on how much I learned in relationship with Jaz. Most importantly right now is how to be patient, to remember that Bob does not want to hurt me, that he would try with all his effort not to hurt me and that he is also uncomfortable. So far we have not had any interpersonal problems. Occasionally Bob will speak in an aggravated way but, impressively, he has not projected that on me much at all. I think I am pretty much in the same boat. I get grumpy but I know that it is just being uncomfortable. We have also tiddyed up the back of the van so it is easier to go in the back to move a little or lay down on the seat to rest.

Now I am sitting in the passenger seat looking at the Canadian Rockies. The grasses and shrubs here are astounding. There are patches of snow in the mountains around us. The sun is warm through the front window as we drive west. The sun will be in our eyes for hours. Though the sun does go down this time of year it doesn't get dark.

Last night we stopped at Liard hot springs. We pulled in around 11pm and sauntered on down the boardwalk, through the marsh, to the springs. The sun had just gone down but you could still see clearly, like a clear full moon night. The springs were perfect. Bob was teasing me and I was worried that they would be luke warm or even a little cold. It was my first time to hot springs! I am never going to pass up the chance to go to hot springs again! After an hour or so of soaking, sitting under the water fall, and chatting we were exhausted. I crashed out in some bushes and slept like a baby for a full 6 hours. Bob had set his alarm but thankfully he slept through it. Bob requires less sleep then I do. He gets sullen when he is tired or a little crabby but it doesn't seem to bother him much. Not waking up on time means that we may end up driving through the night again to land in Alaska before morning. Either way we were in for a “nighttime” boarder crossing. Let's hope the American guards are more lax then the Canadian.

We left Fargo fairly late in the day. We only got most of the way out for North Dakota by the time we stopped for the night. We pulled into a small truckstop in the middle of nowhere. There was a nice patch of trees to sleep in and I woke to rain on my face. I woke Bob and we prepared to go. The van didn't start. After some diagnosis Bob decided that it was the starter and we needed to get pulled to start up and that if we didn't let the engine get cold we wouldn't have this problem anymore. This meant not stopping for more then an hour or two at a time. We got someone to pull us around and Bob discovered something wrong with the throttle cable. He fixed that and the second pull started us up. Unfortunately Bob stalled the van immediately... Karma neh? We had an easy time of getting help to that point but now no one was there to help. I wrote a blog post as Bob walked around and solicited help. I felt sorry for him. It has been difficult for me but I have no strong attachments here. Bob has so much invested. I could hitch off at any time and probably beat him to Alaska. This I learned from Jaz, “I didn't come on this trip to be comfortable, I am here because I love you.” I had to much attachment and aversion with Jaz to live that truth fully, but I saw it fully.

We did make it away and into Canada. We were stopped and interviewed at the border. The van was searched lightly. If they were looking for drugs, which we did not have, they would not have found them. The officer in charge was pretty cute. When we walked into the office I was startled to see her. Something about the uniform, the bullet proof vest obscured her form but attracted me none the less. Well, she let us into Canada mentioning our low funds and old vehicle. I am happy I exaggerated how much I have in the bank a little.

Right inside the boarder there are a bunch of oil refineries and strip mines. It seems that as they dig instead of making one big pile they make lots of small piles. It looks really cool imagined myself walking around in them little hills. “There like scale model mountains!” I exclaimed. “With GAINT trees” Bob laughed. That was the joyful beginning of the hard day I mentioned before.

I woke up the next morning after a 3 hour nap in the back of the van feeling like I had the best sleep of my life. Bob replayed the Radio Lab episodes that I had missed while I slept and we had great conversation. Towards the late afternoon we arrived in Edmonton. We asked the first guy who walked by where a good coffee shop was and he directed us towards The Carrot. They where closed so we made a few failed attempts to find some food. Compactors everywhere. We made our way back to The Carrot. When we came to the door the girl there asked if we were working? We said we wern't and she said they were still closed. Her comrade had not arrived yet and she was not allowed to let anyone in until they were both there. I kept talking to her and she gave up, her boyfriend was there and she rationalized that that would be good enough. It turns out that we were in the shady part of Canada. I did see a few crackheads, but I would never have thought that it would be considered dangerous. She agreed, but said that many of her friends were afraid to go to that part of town. Interesting. The Carrot, as it turns out, is a volunteer run coffee shop. Our new friends, whom I don't remember their names due to my high degree of sleep deprivation at the time, had never met the person who was to be coming for work that day. After checking in with the world of internet Barista, Bob and I settled in for a game of Settlers of Catan. It was Baristas idea and she won. Bob and I were only half there, Bob less so then myself. We left shortly after the game, with 3 new friends and refreshed from social stimulus.

Back on the road, for the first time, I felt unsafe with Bob's driving. We filled up on gas and were delayed by Bob's card not working. A quick call to his mom had the whole thing straightened away in no time. I could just imagine her screaming at some poor soul for shutting off the card. If you are a tele-support person she is the terror that lurks on the other side of the phone.

It was my turn to drive and I drove a good distance before pulling over to nap. I remember when I was 18 working in construction and driving to Sarasota on the weekends to party. I would get 4-6 hours of sleep those weekends and drive 4 hours home. I only had to learn my lesson once, and luckily it was not a hard lesson. I nodded off and woke up to the sound of gravel flinging up under the tires, twice, then on the third time I had left the road! I swerved back on the road hard and lost traction on my back tires and fishtailed all over the road for what seemed to be an eternity. I remember clearly the drastic change in alertness I drove the next hour fully awake. Curiously, right about the time I was starting to feel safe, just before getting home I began to feel sleepy again. Anyway, I decided not to do that again.

We were getting into the boonies. Near the border Canada is just like the northern USA. Well I guess it's pretty much like the USA all over so far. Little difference like Kilometers instead of miles, blinking green arrows, little things ey.

It's now past midnight and the sky and mountains are incredible.