CAUTIOUS CARGO ↑ This way up ↑: To Canada...: California to Vancouver Island. August 2014.

After our day with the Redwoods where we were graced with the presence of that beautiful deer, we headed north through Shasta National Forest where there was dense pine forest as far as the eye could see, which wasn't very far by the time we got to Weed, where the forest fires were not far away. We couldn't see the sky and drove through this strange smokey haze for an hour or two. It felt very claustrophobic and it was a relief to leave it behind. The fires continue as I write this over a month later.

Next stop, our friend Matt's house in Ashland, Oregon, where we stayed for another couple of days. We met Matt in Lima in January. We hiked together on the edge of Klamath National Forest and I discovered, loved, then hated Taco Bell, all within 24 hours. Our next stop was Ocean Shores, Washington, coincidentally meeting Ashland Matt's best friend, Shain, who we also met in Lima. I have no photos of our time at Shain's but with our visit to the casino for a liquid breakfast, it was bound to get messy.

After two nights with Shain and his lovely family, we headed to Seattle to meet up with Emily, a welder/sailor who we also met in Lima. En route we passed through Aberdeen, Kurt Cobain's home town, a fairly industrial town whose town slogan was Come As You Are. We sailed with Emily on Seattle's Lake Union until the sun went down, and the next day headed for Hope, Canada, where we camped next to Jones Lake.

We arrived in Vancouver the following day, found the cheapest hostel in the city and had a shabby chic night in the room we had to clean ourselves upon check out. Extra payment was required for bedsheets and toilet paper, but luckily for us with our car full of everything, we had our own. The guy who ran the hostel was a genius in time- and money-saving techniques, so much so that the hostel was only manned for two two-hour slots throughout the day and the answers to pretty much every question you could think of were handwritten on note paper and strategically placed somewhere, somewhere in the hostel.

The next day was time to visit my Canadian relatives in Duncan, Vancouver Island. My late Great Aunt Muriel originally from Yorkshire married and moved to Canada and had five children who are all settled there, and I think this makes me their second cousin, or similar. So, we were lucky enough to spend three or four days with Pam and Lou, and were visited by Cassie their daughter, and Pam's sister Wendy and her husband Kelvin. Later I hope to visit Sandie and Pete in Hope, too.

(see next entry).