Saturday, July 28, 2007

From Vanderhoof to Montreal

Probably about a month ago now I packed up my tent and planting bags and crawled out of the middle of nowhere to Vanderhoof (still the middle of nowhere, but at least it had some kind of civilization). The nursery (tree) had some problems so we had two weeks off before finishing the last 3 weeks of planting. I couldn't afford to stick around for two weeks of paying for hostels and drinking far too much, so i decided to head home to paint houses (again) with Andrew.
It took about a 12 hour drive south to get to Vancouver. I hopped a lift with one of the other planters, Ian, who was heading there also. He had bought a car that same day. We drove straight for probably about 10ish hours, when the car broke down, he ended up scrapping it and we hopped a bus for the last two hours. HAHAHA
Vancouver was great!! I met some really cool people at the hostel. I hung out mostly with this Scottish guy, and several Australians guys. I checked out Stanley Park, and the Aquarium; I decided the otter is my new favourite animal, God they're cute.
I also hopped over to Vancouver Island (nanaimo to be specific) to visit my friend Bev, who I travelled/worked with briefly in Australia.










(Bev and I in Nanaimo)


I then had to figure out how to get from Vancouver to Montreal.
I checked out "craigslist" to see if anyone was headed the same way. Turns out there was a girl with a van leaving when i wanted to leave, going straight to Montreal. As dodgy as it was it ended up turning out to be pretty cool!!!! She was a really cool hippyish chick, that had been driving from California-to Vancouver- Montreal STRAIGHT. There was another cool chick and her dog for a part of the way.
We picked up a REALLY sketch hitchhiker with a broken arm and lots of eyeball boogers. He appeared to be in severe pain as he moaned the entire 7 hours it took to take him to the hospital he wanted to go to. anyway he appreciated the ride. We also missed hitting a deer by about 2 cm. Also a truck shot a rock at the windshield, and shards of glass flew at my face while I was sleeping. HAHAH Sandra (the driver chick) flagged the truck down (I'm talking bout an 18 wheeler) haha and made him pull over, so she could get his details.



It took us about 3 and a half days driving straight to get to Montreal. It was a much easier ride home then when I drove from Montreal to Prince George. Sandra had lots of blankets and pillows and tons of room in the back of the van, so i was able to sleep comfortably.
























Anyway now I'm back home, painting my heart out and working my ass off and absolutely loving the summer in Montreal, Its been awhile since I've experienced it, and I forgot how much I love it here when I'm not freezing my ass off. As of September I'm going to be out of a job, and I still have NOOOOOO clue what I'm doing next. But I'm sure something will come along, i still have a month to figure it out.
SOME PLANTING PICS:

(the view form where I was planting)

(Kieren, my planting partner, and I hiding under the tarp from the hail)

(wasting time=no money made)

(Chilling by the camp fire on a day off)

(the crummy)