Neko
Dear Diary . . .
Has anyone else noticed that the spam diaries have been able to post like 500 times this week, and even though they have been marked for obliteration, they are still around? So what exactly is Andrew doing? Meh.
Anyway, back to my tales of life on the road...
Having made it safely through snow and past evil truckers, we arrived in Kamloops and found a place to stay that had a most excellent internet connection. The next day, we decided to stay on there, and move to a kitchenette. Considering we were paying $85 a night in Vancouver, we felt very fortunate to get a kitchenette for $55 a night!
So then it was off to the thrift stores for stuff to outfit said kitchenette, and after a few hours of wandering about and familiarizing ourselves with the place, I was getting pretty good at finding my way around. I do have a natural "bump" of direction, and I rarely get lost. Usually it is because a street doesn't go all the way through to another street the way I THINK it should.
Then we went to the Safeway which was kind of just across the street and up on a bit of a mesa. Y'all, that's when I got the shock of my life! Now, here's the thing. In the last couple of years, the US dollar has taken a severe beating. Currently, it is running about $1.65 to buy a British Pound, and it's been wildly fluctuating against a Canadian Dollar (aka the Loonie). When planning the trip, it was around 90 cents to the Canadian Dollar; by the time I got there, it was 95 cents to the dollar, which is simply ridiculous considering there was a time when it was about 62 cents to the dollar.
So if one remembers that level of price disparity, then having a jar of $5 strawberry jam isn't so bad. But given the current levels that are almost par, then a $5 jar of jam is most shocking! How about a can of fruit cocktail that runs $2.79? Or a package of Stovetop Stuffing that only has ONE packet for $2.89?
To all of my friends in the Great White North, I honestly don't know how you can afford to live! And I don't know how companies up there can charge such prices, considering that they can get their goods at the lower US prices and sell them up there. Y'all should protest!
But I digress...
Anyway, to make a short story even shorter, we spent a lovely week there in Kamloops, the weather, while cold and cloudy was DRY, and it only snowed on our next to last day there. We did celebrate our engagement at a restaurant called the Keg, and the tab ran right at $100 including tip. Sheesh!
Then it was back to Vancouver, and the hotel we started out at. This time though, we took the long way 'round, after having about 20 different locals tell us that they NEVER take the Coq in the winter! So it was a long day of driving for Miss Rosie, with a couple of near misses as we got closer to town.
In fact, the whole trip back was punctuated by near misses, of which I will tell you more tomorrow. But that particular day, I pulled over for a minute to look a the map to decide which route I wanted to take back into the city...and while we were pulled over for about 1 minute, there was an accident ahead of us! My angels were certainly busy on this trip!
On our second night at the hotel in Vancouver, we had discovered that they had Karaoke in the bar, so when we went back the second time, we of course had to go down for an hour or two. I really enjoyed getting to sing some special songs to my darling, and he actually enjoyed himself too!
The next day, I dropped him at the airport, and wiping the tears from my eyes, (since it was rainy enough without any help from me!) I got headed down the road. The US Customs guy was really nice and friendly, and without any problems, I was back to my much-loved country.
More tomorrow!
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What I Did on my November Vacation - 2009-11-19
So Happy Together - 2009-11-13
The Green Fields of France - 2009-11-11
A Major Announcement - 2009-11-10
