US Mainland / Canada - Adventures of Mike and Ike

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Not knowing whether I was driving a beast or a bomb, I said goodbye to Hazel and Dave and set out for Portland, Oregon. I bought a camera there because everything is tax free in Oregon and ended meeting up/travelling with Andrea, the English girl I first caught up with in Hawaii. We took in the tourist sights of Washington state, Mt Rainier, Mt St Helens and Olympic National Park.

The Americans absolutely lovvvee their national parks, treat with them utmost respect and monitor them nearly as well as their borders. Along the road to Mt St Helens, an active volcano that last popped its top in the 80s, there were 3 huge visitor centers, shops and lots of campsites/accommodation. Mt Rainier on the other hand is a national park and therefore less commercialized. Believe it or not, it was on this mountain (4300m) that I got my first experience of real snow! My mind casts back to when I was younger playing with the icecream container of snow taken from the defrosted freezer back home (Dont laugh, Western Australian snow!) and thought about how much fun it would be to play in the real stuff. Haha, it was a novelty for a few hours until I decided to climb 600ft in elevation and found out how annoying it was to climb through (i only had running shoes on). I met some Indian Buddhists (See photos) who gave me some lunch and introduced me to their leader who they said was the Buddhist equivalent of the Catholic Pope. I didn’t know him but I thought the photo of the a Buddhist monk sitting in a car using a mobile phone was pretty funny (See attached).

Driving on the right side of the road isn’t as difficult as you might think it to be. For the first few days you have to make a conscious effort to concentrate on staying right and there were only two instances when I found myself on the other side. Unfortunately, on one of those occasions a car was coming in the opposite direction. Whoops. The steering column and blind spot are on the left side of the car which weren’t too much of a problem but it would have been harder if the car was a manual because you would be shifting gears with your right hand.

Apart from an initial scare on the ascent to Mt St Helens, cooling fluid leaking from the front (turns out it was just overfilled) the car has been running well and the 4.3L V6 Chevy engine (same as the V8 Chevy engine with 2 cylinders removed) has proved to be very smooth in all conditions. This comes at the expense of fuel efficiency, 9 km/L on country roads.

We went to a very beautiful lake near the Olympic National Park called Crescent Lake. Having not showered for a few days, I thought that it would be mutually beneficial for everyone concerned if I went for swim. Brrrr, very chilly and I just couldn’t get in above the waist (actually, a little lower than that). That was until we both (Andrea and myself) started chatting to some high school girls who convinced us to go jumping off some logs into the water (See photos). The water was pristine and so cold that you couldn’t dive under the water more than a few feet without feeling exhausted of air.

The following day we arrived in Canada via a car ferry and stayed at a hostel in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Victoria is British in imitation so Andrea felt right at home. The colonial backdrop of Victoria was to be the host of the Tall Ship Festival, an annual meeting of dozens of old fashioned ships. Just missed out on this one but wasn’t too fussed as other adventures were awaiting in the north of the island.

Andrea and I went separate ways the next day because she had to be in Vancouver to meet some friends. If you are wondering about the subject of the email, Andrea received the nickname of 'Ike' because along the way we ate some great American lollies (candy here in the US - you get funny looks if you say lollies) called 'Mike and Ike'.

Anyway, enough of the babble. Hope that you are enjoying the cold weather in Perth. I’m not missing it at all!

Cheers

Mike

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