october 1 2007 : whitefish, montana, usa
Yesterday morning we strolled around Banff for a while. Coffee shops, ski stores, and knick knack corners. Nice little place to hang out. When you are looking straight down Main Street there is the most amazing mountain standing right over the middle of it. Unfortunately we caught the street in the middle of renovations so we couldn’t get a good shot of it. We originally had planned to take the gondola to the top of a nearby mountain, but frankly, the weather was too cold for us at the bottom of the mountain and we didn’t even want to think about what it was like at the top.

We then drove to nearby Calgary where we finally gave the bus a much needed bath. With that done we headed downtown. Being a Sunday there wasn’t a whole lot going on, but we did head up the Calgary Tower for some nice views of the Rockies in the distance. We took a stroll around the city, which seemed like a pretty nice place with plenty of parks and a big pedestrian street full of shops. We hopped in to a nearby pub where we downed a couple of way too expensive beers. One thing Canada is not, is cheap. $5.50 a pint seems to be about average up here. Not to mention food costs about 30% higher than the States, and $4.50 a gallon gasoline. Three of our biggest expenses.

In the evening we drove out to the most massive suburbia either of us had ever seen. There were signs two stories tall listing “New Communities.” There would be ten or so of the typical Oakwood Heights, and Maple Estates, with arrows pointing you towards the gated communities. It went on for close to ten miles, with strip malls spaced one mile apart. The part that amazed us even more than the size was that everything looked to be about two years old. Everything. It’s like this place blew up overnight.

Anyway, out there somewhere we met some new Bum friends for a fantastic dinner of, you guessed it, pizza and beer. It was fun to hear another couple talk about their big plans of taking off and sailing. We wish them well. We’re learning that dropping out and going sailing has to be the most common dream there is.

Ali and I had decided that with the horrendous forecast calling for ten days of solid rain from here on west we would give Vancouver a skip for now. The Great Race ends there next summer, so we’ll visit then. With that decision made we set our sites on heading back south to the States to make our way out to Portland. So after dinner we hit the road and drove south out of Calgary. After a while we started to look for a place to boondock for the night. While driving through one town we spotted a Walmart. We’d always heard that you could camp overnight in Walmart parking lots as long as you kept a low profile. They have an unwritten policy to allow it. So we pulled in and found half a dozen campers doing just that. We pulled in to a dark corner and went to bed. Our first overnight at Walmart. Fancy.

Today we continued towards the States. We wanted to visit Glacier National Park so we made our way towards the nearest border crossing. It was about an hour from the nearest town, but when we got there we found it was closed. There had been signs for the border all the way back in town, but it wasn’t until right at the border that the signs finally said it was closed. This meant we had to backtrack to the east about 70 miles to the next nearest border. The border guard came out and asked us to open up the back, but it was clear he just wanted to see the bus. We asked him about the closed border crossing and he told us today was the first day it had been closed. Typical.

When we got to the entrance to the park we found more closed signs. There is just one road through Glacier and it was closed for construction. We were pretty bummed about that since it meant that the entire days drive was for nothing. We could have made a lot more progress if we had just gone west instead of driving all this way for the park. It also meant a long drive around the park. We eventually ended up in Whitefish, Montana after our longest day of driving yet.

One thing I thought worth mentioning is that during our 2,200 miles of driving in Canada, most at around 45 m.p.h., we didn’t have one driver honk at us, flip us off, or even, if memory serves me right, tailgate us. So kudos go out to those Canuck drivers for that.

october 4 2007 : portland, oregon, usa
Ali and I spent a couple of long days truckin’ on over to Portland, driving through the rain nearly the entire way. Now, warmly ensconced at mom’s house, we’re working on getting a few last things done on the bus before heading south in a week or two.

Today I went to work on the safari windows. Driving in the rain the last few days with these things was miserable, with water pouring inside in steady streams. When I finally took a close look at things today I found that on the passenger side the rubber seal that rims the frame hadn’t been sealed. The drivers side was firmly sealed, but that passenger side was free to let the water pour in. With that done and a few other areas tightened up we should be a lot closer to a dry ride. Ali was also happy that I got her wiper fixed. Apparently she likes to be able to see as well as be dry. Demanding.

Next Thursday, the 11th, at six o’clock we’re meeting some Bum friends at our local pub McPeet’s here in NE Portland. If anybody wants to swing by we’d love to have you join us.

Also, on Tuesday, the 9th, at 7 p.m. CT we are going to be on gather.com doing an interview for Minnesota Public Radio. It will be an open online audience Q&A session. So if you’ve got questions for us we just might have an answer for you. We’ve instructed the moderator to only lob us the really easy questions though, things like, Weren’t you worried about pirates? So please no questions regarding our stance on campaign finance reform or socialized health care.

october 5 2007 : portland
Today I installed seat belts in the bus. Figured that after about 5,000 miles it might be a good idea, especially since we are protected by nothing but a 1/4 inch piece of sheet metal in this thing. Not sure that these things will actually hold in a big collision, but they do make us feel safer. We also picked up a shiny new cooler to use as storage up on the roof rack.

october 10 2007 : portland
We’ve just sort of been hanging out the last few days, doing a little work here and there. While here I’ve got two vehicles to work on. Fortunately they’ve both got essentially the same engines. So now that I know how to adjust valves so well I did both of them at the same time. I then spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to adjust the timing on the Porsche but didn’t have any luck with that. Gave them oil changes as well. Lots of fun.

In Portland there is a VW bus parked in front of every third home. The hippie-lifestyle is alive and well here. But even with there being so many of them we’ve had quite a few people stop by to talk about ours. The other day a guy stopped by in his 60’s bus. We talked and looked around the buses, which is when I noticed that underneath his he had a big splash pan covering the entire front end. I’d been wondering about that for a while, thinking that it seemed pretty stupid that our brake master cylinder had no protection at all. One big rock hits it and we suddenly have no brakes. That and the fact that the holes that our pedals go through are completely open to the outside world, water, and dirt. Anyway, it seems to me that is something that a bus that intends to drive around the world should have on it, so we’re keeping an eye out for one of those.

Then a couple of days ago a guy showed up at the front door. Turns out to be somebody we had talked to via email about a year ago. He and his wife had been living in Colorado at the time. Well two weeks ago they moved back to Portland, their hometown, and had been out with their dog at the dog park across the street when they noticed the BUMFZLE license plate on our bus. Small world. They took us out on our second Bum friends pizza dinner in a week. Ali and I are living the good life here in Portland.

october 11 2007 : portland
The three week delay in getting proper paperwork for our bus from the builders continues to be a problem. It’s now been over a month and we have yet to receive an actual title. We’ve got an application for title, but official paperwork hasn’t been passed along just yet. Driving to Mexico and beyond may prove to be a bit of an issue with no legal ownership of our vehicle. I’m sure the DMV employees will be happy to move things along for us if we just call them and explain that we want to leave, right?

october 12 2007 : portland
Keep Portland Weird, a bumper sticker often seen here. Last night at McPeet’s we got together with some Bum friends who are trying to do just that. At this little gathering we had a guy driving a monster truck, a girl who once lived in a yurt, another girl who gave birth in a teepee, even a guy who built a home using a chainsaw (no, not a log home). Funny thing is that they’d each be proud to hear that they’re helping KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD!

This afternoons bus projects included installing a faucet and a dome light. Only a few things left to do before we call the bus complete. Last week we bought a cooler that we planned to use on top of the bus as storage. But after thinking about it for a few more days we decided to return it. We’re determined not to drag around a bunch of stuff that we don’t really need on this trip. We just want to keep life as simple as possible. We’ll use the rack for extra fuel and a couple of chairs, but that’s about it.

october 16 2007 : portland
Over the weekend we went to Seattle to hang out with my cousins and go to the Seahawks game. The game was on Sunday night but we went to the stadium at noon for some tailgating. The crew we met up with had a big tent set up and one mean barbeque going. By game time the crowd was lubed up and good and rowdy. The stadium is pretty cool, with one end open to the downtown skyline, and we had our first clear night in weeks to see it.

My cousin works for the Seahawks, so after the game we went down to his office where he showed us some pretty hilarious emails. During the game they received hundreds of emails from angry fans, most saying things like, “Alexander is a bum, why do you keep running the ball. Are you stoopid!!!!??” Written and misspelled by angry drunks who probably wouldn’t remember sending them come morning.

Today we finally got running water in the bus. We installed the plumbing hooking up our faucet to the 15 gallon water tank. We originally ordered a 10 gallon tank along with a 5 gallon waste water holding tank, but when we got it it had a 15 gallon water and a 12 gallon waste tank in it. It seemed like a ton of wasted space so once we thought about it for a while we decided to completely ditch the waste water tank and just run the hose right out the bottom of the bus. That allowed us to turn the cabinet into an actual usable storage space, and our waste water is really only a mouthful of toothpaste anyway, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

october 18 2007 : portland
Driving around the other day we realized that the safari windows still leak. We got the major leaking stopped after we caulked the seals, but some water still seaps in between the metal window frame and the rubber seal. It seems like the metal and rubber just can’t form a tight seal, so that when it is raining and we are driving over about 40 miles an hour the wind just forces the water through.

october 25 2007 : portland
We didn’t expect to be here in Portland this long, but some personal family stuff has got us hanging around for a little while until we get everything straightened out. In the meantime Ali and I have done a little more work on the bus. We really needed a divider to give us a bit more privacy. We wanted something that would make looking inside tougher, but not so much so that it would block all of our light or make it hard for us to see out. In the end we found this bamboo at the same shop that the bamboo for the ceiling came from. We hung it up and are pretty happy with the results.

We also had to replace a ceiling panel that I had managed to burn on our first night out with a propane heater. I set it up on the sink counter even though Ali said it would burn the ceiling. I shrugged off her comments and told her it would be fine. Five minutes later I looked up and saw a dark brown stain directly above the heater. Oops. I should know better by now than to question Ali. So for the past few weeks she’s been hounding me about replacing the panel, and we finally got it done. She’s a happy girl again.

Ali’s sister called yesterday with the news we’ve been waiting on for weeks. Our title has arrived! So it looks like now, as soon as we’re ready to head south again, we won’t have anything holding us back.

october 29 2007 : portland
On Saturday we all went down to the Portland Saturday Market. It’s sort of an institution here, though to me it seemed a lot like any other market pretty much anywhere in the world. The usual assortment of handcrafted knick knacks, food cooked in a small trailer, and of course, friendly homeless people dressing their dogs like princesses. I must say though that I was pleasantly surprised when my mom led us right to the sausage roll stand. They weren’t quite up to New Zealand standards, but it was the first time we’d seen them outside of Australia, and for just a moment I was transported back there. What a great breakfast food. Forget the chocolate donuts and Fruit Loops, I’ll take a hot flaky sausage roll over those any time. Walking around the market Ali and I once again realized how little we want or need while living out of a VW. Since there really isn’t room for anything, we don’t even think about buying anything. It’s pretty liberating.

Then yesterday Ali and I jumped in the bus and headed for Mount St. Helens. Though I was just a young pup when the volcano blew her top in 1980, I still remember it fondly. My aunt lived in a house with a view of the volcano that was covered in ash after the explosion. I recall that for years we had little bottles of ash proudly displayed around our house back in Minnesota. Ali and I got a great day for the drive out there and enjoyed the road leading out to the final viewpoint. The nice thing about the road was that there were actually enough turn offs for you to take your time and enjoy it. I hate those scenic roads that never let you pull over.

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