There are a lot of small restaurants in Tokyo. These are often found in alleys. They usually hold 10 to 20 customers. You sit at a counter facing the kitchen which I like as well. It’s fun to watch the cooks.
When you enter the restaurant, the cook, waitress and any other staff call out to you. It’s like they are giving a cheer that you have arrived at their establishment. I have no idea what they are saying, but I imagine it is “Yay! You are here! Welcome!”. When you order, the waitress calls out and the cook answers. In my head they said “She would like a steak”. “Great choice, foreign lady”. When you leave everyone cheerfully yells out in unison. Again, I made up the words “Have a great day!”.
I bought some shoes on line that were touted as the best travel shoes ever. They were grey flats with lots of padding, lightweight and apparently smell resistant. I tried them out on a trip to Norway and again in Thailand and they lived up to the hype.
Today, I had nothing planned until a wagyu beef tour in the evening. After breakfast I headed to Harajuku. I had been there before and loved wandering through all the interesting shops. I also thought a park I remembered loving was there. Last time I was there, we went to a very odd cat cafe. I had no desire to do that again, but Google has decided that it would let me know there was an owl cafe and that peaked my interest.
I arrived in Harajuku an hour before the owl cafe opened. The area was super crowded with tourists and Japanese girls, about age 6, with their parents. They were all standing in lines in various places (not the tourists). Something big was happening. I googled it and found nothing useful. Instead I found some other news articles about someone running over 7 school aged kids. Not what I was looking for, Google. First you give me owls, then car accident….
I wandered around the little shops. There were tourist t shirt shops, stores with only gumball type machines. You put your money in, twist the knob and out pops candy or a plastic figurine of your favorite cartoon character. Last time I was in Japan, I found one with cat hats and proudly went home with a cat hat to give to friends I knew would get it. I looked for cat hats this time because I have 3 cats. I found none. So sad.
As I wandered, I walked by cat cafes, two dog cafes, a hedge hog cafe, an otter cafe, and three mini pig cafes. What the hell is going on here? Why so much interest in mini pigs? I didn’t go to the owl cafe.
I went to the park I remembered. It wasn’t a park, but the entrance to a temple. There was a park next door that I decided to go check out if I had time after.
I got a call from a Japanese number. That seemed odd so I answered it in case it had something to do with the food tour. It did. They cancelled because the guide was sick. I sat down on a bench and looked through other tours. There were only three that specialized in wagyu. Two had no availability and one looked like it was pretty far away. I looked at other food tours and found one that looked ok except the sushi part (I don’t like fish). Still, I could try the sushi and if I didn’t like it, I’m sure there would still be plenty of other food. I booked it and then contacted the tour company to make sure they got the booking. It took awhile of whatsap-ing back and forth before they got the booking.
I had a couple hours before I had to make my way to Shinjuku station. My right heel was hurting like I was getting a blister. I just booked a walking food tour. So, I looked for a pharmacy. Google maps was having trouble in this area so I walked back and forth across the same crowded intersection three times before I could get it to stop jumping around. It led me into a building that was not a pharmacy. I used translate to ask a woman if she could tell me where the pharmacy was. Instead of directing me, she walked me there – underground on the opposite side of the building. I bought bandaids and bandaged two hot spots I felt. Ready to go!
Shinjuku station wasn’t too far away. I had plenty of time to get to the Starbucks that was the meeting place. A coffee sounded good too. Google maps went nuts at the same intersection again. I crossed it and then it showed I went the wrong way. I did this several times before I had to go old school and just read the actual map. The intersection was a quarter block from the train station! I still had plenty of time, but was running low on willpower.
I arrived in Shinjuku station and looked for the exit signs. In every other station the exits were numbered and signs with arrows directed you. No signs. So I picked a direction. Five minutes later still no exits, just signs to other train lines. Up escalators, down escalators, past other train lines, through ticket gates, past shops, NO EXITS. If I could just get above ground, maps could re-route me. After about 15 minutes, I started seeing exit signs for East and West. I was looking for the Yasuda Exit. I never saw a sign for Yasuda and maps didn’t tell me an exit number or East or West. It appeared the meeting place was west of the station and I no longer had plenty of time. The West exit sounds great! I never saw any other exit signs. About 5 minutes later, I saw an exit and took it. I looked behind me and saw it was the Yasuda Exit (or entrance for anyone reading the sign). I made it to the Starbucks just in time. I actually suspect I might have nightmares in the future about being stuck in this station.
The tour was good. We walked around Shinjuku and learned a little about the area. We went to four different restaurants and tried a variety of food and drink. Unfortunately the first restaurant was sushi and sashimi. I tried it though. Some was ok and some was not to my liking.
After the tour, I headed back to my hotel. It was so much easier to navigate back to the hotel. I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad. After I took my shoes off, I counted 5 blisters, 4 of which were on the bottom of my feet. Those shoes will not be continuing the trip with me.
Some things I learned today:
The word Godzilla comes from the words Gorilla and Whale although Godzilla is neither a gorilla or whale.
Shinjuku Station is considered the busiest train station in the world – 3.5 million people pass through a day (in 2018) – It has 16 train lines – It is roughly 182,000 square meters (45 acres) in size – It has over 200 exits. It’s a miracle I am not still in there.
Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, but Pachinko machines are legal. You can win balls from the game. The balls can be turned in at the Pachinko parlour for prize tokens. The prize tokens can be sold elsewhere for money.
A small alley named Nonbei Yokocho has other names such as Drunkard’s Alley, Memory Lane, or Piss Alley. I didn’t really need to know that, but now I do. Now you do too.
I’ve been planning this trip to Japan for about a month now. I’ve been to Japan twice before so this should be easy. I feel like the world is getting more crowded and reservations for things are more necessary than they use to be. Gone are the days where you just show up, find a hotel, wander, find dinner and then decide last minute to do that tour or see that thing. In some places, it could still work out that way, but I might be too old to just show up and find a hotel when I arrive, especially when travelling alone. I booked all my hotels ahead of time for this trip. That was pretty easy. I booked some activities that I was pretty excited about. Then I started to book all the high speed trains (and one normal speed bus) I would need. I had it all mapped out only to find out you couldn’t order tickets more than a month in advance. It was quite a bit of work to figure out times and routes to get where I wanted to go as there were so many options. Which options would involve the least amount of walking with my suitcase? I found out that you could ship your suitcase in most situations, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I could check in at each hotel. So, I had to assume worst case, I would be dragging a suitcase with me. It took me the better part of a day to figure out which trains I wanted tickets for so I recorded the various websites to buy tickets from later and the times and routes I wanted. I just wanted to buy the tickets then and be done with this part of the planning, but I would have to wait.
After I bought the first tickets, I expected a ticket I could print or a QR code I could download. Instead, I found pages of information on how to “receive” my tickets in Japan. I looked up a large list of stations where I could receive tickets and the one I would be departing from was not on that list. I looked it up twice – not sure why I thought it would change – it didn’t. So I switched gears and looked at the pages of instructions on how to receive tickets from a machine. It felt like the worst easter egg hunt ever – find a machine (somewhere in Tokyo?) that had this symbol or this symbol and then go through these 10 steps to receive your ticket. You will need the credit card you bought the ticket with and a four digit pin you chose. At this point I started to regret deciding to do this trip and seriously wondered if I was getting too old to travel, too old to learn new things. My house and life in Colorado were starting to feel all too comfortable. In small print I saw that tickets could be received at select ticket counters in Tokyo. It didn’t say which ticket counters, but at least I could formulate a plan now. I would try to find a ticket counter at the airport when I landed. I remember getting train tickets there in the past. If that didn’t work, I would go to the main train station in Tokyo one day and find a ticket counter.
Over time I bought four more train tickets and a bus ticket. Four of the five train tickets had the same “receive” instructions. The other and the bus ticket came with QR codes. One train ticket required that I set up a membership before I could purchase. I have no idea what I am a member of. Of course, this is the one that my credit card company denied. I had to enter my membership information at least fifteen times due to the website timing out, the website verifying my membership, the website going under maintenance, and the transaction not going through because of the credit card denial. I spent over a half hour on the phone with the credit card company trying to resolve the issue. Again, I almost threw in the towel on the whole trip. I will still have to pay as I go for all the local trains and one bus ride that are not reservable.
By the time it was time to leave, I felt beat up and incapable. Add that to some health issues and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go. I checked in for my flight the day before and got to the page where it asked if I wanted to change my seats. There were plenty of first class seats still available and I was feeling sorry for myself so I clicked on a first class seat and put my credit card in. I felt a mix of better and worse at the same time. It felt like this would be my last trip ever so I might as well have a lie down seat for it. Who am I right now and where are these doomsday thoughts coming from? Is this just because the train scheduling got the better of me or because I’m not as healthy as I used to be or do I just need a snack?
I woke up early for travel day – earlier than I would normally so that put me in a bad mood. I immediately regretted buying the first class seat. I was going to really miss my husband. I was hoping I would say healthy. I had a weird thought that I was afraid my government wouldn’t let me back in the country when I came home – some crazy things are happening in our government right now. As with a lot of things lately, I blame menopause. After I checked in and went through security I found some breakfast and immediately started crying. I hadn’t told my husband that I upgraded my seat. Ultimately, he was the person working and paying for it. It felt like a huge weight. It felt like I was lying to him even though I was technically withholding information, information he probably would never know. I called him sobbing and apologizing. He was fine with it. I realized that part of why I feel so horrible is that I’m leaving him behind. Even though he chose not to come, it still feels weird to not take my partner in crime with me.
The flight was ok. I had trouble sleeping partly because there were two women that talked the whole flight and partly because there was an infant babbling most of the flight. First class does not buy quiet. I did get two blankets, two pillows, slippers and a kit with ear plugs, eye mask, tooth brush, etc. I watched a few movies and got a little sleep. I woke up mid flight, hungry and was able to get a grilled cheese and some tomato soup. That was the best timed grilled cheese ever. I guess I’m off the keto now.
After landing, I was able to find a JR East ticket counter. Even though all my tickets were on JR West, the lady at the counter knew exactly what I needed and easily printed all my tickets for me. It took less time to print all my tickets than it took to read about how to receive them. All that stress for nothing. She also helped me with a local train card that I could reload with money later if I needed. Then I took a taxi to my hotel. I should have taken a couple of trains instead. More money down the drain and no grilled cheese to go with it.
My hotel had check in agents with an automated check in screen in front of them. You were supposed to enter all your information and it would spit out your breakfast coupons and room key. So basically, the lady behind the desk pushed all the buttons for me when I got confused on how to do the automated check in steps by myself. Again, am I too old to be travelling? My room is tiny. The window looks out at the side of another building. The bathroom is slightly bigger than the bathroom in our camper van. But the TV is giant. The hotel reminds me that some people in the world live in spaces this size. I am filled with gratitude for all that I have.
I picked a hotel with a restaurant so that if I was too tired to go out on the first night I wouldn’t have to. The restaurant was closed for a private party. So, out I will go. Google maps found a few restaurants with in a ten minute walk. I picked one with a medium price. I was in an area that seemed to be more business offices so it was very quiet out. Maps took me down some quiet streets to a closed restaurant. The second restaurant I chose was also closed. I should have clicked the “open now” filter. The third one was open and not at all crowded. They specialized in yakitori and I happen to like meat on a stick so it was a win. They brought me a small dish that looked like a salad before my chicken trio. Aw, how nice. I looked in the bowl and saw something silvery under the beautiful micro greens. I don’t eat fish and I’m sure that is raw fish hiding under the microgreens. I felt bad for not eating my free treat. But the chicken was excellent. The walk back to the hotel was cool and peaceful. It took this long, but I finally felt my nervous system start to relax. Maybe I wasn’t too old to travel after all.
The tv in my room told me that this hotel has a public bath. The tv comes on automatically every time I come in the room. It comes on to a hotel information page with lots of helpful and not so helpful little videos that tell me about Japan and the hotel. There is a little sign that tells you if the public bath is busy or not. Tonight, it wasn’t. The tv told me the correct way to put on my bathrobe (yukata) and that I could wear it from my room to the public bath. That seems like a simple bit of information, but I was happy to know it. It also told me that tattoos are not allowed in the public bath, but the hotel has stickers you can use to cover them. That was good to know too since I wasn’t sure which baths allow them and which do not. I will need to cover that very offensive snowflake on my foot, the terrifying bird on my shoulder, the rude turtle on my chest, and the kuma (bear in Japanese, my old dog’s name) on my leg and the dirty frog on my back. To be fair, the frog is a blue poisonous tree frog so it could be dangerous, but the rest are not. I asked for stickers at the front desk and the guy gave me two. I felt funny asking for three more. All stickered up, I looked like I had gotten in a knife fight and was all bandaged up from it. The baths and lack of good sleep put me very ready for bed by about 9:30. Finally I was looking forward to the rest of my trip.
My Tiny RoomQuiet StreetsHidden FishYay! Meat on a StickTemple?Road Block for Nobody?Free to BorrowView from my Hotel Window
What a wonderful trip, but I am extremely ready to go home. I have a theory that no matter how long I travel, I am done and ready to go home 1 to 2 days before actually going home. Once again, this theory has turned out to be true. This is great because it also means I live in the right place, a place I look forward to going home to. I have a husband and furry kids I look forward to going home to. I had help packing this morning from Hannah’s furry kids, but I miss mine. Now, I also have a new career to go home to. I left an engineer and I go home an artist.
There is only one commercial airline that flies to and from Valdez. Yesterday, my tour guide said there is one flight a day and a 50/50 chance it flies. Mild panic. I tried not to think about it. It will fly because I’m on it. Her comment did ruin my sleep last night. As much as I knew I could manifest a timely flight, my dreams were frantic with me losing things or getting lost.
I learned you could buy salmon in a jar in a vending machine.
The flight took off fine. Only one person on the incoming flight and 6 of us on the outgoing flight. They gave us a drink and cookies. The attendant was so cheerful and all the staff at the airport was delightful.
I was not on the harbor side of the plane. I would have liked to see the harbor, Prince William Sound, and whatever else could be seen in that direction. But, I did get to see a glacier, then another and another. Glacier after glacier and steep white capped mountains. It was breathtaking. I got my glacier flight after all. The view was through the distorted tiny window while peering under the wing, but it was still amazing. I sat for half the flight with my head pressed up against the window, crying at the wild beauty of it while shoving cookies in my mouth. Then we flew into a cloud, and all the mountains disappeared in the blanket of white.
Got to Anchorage, had some lunch, and borded a less delightful but good enough flight to Seattle.
Froze but butt off from Anchorage to Seattle. Got to Seattle and exhaustion set in, but multiple gate changes helped me pass the time before my next flight.
Got into Denver around midnight. So good to see my husband! After one more hotel room tonight, I’ll be home tomorrow.
Today, I was supposed to go to Columbia glacier to kayak around the icebergs. It was a 10 hour tour, but there was also the chance of seeing whales, sea lions, and seals. After the Aurora tour when I felt so exhausted, I called the company I was kayaking with and asked if I could change to the shorter kayak tour that went to a nearby lake and kayaked around the icebergs in the lake.
It would have been nice to see Columbia glacier, but it was also nice to have a shorter day. There were no whales in the lake. Although the lake is 600+/- feet deep. There were only 5 of us plus the guide. That was a nice sized group. We paddled around the lake. Made a shore stop for lunch and then paddled some more.
The clouds finally lifted. It’s nothing but steep mountains everywhere. It’s impossible to tell that this is a port town as every finger of land has mountains on it. It looks like you are in a mountain-locked bowl. The mountains rise straight up from sea level – nothing gradual here. It really is so stunning.
Our tour guide raved about some of the food trucks in town, so I had some ginger chicken from the Thai food truck after we got back. Later, I went for a walk around the neighborhood with Hannah and Colin and the dogs. Saw a mamma and baby moose in their backyard.
I am so in love with ice. I’m completely drawn in by it. I’ve seen glaciers and ice before, and it still feels like my first encounter with it. I love the shades of blue, black, white, and clear. It has so many textures. Some ice is smooth, clear, and glistening, like ice cubes in your glass. Some of the clear ice has beautiful patterns of cracks and bubbles trapped below the smooth surface. Other ice is dimpled, opaque, and looks fuzzy like a stuffed animal from afar. There are black streaks where the glacier wore down rocke into a fine black dust. Some icebergs still have rocks in them, or the ice above the rocks melted, leaving a roof of black rocks. These icebergs look like the shoreline, but they aren’t. There are holes, caverns, ice bridges, and mini waterfalls. We kayaked through open water and mini canyons of ice.
Days 11 and 12 of my roadtrip were mostly driving. I left Whitehorse and got to drive past Kluane National Park again. It was just as beautiful. The road was quite bad most of the way. There were giant potholes and undulations in the pavement that almost threw you into the air, or maybe they did. So there was quite a bit of speeding up, cussing and slowing down.
I got to the Alaska US border. The border guy was way less enjoyable than the guy when I entered Canada. He started off with an accusatory tone like how dare I try to come into the US and just kept going.
Border Dude: “Where are you going”?
Me: “Valdez”.
BD: “Why”?
Me: “To visit my friends that just moved there and bring them their truck”. [In my head: To see Alaska, duh]
BD: “Why are you driving it”?
Me: “Because they just moved there”. [As I just told you]
BD: “Why didn’t they drive it”?
Me: “Because 2 people can’t drive 3 vehicles. [in my head: haven’t you ever moved?]
BD: “What are their names”?
Me: “Hannah and Colin” [You know them?]
BD: “How are you getting home”?
Me: “Flying” [This is not the job for you].
He did let me through, but I still don’t understand why he had such a chip on his shoulder. The rest of the drive to Tok was beautiful as was the next day to Valdez. The leaves were even more yellow than the Yukon. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see much of the mountains in Valdez because it was cloudy and raining. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. The clouds were stunning. They engulfed everything around them or they outlined other things. It was a quiet, heavy, and beautiful. Also so fun to see Hannah and Colin’s new home!
I wanted to a helicopter or plane flight over the glaciers. I called a ton of companies before I left home to see if I could join an existing tour. None of them had existing tours. I didn’t want to pay for the whole plane/helicopter. So I booked an atv tour with a different company. I won’t get to see glaciers, but it should still be fun.
I woke up feeling miserable. I felt like I had a hangover even though I didn’t drink the night before. I didn’t get back from the Aurora tour until 4am. Some people on the Aurora tour bought packages of more than one night. They are doing this every night. That might kill me. The tour was great, but mother nature didn’t cooperate. They take you about 45 minutes outside of town to the “Aurora Center”. They have a cabin, several huge yurts, and some tepees. They had games, books, snacks and a wood stove in the cabin. They set a fire in one of the tepees. You could hang out outside or in while you waited.
The tour was 15 people, but the center could handle 50+. I mostly hung out with the three ladies from Australia. The rest of the people were from Asia, Japan mostly. It was cloudy and the clouds never lifted. If you took a picture with a camera, you could see green and pink clouds. Some cell phones took ok pictures. Mine got nothing but a grey sky or just all black. The lights were happening, just not for us.
I almost canceled the atv tour. I almost called to see if I could do the half day instead of the full day. Instead, I sucked it up and went. I didn’t read the driving directions until I was on my way. After reading the directions: “turn into the driveway of the blue house, drive past the blue house and we’ll be the next cabin.”, I thought this might be some dude’s house, not an ATV facility.
I got to the cabin. It was a tiny cabin where Fabian, his wife Raphaelle and their young daughter live. Two ATVs sat out front. A sled dog greeted me. It was definately a private tour. I’m so glad I didn’t cancel. He outfitted me with a helmet and gave me an overview of what the day would be like.
We rode to a couple different lakes. We rode through the river. The fresh air was exactly what I needed to feel better. We could go as fast or slow as I wanted. We went up to the top of one of the hills with great views over the whole area and stunning views of the mountains all around. The hills appeared to be lit from the inside with reds, oranges, and every hue of yellow. At the top, we had lunch, which Raphaelle had made – an omelet sandwich with cheese and kale from their garden. There was also tea made from plants in the area. This was the best part – the attention to detail and the personal touch.
We went back down to another lake. We accessed it from the property of a friend of his. It was another cabin. This was a whole neighborhood of small spaced out cabins. All of them were pretty simple. All of them had outhouses. I find it funny that I can’t get the idea of living with an outhouse out of my mind. If I had to go out into the Yukon cold several times a night…… brrrr…. Maybe an outhouse is easier than plumbing, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a factor of what you are used to.
As we sat by the lake, I learned more about Fabian and Raphaelle. They came out from France for dog sledding (they had 12 dogs then) and loved it so they stayed. He works as ski patrol in the winter and bike patrol in the summer. He also leads people on tours – atv, BC ski, dog sled (he has 5 dogs now), and snowmobile. He is hoping to make a good business of this so he doesn’t have to do patrol anymore. I love this and hope he does. As we sat, he pulled out berry muffins made from berries they picked. I’m very glad I found this company and didn’t cancel.
On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Miles Canyon in Whitehorse for a couple of pictures.
Today, I did a day tour of Kluane National Park. The tour description mentioned going to the visitor’s center, a lake, and a small park. How can that take 8 hours?
There were only 5 of us on the tour. We went to the visitor’s center, two lakes, two hikes to overlooks, an old bridge, and multiple roadway overlooks. We saw dall sheep, although you needed binoculars to know they were sheep.The mountains are stunning, rugged, snow-capped, and wild. There are no roads into the park. The only way in is to hike or fly. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains Kluane National Park, Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, Glacier Bay National Park, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
I’m glad the hikes were short. My ankle did real well for only having surgery a month ago.
We learned a little about the history of the area, the First Nation’s tribes, the gold rush and the construction of the Alaska Highway.
It was a 10 hour day. I went straight to dinner after we got back. I iced my ankle after dinner and fought hard to stay awake. Now it’s 11:30pm and I’m back on the tour bus heading out of town in hopes of seeing Aurora Boreals. There’s 15 people on this tour. We get back around 4:00am. I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
Another “short” drive – only 4.5 hours. I checked out the sign post forest on the way out of town. It was far more impressive than pictures online showed. I stopped in another town for breakfast. No animal sightings today. It was a pretty drive, but not spectacular. The leaves started changing to brilliant yellow and orange.
On my way into Whitehorse, I saw a race. There were people running along the highway with race bibs on. People and motor homes lined the highway, cheering them on. It was not as unique as chatting with a bear, but it was interesting.
After I checked into my hotel, I did laundry. The dryer worked and dried things in one go. That’s a new experience in travel for me. Laundry made my day!
I had dinner at a packed restaurant downtown. There were hardly any cars in town, but all restaurants seemed packed.
I had an 8:00pm reservation for Eclipse hot springs, which was about a half hour outside town. Again, hardly and cars, but packed with people. They have at least 4 warm pools, maybe more. And there is a cold pool nearby each warm pool. They have steam rooms and saunas also. It was a bit of a process: take shoes off, check in and get your locker key, get a blue bin, take a shower using your blue bin as a shower door lock and way to hold your stuff, put everything in locker, choose a hot pool and sit and relax, then get in a cool pool, repeat pools. The first warm pool I chose was covered in people. As I sat, they all seemed to know each other. Was this the party place of Whitehorse? It was adults only – fan of that! With some time, I realized it was many large groups of people. They were the racers I’d seen earlier. It was a relay race or team race. I tried the cold pool. I remember trying it in Norway and thinking it was ok. Now, it was not ok. It stung my feet and legs. I gave up after 30 seconds and went back eavesdropping on the race. Every other pool I tried was also filled with runners. I only counted 4 other people who didn’t seem to be racers. It was a beautiful place. It would have been awesome if it had only been 5 of us.
I looked it up online later. I think it was the Klondike Road Relay Race, which is a 175-kilometer race from Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon. Running over mountain passes is not on my bucket list, but I can appreciate the skill, coordination, and training that goes into this.
Yesterday’s drive was great. I only had a 4 hour drive, so I had looked up various places along the way to stop for beautiful views. I was sure other stops would present themselves as well.
Because I wasn’t sure how often I would stop, I decided not to listen to the audio book. It would be distracting to keep turning it on and off. For the beginning of the ride, I was driving next to the Toad River. It was that beautiful light arctic blue. So, as I often do, I sang about it. I can say it was one of my best songs.
I do this all the time, especially at home. I just make up songs about things going on around me. At home, it’s mostly about our pets. But there is also the Hot Tub Time song which hasn’t been heard all summer. I predict it’s making a come back soon. And the cheerful song I sing about how much I love grocery shopping. I do not love grocery shopping, so the song helps me motivate. I actually wonder how Richard is surviving without my daily songs. I’m sure my pets are suffering.
All along the trip today were wildlife warning signs – Bison, Caribou, Sheep, Moose….. Caribou? I forgot Canada has caribou. I want to see caribou. The first sign was for sheep. I saw no sheep. I sang about it. The next was for caribou. No caribou. I sang about that, too. Bison – no bison – song.
A truck flashed it’s lights at me 4 times. Warning! Something is coming. There was no sign to tell me what it might be. It was a mamma and baby moose on the road. I just stopped in the middle of the highway until the baby decided to cross the road. Then I drove slowly by mamma so I wouldn’t spook her. She was not concerned. No other cars came by or behind me while I was there. A private audience with the moose.
I drove by rivers and lakes and lakes that looked like rivers and rivers that looked like lakes. I sang about them all. After I passed the 5th or 6th bison sign, I thought, yea, no, there will be no bison. By now, I decided the bison song would be best sung by a barber shop quartet. Then…..bison……everywhere! There was a huge herd flanking the highway. Again, I sang. Again, I stopped in the middle of the highway. I rolled down the windows and had a chat with the bison. I was probably there for 20 minutes and never saw another car.
Around lunchtime, I got to Liard River Hot Springs. This was one of my planned stops as it got a thumbs up from my friend, Tim. I drove up to what looked like a military grade electric gate, and it opened. I paid $5 and heard the “rules”. The area is fenced and gated with an electric fence. I assume this is to protect us from bears. Still, hot springs and electric fences seem at odds with each other. I guess a run in with a bear and hot springs do too. I’m not complaining, though, because you had to walk about 5 minutes down a forest boardwalk to get from the parking to the hot springs. The boardwalk turned out to be my favorite part of the hot springs. The hot springs were lovely, warm, relaxing, and exactly what I expected. The boardwalk surprised me. It was quiet and looked like something you might see in a tropical place. It was lush with water all around. I saw a ton of dragon flies. You could hear the trickle and drip of water as you walked. I could hear little animals in the trees and the soft sound of leaves and pine needles dropping slowly through the trees.
Later, I stopped at a waterfall and a place in the river called whirlpool canyon. Both were better than what I expected. I took the obligatory photo and moved on.
As I started pulling out of the mountains and entered more of a hilly area, I saw a bear silhouette. It looked like a metal sculpture you often see in Colorado. It wasn’t a sculpture. It was a real baby bear. This time I pulled off the highway onto the shoulder. I saw no mother. Maybe this was a yearling newly on his own? I rolled down the windows again and we had a chat. It was a one way chat. I told him how magnificent he was and kept eating flowers. I was so close I could hear his munching. He was enthusiastic about eating. I hope he now knows how magnificent he is. He probably already knew.
I got to Watson Lake and checked into “A Nicer Motel”. That was the name of my hotel. From the look of the outside, I cried a little. It looked worse than the Travelodge. The inside was cute, clean and very very nice. Relief. Funny thing was the sign on the hotel next door. It read “A Nice Hotel”. I wonder if there was some neighbor rivalry going on here.
So far, this was my favorite day on the trip. I am absolutely in love with myself. I am funny and entertaining. I sang, laughed, saw beautiful places, and talked to wild animals. And I think I created an entire album of new hits:
For a limited time only, for only $9.99, you too could own The Songs of British Columbia. With old-time favorites such as “The Bear Chant”, “Dude on a Bike”, and “Cheers Mother Nature”. Sure to become future hits are “Buffalo”, “Sheep no Sheep”, and “What the Fuck, Pebble”. And what album would be complete without “Blue Blue Toad River” and “Caribou, Where are You?”?
Rraine Drops 