I made it back to Montréal last Wednesday, and I’ll be in town for a couple of weeks apart from short trips. The trip home from Burning Man was great! I convinced Robin to join me for the first few days, and we drove north from Black Rock City to Portland, stopping at Crater Lake and several hot springs on the way. We both really enjoyed wandering around Portland, and I want to go back! We also had poutine at a food cart. Not great poutine, but poutine nonetheless.
Then we parted ways and I continued north to Seattle. I arrived just in time to hear j0seph play as part of TubaLuba in a music festival, then stayed with him for a few days. I’d forgotten how much we have in common other than computer stuff (which is how we met) and now I want more than ever to get a workspace back in Montréal where I can build things like silly bikes.
Vancouver was my next stop, to see the city and visit a friend from high school. He suggested I ride to Granville Island while he was at work, and once there I found the Fringe Festival! Of course I went to see a couple of plays before meeting him for drinks when he was done work Рsaw 52 pickup and Jem Rolls, both of which were great (not sure if either were in Montr̩al this year.. anyone else catch them?)
On my way out of Vancouver, I stopped by a scrap yard to get a power steering reservoir for the van. The current one is rusted out, and all 3 Chevy vans I looked at had some degree of rust there, so I wanted a nice shiny west coast one. Scrap yards are cool – a big field of junked cars that’s basically an open-air parts shop. You can get a pretty good view of the internals of a lot of them since many have their engines removed (and presumably sold.)
Then, more hot springs. I spent 3 days in the rockies visiting several of them, then drove east on the Trans Canada Highway. Northern Ontario is just a big as I remember from my bike trip but also really beautiful in places. The prairies are also (contrary to what everyone who hasn’t driven them assumes) not boring, and I saw an amazing sunset while driving through Saskatchewan! And then Montréal again… it’s good to be home :)