Day Two: Vancouver to the middle of the Atlantic.: (Year 2: 1969)

September 22, 2017

1969 was a year for graduation from McGill for Steve and choosing a graduate school. Steve used to be very smart, so there were a number of choices. Because of the Vietnam war many professors at McGill were Americans who preferred not to be there. (Sounds familiar again!) Despite this, they carried to Canada an appreciation of American universities. So it seemed natural for Steve and Dodie to go to America. However to avoid the growing protest violence they chose seemingly quiet Wisconsin. That turned out to be in vain, as that campus too would soon erupt in violence.

Before heading on down to Wisconsin there was time to experience more of Canada. With a little pup tent and a VW beetle we crossed Canada and headed for Alaska. The road to Alaska was then dirt and the new little VW took a beating. We turned back before it got totally ruined, but still had gone coast to coast.

Graduation from McGill University was in 1969. Look closely at the statue in the background on the campus. This was known as the Three Bares. It scandalized innocent young students over decades. Nude statues, common in Europe, are not much seen in Canada.

Showing early signs of using underpowered means to go long distances, the Grampies set off on their first long tour. The brand new but little VW took a beating on the then unpaved road to Alaska.

Phil Ochs I Aint Marchin Anymore This song exemplifies for us the tragedy and futility of wars.

-----

The Travelodge managed to undershoot even our low expectations with their breakfast. In Europe the Klassens and us developed the idea of the "Ten Jammer" breakfast, meaning one with possibly ten pots of different home made jams. This indicator would almost always be correlated with a selection of cheeses, cold cuts, fruits, yogurts, and etc. Here at the Travelodge, "Ten Jammer" could possibly men they had up to ten little packets of identical low quality jelly.

Dodie asked the man maintaining the "spread" about hot chocolate, and she expressed dismay on learning they had none. "It's a 'continental' breakfast", the man explained. Dodie retorted that she had been on the "continent", and this breakfast was not it!

As we sat to enjoy our bread and jam we again noticed that all the other patrons were of Chinese ethnicity. However this did not mean that all were in any sense foreigners. One lady standing beside me at the toaster said in perfect English "This is not a cheap hotel but the breakfast is really cheap!". On the other hand, maybe any of the guests who were straight from China either enjoyed the factory wheat bread toast or at least thought it was interesting.

This is more than a ten jammer breakfast, maybe, because there are more than 10 packets here? However there are only two lame flavours and each packet is hard pressed to cover one piece of bread.

Our fellow customers may bring a different perspective to the breakfast offering.

We rolled our loaded bikes out of the room and directly onto the street - so slick. It is only 7 km from this hotel to the terminal. The trip starts on Bridgeport Road, which is not at all bicycle friendly. But soon a bicycle way and guide signs appeared and took us directly to the Transat counter.

Bridgeport Road, is not Amsterdam in any sense.

Once onto Sea Island, there is good bicycle signage to the airport.

We set about converting from bike travel mode to loaded into a plane mode - shoving panniers into duffels and so on. With our bikes in the terminal we attracted some of the Usual Questions (UQ's). One UQ person was an RCMP (police) officer using a bike to patrol the terminal. We had a good time talking 29 inch wheels and bike mounted sirens, and gave him our card in case he wanted to follow our trip. He told us he only got to be on the bike another two weeks, after which he would be rotated to car patrol downtown. Poor guy.

Bicycles seem to be used by most police at the airport.

Not only police use bikes here. This is a paramedics vehicle.

Check in of the bikes with Air Transat was very pleasant, due to friendly and efficient staff. Even the security agent that checked the tool bag for anything dangerous was polite and helpful. We were soon free to stroll through the airport, which really has been made as restful as possible, with sculptures and some greenery.

A Transat employee leads us and the bikes to the oversize baggage area.

Transat helps us package the bikes in bags that they also supplied. Nice.

Large sculptures at the airport are drawn from native culture.

There is some very restful green space available.

We will be in the air when tomorrow arrives, so today's blog entry logically ends here. Next communique - from Amsterdam!

Today's ride: 7 km (4 miles)
Total: 45 km (28 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0