To get to Hawaii, we are doing our usual procedure of heading down to Seattle by car. We will hang out with the family there for two days, and then fly from Seattle to Kona.
Watching Tevye and Lazer Wolfe heading to America in the video we posted yesterday had us musing about all the people who have gone to America over the past several hundred years, and their various reasons and subsequent successes and failures there. We can't help but think of the present unwelcoming stance toward refugees, but that would be a topic mostly for some other blog!
This time, as we headed again for America we naturally cast a look at the land we are leaving. It is beautiful and reasonably prosperous, lacking only one thing - winter cycling! America, of course, is also not all that welcoming to cyclists, being overrun with cars, but in remote Hawaii we have a better chance than in many other spots.
Active Pass - on the way from Vancouver Island to Tsawasswen. This ferry trip is always scenic.
Here is a lineup of people waiting to cross into America. We look at the abandoned border stations in Europe, and wonder if this border too should be opened. Then we give ourselves a pinch and say "Naaah"!
There is a new hurdle for Canadian cycling refugees to America now, and that is the tanking Canadian Loonie. (Rising cost of US dollar). The former government put all its eggs in a barrel of tar sand, and now we are stuck with it. So we have a new fear in America - the total cost.
This chart shows the increase in cost for us of obtaining a US dollar - in just the past month.
American food. We chose IHOP (International House of Pancakes) because they use reasonable quality ingredients. However a typical meal there is 1200 calories, or over half the daily requirement. It's good that they do list the calorie content of each item, but scary.
