Gypsy Chronicles: Back in the USSA

Yep, you betcha. We are back from the land of Canucks, Labatt's Blue, Molson Canadian, and great fishing, eh.

Canadians have this interesting little colloquialism that they use in everyday speech. At the end of a sentence they will often say, eh?. So they turn declarative statements into aquestion. It's really odd and sort of fun to play along. An example would be something like this, "Looks like a storm is brewing, eh?" At first we weren't sure if you are required to respond to the question or simply nod and agree. We have done both.

We spent three weeks bumbledickin around some of the most beautiful country this country boy has ever seen. Towering peaks, deep canyons, wild rivers, Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Big Horn Sheep, and a couple of Pygmy Nuthatches are just a few examples of the wildlife in Western Alberta and Southern British Columbia.

Charlotte was in Wino Heaven in the Okanagan Valley, near Oliver, BC, which boasts of over 100 wineries. We visited several and decided that Canadian wine is good, some very good, but lacking the full body of California wines. But hey, what do I know, eh. It all tasted like really yummy fermented grapes to me.

We rolled back into the USSA in Sumas, Washington and spent four days on a little lake near Snohomish, Wa called Flowing Lake. We visited with Charlotte's best friend from High School, Sharon Wade and one of my best buddies from the Islands, Jordan Barrows and his main squeeze, Rebecca Gerhart, joined us for a night of laughter and giggles around the campfire. Jordan brought Canadian contraband in the form of Ling Cod and King Salmon fillets as well as some cold smoked salmon jerky and a bottle of fine wine from the big boat where he is the executive chef. We ate well that night.

One of the big highlights of the trip for Charlotte was eating at Ray's Boathouse in Seattle. She claims it is her favorite restaurant in the world. It was a remarkable meal of Halibut steaks, Penn Cove Mussels, followed by dessert of three Port wines paired with chocolates, enjoyed looking at Puget Sound at sunset. It don't get much better than that amigos.

Yesterday was agreeably the worst day of our trip. We spent over 4 hours in stop and go traffic going 50 miles! It was hot, tempers were short and four lanes of traffic going nowhere. Every person in Seattle was leaving town. It was like a mass exodus of humanity. Just Awful. The only redeeming part of the day was pulling into Cabelas parking lot and finding a Sani-dump station that you can use and it took credit cards!! Only good old Cabelas would think of that. Got a love it.

Now we are 40 gallons of poo and 40 gallons of waste water lighter!!

Speaking of poo. Charlotte says we have talked more about it in the last 7 weeks than she has in her entire life. Gotta love it. When you carry your poo everywhere you go it becomes a big part of your conversations.

We are now visiting with Charlotte's friends Peggy and Marilee in Olympia Washington. They have a nice little farm outside of town so we are back to the quiet of being away from the highways and crowd noise that is a constant in RV Parks around the world. They are great hosts. We have spent some time just hanging out on their back deck among beautiful flower and veggie gardens.

Today we head east after traveling basically North and West for almost two months. We will start fishing in earnest again this week near the Metropolis of Sprague, Washington. Look it. My buddy from long ago is taking us to a "special" trout stream that nobody knows about. Sounds interesting, eh?

Then on to Driggs Idaho for the Grand Targhee Bluegrass festival. Ye Ha!

We have learned much in our 6,000 miles we have logged to date. We are experiencing each other in a very contained environment and both of us seem to be loving it. We commented recently that neither of us has felt cramped or overcrowded to this point. That is pretty amazing, eh?

Andiamo!

Capt Coy, Ms Charlotte and Jojo