Homelessness.

It is currently the 24th of April, 2011. Admittedly a long time after the events I am writing about transpired; so excuse the lateness of the next dozen blogs. For officiality's sake, lets just call this the retrospective travel diary. After 5 weeks on the road, living in a van with two other guys all across the United States of America and back, I found myself with too many stories to tell and was overwhelmed by enormousity of blog work before me. About half a year later (present day) I think I'm ready to get going again. The whole trip, and a little bit of winter 2011 will come to you in parts.

First up, leaving Panorama Summer. I left on (I think it was Monday) August the 30th with my friends Sam and Pablo towards Vancouver way, spending an entire day covering the entirety of British Columbia, and then some. Once we arrived in Vancouver after the 10 hour drive, we dropped Pablo off at the HI on Granville before Sam and I continued towards the ferry for Vancouver Island. I used to joke around about being 'homeless' when I was leaving Panorama just because I'd be travelling and not have an actual home. Upon arriving in Vancouver Island with barely any money and no place to stay, I found myself facing the reality of being homeless. The boys (Mr. Brad Van Der Linde and Sir Alex Finlayson) were still finishing up their last week working at the summer camp they had spent all summer at on Vancouver Island but alotting to the rules, I wasn't allowed to crash.

To begin with this week living out of a car in the lovely Crofton, Vancouver Island, all I can say is; I wish that place didn't look like something straight out of a horror movie. A lonely and quiet fishing town (I know what you did last summer), with the dankest, smallest old mate bar in existence, and that's it. For such a (sort of) lengthy post, there is not really much to tell. I spent the week in Crofton waiting for the boys. I read a book on the wharf, looking out into the ocean, which was nice for the first hour, can't say it was as relaxing for the next 4 days straight. To be honest, when I left Panorama I knew I would have to kill time waiting for the boys, but I was under the impression that killing time was a lot easier...maybe it's just because I've never had to just "kill" an entire week.

The thing with living out of a car is, there isn't much to do once the sun goes down. It's not like you have desk lamps that you can leave on at night. So once the stars come out, you better find somewhere to hide until you're ready for sleep. One of the nights I figured that sinking a few beers might not only provide somewhere to hide at night, but send me to sleep abit quicker. I went to the only bar in the place, and coincidentally, sat at a bar accompanied by three local fisherman, all very gruff looking with giant beards. Sounds like the setup for a funny story about a cool or stupid conversation I had with crazy locals...but sadly no. I sat and listened to some bloody bloke talk on and on about how he was an enthusiast about alcohol, the ingredients and effort put into making quality absinthe and the beauty around Dan Akroyd's vodka bottle making tactics; under (I thought) the possible penalty of a stabbing.

After maybe four days, I realised I couldn't take sleeping in a van, doing absolutely nothing, and being detatched from the world (no computer, Ipod and barely any reception). I was picked up by my friend Sam again and spent two days at her place in Comox, Vancouver Island. I was so happy to be inside a house for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, and even happier when she said we were having dinner at her parents house and her Dad walks through the door with a massive pacific salmon slung over his shoulder. In short, best dinner of my life.

After spending a few nights here I found a lift with one of her friends and met up with the boys (who had finished at the camp) in Victoria, still on the Island. From here, we travelled to Martha's house in Sooke, and stayed in the strangest form of accomodation I believe I experienced on this road trip...a church. It was actually quite fun, sleeping on inflatable mattresses in the meeting room, cooking nachos in the church kitchen and watching south park on the projector in the actual church hall...using the pews for seats. Had a few dips in the hot tub at Martha's (which was amazing considering what I had experienced in the week before this).

My return to Vancouver was the beginning of the amazing trip really. After just chillin and preparing with the boys and without the boys for an entire week and a half on Vancouver Island, I never want to see that place again. We took the ferry over to Vancouver and stayed at our dear friend Pip's place, meeting up with Miss Alana Jackson while we were there and having an unintentionally forgettable night out on the drink. It was great after a pretty boring and hardly relaxing week to get to the comfort of a friends place (where bed and shower was guaranteed) and just enjoy a wicked night out.

With no idea what the actual road trip into the States would hold for me, I was excited, and a little nervous. No accomodation booked, no plans on exactly where to go, no idea where to sleep or shower. Even though I already knew these things, I still had no idea of the amazing adventure that was in store for us in the following three weeks. We left Vancouver, a little hungover and a lot adventageous. That day we crossed through the Canada/US border into Washington State; first stop, Seattle.