Long Night to Vancouver

There was a point during the long drive of yesterday when a subtle change began in the landscape surrounding. The trees had seemed as ones who by necessity strove above all for their own survival in harsher more radical lands, but now more of the slighter seeds thrived. I wish I knew all their types but ruefully admit I do not. It was a new feel in the land though, trunks grew longer, leaves were more vivid and fine as the evergreens faded slowly. We passed through several rural communities, very pleasant and peaceful was the drive through these. The great increase of these such communities and towns was perhaps the greatest token of change, whereas in the Yukon and northern BC they were few and far between. Further we pressed and long into the night.  I slept in the back to be fresh to drive on after Ben tired but it seems that he downed a rockstar or two so it turned out I never got the chance. When I did al length awake at length it was to their screams and shouts as we pulled over to the side of the road, which as it turned out had been winding steeply down for some time and our brakes were now red hot and smoking. So there we just decided to sleep for the rest of the night. After a few hours sleep and the brakes sufficiently cooling I finished out the decent and drove to Vancouver, which we had gotten within 2 hours of the night before. First though we passed through Whistler, which had a most fantastic setting but the town itself felt false and contrived to me. I suppose this was much in thanks to the 2010 winter Olympics. Not far on again was Squamish, another ski resort town nestled in the beautiful Canadian Rockies, here the feeling was more natural and less like a neon bulb. Salt was now on the air though as we wove up and down and my spirit soared to know the ocean was near. Sure enough as we crested another rise there was the inlet and several great boats upon it! This portion of the road has been the highlight of my trip so far, so pure the air felt, so mild the weather and so fun was the road as it wound through the coastal mountains. All was lush and green yet snow capped mountains still towered close at hand. Then slowly from the right came the glint of steel and glass in the morning sun, Vancouver. Mixed were my feelings then for cities always stifle me to some degree and I loved the road I was on so much I never wanted it to end. But there it was and I had heard good things of it also. It was a fair city, though tall and somewhat cold feeling. We then wandered its streets aimlessly for a while, visiting a flea market in the slums by the highway and the rich downtown area. In the end best I can describe my feeling of it is that I have no desire to stay, It was full of grand buildings, opulent stores and a grand harbor. Yet I could not ignore the many people I saw who seemed to have been forgotten by society left to wander those streets looking for handouts and soda cans to recycle. That is the bitterness of all such “Centers of Society and Culture” I ever encounter and thus my lack of love for them. A sea of souls isolated from one another, it makes me shudder and long for the road again. But here we are now searching for china town without a proper map. Wish us luck, and maybe with some this will have been posted by the time we leave the city.
PDTL