Thursday 14 August 2014

The Road to Nowhere

A grey pall hangs over Vancouver - offering a brief reprieve from the summer sun. Unfortunately this means my favourite location, Wreck Beach, isn’t an option. So, like a sunflower without a sun, I’m wandering around the UBC campus doing my best to blend in with the students. I’ve been informed I can no longer pass as a fresh faced undergrad, too many wrinkles - so grad student it is. Working on my masters in Mobile Living and Urban Studies (if anyone asks).

My initial plan was to roll on down to chill in the hippy hive of Nelson - however - I forgot I had committed to help my friend move. Luckily, she reminded me before I drove to Nelson from Kelowna. Nelson is about a 8hr drive from Vancouver…so it wouldn’t make sense to go then immediately drive back to help. There is some orienteering in Cranbrook (BCOCs) at the beginning of September which may lure me back out in that direction.

Gas prices have spiked, curtailing my gallivanting (one must dwell in a van to discover how many words have ‘van’ in them). I’m trying to keep the miles low over the next couple of days and let the credit card cool off. I caught the last gas station in Kelowna with 1.26/L (everything else was ten cents more) which was nice….though I had to endure a surprisingly orderly (I love Canadians) rush to get gas. Gas in Vancouver is 1.41/L which means I am roughly paying that per 10km. Gas is currently 1.04/L (according to an online converter?) in Washington State. That may be reason alone to head south to visit the Yankees.

I'm pretty comfortable at UBC. I know the area and the facilities are conducive to my needs. I'm limiting my driving to rotating Walden between my sleeping spot and a convenient location for the day. This is how I envision living more permanently in a community (possible rotating through 3-4 locations and having a gym membership as to not cause issues). UBC has one street that is free parking…so I have been participating in a ‘race’ to grab a spot at 5-5:30am each morning…any later and they are gone.

After acquiring my spot today, I tried to sleep some more…however, found it impossible due to high traffic. The amount of traffic on the road makes no sense to me - it’s literally at the end of a peninsula. I have no idea where everyone is rushing to (the speed limit is 40km/hr but frequently my van would shake due to speeding vehicles). I’m starting to suspect I’m in a Truman Show like scenario and the vehicles are just extras driving in a loop (unless they are going to Museum of Anthropology for some unknown reason). I’ve included a map below to illustrate.
The Road to nowhere.

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