Day Fifteen

Well, into the third week now. It's starting to fly by...it feels like...so many different lives flashing by a moment at a time. It's very cool traveling by way of friends, my trip and destinations would have been completely different if not for where my friends had ended up in the world. If not for Catherine, I wouldn't have ended up in Saskatoon. If not for Michelle, I never would've seen Lund. If not for Alex I probably would've driven right past Coquitlam. The best part really isn't being able to see all these unlikely places, or experience things off the track I would have chosen...but to spend time with friends whilst abroad. It's a rare and unique experience, both highly surreal and encouraging. It sort of makes you feel safe about where you are. If this person's here...of course things are okay. But it's also very odd driving 5000km only to find someone at the other end you're used to seeing back from whence you came. It sort of makes you doubt the reality of your experience. "If this person's here, is this really happening?" you think to yourself.  It's too much like a dream, where you're there, and the person you know is there, but everything else is different.

Sometimes it doesn't click in until the next day when i'm looking at photos and there we are, you, me and BC. Yeah...I was there...I did that. It was real. Pics or it didn't happen, hahaha.

On the subject of that, no photos today. It's more a logistics/reflection day than anything else. I'm going to do my best to make the most of the travel day tomorrow...after all, it might not be too exciting. Most of the photos I imagine will just be of the inside of planes, trains, and automobiles. But I assure you, this represents a transitional period across the pacific. It'll be healthy for the narrative of the blog! I've been too long in one place to continue to be interesting.

The big thing today was check, check, double check, and then check again. Do I have everything? Are you sure? I'm a paranoid traveller at the best of times, but leaving from a place where you only have what you brought with you to choose from, that's just excess paranoia waiting to happen. On the other hand, it does negate the necessity of writing a list. You just make sure you have everything you brought, because after that...there's nothing you can do! So there's an ounce of freedom that sits amongst the paranoia. It's not so bad after all.

One thing this trip has made me realize is that I can in fact live out of two backpacks. My car's passenger seat has been given over to my mobile kitchen, my trunk houses my apartment (which fits in four tubes), one backpack is a production house, editing suite & underwater videography outlet, while the other backpack is my clothes, toiletries, necessities. I'm going to throw out/give away/donate a lot of stuff when I get home....because I really don't need it.  I'm a bad pack-rat, always have been, and have trouble letting go of things I might need. This is largely amplified by working in video/editing. You always need that cable you thought you'd never use. And you need it at the least convenient and least expected time. So you have to keep everything...it could all save the day.

Now, this is true of cables & equipment, but most of those things have been relegated to two drawers at home. What about everything else? It's time for a purge methinks. I've been getting along just fine. The only thing i've wanted for was a particular book, but i've got three good ones on board so i'll just have to be patient on that front.

I think i'm ready...I probably won't sleep much....I never do before I travel anywhere. It's too exciting, too much happening in my head at any given time. On certain trips it can be really helpful - if you don't sleep the night before, you can fall asleep at virtually any moment, on the plane, on the bus, wherever. Highly useful, especially when going through numerous time zones, or across the international dateline (both of which I have to do tomorrow). Not sleeping before I had to drive 8 hours wasn't ideal...but you win some and you lose some. In this case I'm sure even if I don't sleep much, I'll sleep well. I'm pretty tired...I'll be out before my head hits the




-Jeff