Portland

Well well well, here it is much later than I would have liked to get you another update. Internet access and free time has been difficult to come by. My Trek into Canada was fantastic. Funny thing is that I had more hassle at the canadian border than any border in South America. Nevertheless, I made it to Calgary where I met with an old college girlfriend. We spent the next 8 days between Banff and Jasper national parks in the Alberta Province of Canada. The canadian rockies were seriously amazing. Winter had settled in a little early so many of the hiking trails were snow packed. We spent our first 3 nights at the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel which was a truely amazing hotel. The hotel had an amazing feel and kicked off our visit with a bang. With the unseasonably cold weather we spent a lot of time exploring the bars and did we ever explore them. I think we checked off nearly every bar in the town of Banff and knew many bartenders by their first names. We did a little hiking, a lot of driving and a lot of picture taking. After canada I sped back through Calgary and crossed the border back to the US via Idaho with Bruce Springsteen blaring on the radio. I made it to Spokane, WA for my first night back. I have hit a lot of bars on this road trip. Right now Sioux Falls, Bozeman and Banff are tops on my list for great small town bars. In particular nearly everyone in Canada was super nice. We were continually amazed at the level of friendliness, sincerity and kindness extended by all of our canadian hosts and friends alike. However, the bar I hit in Spokane, the Red Lion BBQ, was atrocious. By far the worst friendly experience ever. And I don't mean the patrons, the owner and the bartender included. I asked the bartender (one of which was the owner) for his best beer in the house....getting tired of asking for "anything on special". He gave me gruff...blah blah blah. I mean, how hard is that proposition, I told him he could feel free to give me what he thought was his beer in the house. He couldn't do it. He wanted to know what I liked. I think he had a self esteem problem. I ended up just telling him to give me a Guiness. He then walked behind the bar and started complaining to the guy sitting next to me about how much he hates that question. Right in front of me...bitching about....well me. I tried to interject and they both ignored me. It then became obvious to me the other reason the guy next to me was a real DB was becuase it seemed like he was "involved" with the other "hot" bartender. You know the type...the guy who can't leave his hot GF alone because he is afraid someone better than him will scoop her up so he sits at her bar and hawks over her. Yeah, he just sat there milking a beer, not talking to anyone and creepily leering at any guy who checked out his girls jugs. This was the first bar of my entire trip I came out of drinking less than 3 beers and not having at least a cordial hi how are you type of convo with someone. Save yourself some time, go to Bozeman, MT instead. I couldn't stop having amazing convos in that town.

Tomorrow is down the coast and probably one more night on the road before heading inland to Lake Tahoe...I am looking forward to getting to a bed that I can call my own, that is not the back of my Jeep.