The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.
~G.K. Chesterton
Footage: 5d Mark II/35mm 1.4 Music: Bombay Bicycle Club – Always Like This
As I drink my third delicious cup of coffee and outside fall rears its ugly head, I can only watch this and smile… What a way to cap off the best summer of my life.
“Why think about that when all the golden land’s ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you’re alive to see?”
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lauren and I became friends when we lived together in Kigali, Rwanda last year. While I was there teaching photography to kids, Lauren was busy stringing for Reuters, developing a project on sexual violence in Congo, and later doing work on human rights in the region. Yeah, she is a pretty kick-ass chick. When she knew she was going to be out in Vancouver for a friend’s wedding, we started plotting an adventure in B.C. I had a rough idea of where to go and what to see. (That’s what I told her at least, in reality I was totally winging it and was hoping my 35-year-old motorcycle was up to the task of a 4-day 2000km trip.)
We rolled out of Vancouver on Monday morning and got home Thursday night with stops in Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Barriere, Vernon, Nakusp, Nelson, Castlegar, Osoyoos, Princeton, and Hope. We saw my good friend Brandon in Kamloops, and my good buddy Mikael, his wife Sarah and little girl Emelia in Barriere. It really was one of the best trips of my life so far, no doubt in my mind. It was my first big trip on my bike (which performed flawlessly), I had an amazing companion, the best weather you could hope for, got to see some dear old friends, and explored the indescribable beauty of BC on a classic motorcycle. Tough to beat that.
Got back to Vancouver last night from a 4-day 1,800km trip around Southern British Columbia with my good friend Lauren on my 1975 Honda CB750 SuperSport. Words, photos and video cannot do justice to the overwhelming beauty we have in our province. But, I’ll try my best. Full post with all the photos and a video coming soon.
“Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” – Rose Franken
A huge congrats to Lauren and Cale, I consider it a privilege to be able to call you both friends. The weather shaped out to work out for us, with a great ceremony in Stanley Park and the funnest reception I have ever been to on top of Grouse Mountain. Hope you are having fun on your honeymoon in NYC + Antigua.
Got up at 6:30 today to go hike up the Lions with a bunch of friends, and this was a view that was waiting for us up there.
I give two thumbs up for awesomeness and the fact that this hike was about a 20 minute drive from my house.
Got away from the laptop yesterday afternoon, headed out to Woodlands with Luke and Liam. Our main topic of conversation is if our biker gang should be called the jerks or the nerds.
I have been locked to my laptop all day editing a commercial I helped shoot on Saturday, a UFC-style Mixed Martial Arts fight on Robson street in Vancouver. On a side night, my power cord for my Macbook Pro pretty much melted away today, anyone had that happen to them?
My buddy Jason Payne from The Province newspaper grabbed this shot of me (in the shades) darting off the start line Sunday morning for the annual Terry Fox Run. It was a good week of getting out in Vancouver. The Chief in Squamish on Tuesday, the Grouse Grind Thursday, and the Terry Fox Run in Stanley Park on Sunday. I don’t know what I am going to do in the winter time.
Me & Dad on Tuesday- The Chief Peak 1
Paraphrasing my dad’s retirement speech this year:
“I’d like to thank everyone for being here, and, you know, a lot of people have been asking me what I am going to do in my retirement.”
“Let me tell you”
“I think I am going to get a motorcycle and ride it as much as I can. I’ll probably do a bit of work here and there, but not too much. I think I’ll do some travel to far-off countries. ”
“And then I realized, no…..that’s my son’s life….”
He got some big laughs, but hey, I am totally cool with that…. Thanks Dad for all your continued support, and what better way to spend your first time in thirty-odd years where you don’t have to go back to the classroom than to hike up on top of a big hunk of granite with a view like that?
Woke up at sunrise in Matemwe, Zanzibar to catch the light… and made a new friend. What a day.