Bob

Day 23-25

Me and Bob

In life we meet many people.  Some have an impact in your life, some become good friends and some just acquaintances.  Then there’s Bob Kelly.  I met Bob when I travelled in Up with People more than 30 years ago.  He was our cast director, which meant he was the “top dog.”  Whatever he said, went!  Unlike, most persons in a position of power, Bob had the ability to make you feel good about the situation regardless of the circumstances.  Every person in our cast (approximately 120) had a personal relationship with him.  He was like a father-figure, though he was only a few years older than all the rest of us.  He was wise beyond his years. 

Dinner with Bob, Sheila, Ben, Laura and 92-year-old Susie

Bob's "See Through" Drink

Over the course of the year that I travelled with Bob he made a greater impact in my life than any other person other than my parents….and I’m sure all of my cast mates would say the same thing.  He’s travelled the world and has more stories than any person I have ever met.  As such, the opportunity to hang out with Bob, his wonderful wife Sheila and their soon-to-be high school graduate daughter Ada in their home town of Great Falls, Montana was too much to pass up.

Though I have kept in touch with Bob over the years and seen him regularly, it's never enough.

As a GF city commissioner Bob is versed on all things happening in town and everywhere we went I heard, “Hi Bob,” more times than I could count.  I started calling him Mayor Bob.  Over the course of two plus days, we did just about everything you could do in a town of 50K, including:

• Mountain biking tour of the city
• Enjoyed Sheila's great meals
• Met Ada's incredible and motivated friends who are readying for college
• Attended Great Falls High School State softball finals against Billings High School (GF Won!)
• Visited the grand opening of a community garden project
• Drank plenty of see-throughs (gin martinis)
• Ran his dog Anabelle
• Had Friday night dinner with is 92-year-old neighbor Susie (she had a see-through as well)
• Went to see Wylie Gustafson and his country band in concert (he’s well-known for singing the Yahoo yodel)
• Took a tour of a trout farm
• Learned what a Hutterite is (a religious that hails from Germany – look like Amish) and that they lived in his home for over a year, while he and his family lived in Costa Rica
• Had a couple of beers at world famous Sip ‘n Dip Tiki Bar at 2 o’clock in the afternoon
• Learned how bear spray works to prevent them from attacking you!!! 

And, if that's not enough, we talked about everything under the sun. Absolutely one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.  However, I'm not sure I have the energy for another visit with Bob in the near future.

"Facetiming" with Sophia

I was staying in a small town in Montana (I realize I have spent a lot of time in Montana) called Thompson Falls and I came across a very quaint state campground right on the river.  After a brief conversation with the camp hosts (they are seasonal hires who live in the campground in motor homes and usually average around 75 years old) regarding potential mountain biking spots and they recommended a 20 mile bike ride to reach an amazing water fall called Graves Falls.  Given the amount of time I have spent on a bike, I figured this ride would be relatively easy – though they neglected to say that the final five miles were uphill!  Ugh!

When I’m riding in the mountains, I often wonder if the residents worry as much about fires as I would, if I lived there.  On this particular ride, or half-way up the hill, I noticed that the entire side of the mountain was charred black.  I came across a guy walking his dog and stopped to ask what happened.  He said the fire happened about three weeks ago and lasted almost a week!  I was flabbergasted!  The devastation was overwhelming, particularly given all of the wildlife that must’ve lived there.

The ride was awesome and the falls fantastic!  However, one of the best parts of the ride was cruising downhill on the way back and “facetiming” Sophia about the ride, the fire and the falls.  As I was on the phone a couple of deer were on the side of the road looking at me.  I was able to reverse the camera so both she and Eli could see the deer.  Technology made it easy for both kids to really feel like they were on the road with me.  So cool!!

Brad Pitt's Montana

Like many of you, my only real exposure to Montana was from watching Brad Pitt in “A River Runs Through it,” which I saw over 10 years ago.  However, knowing I would eventually go through Montana , I thought I should brush up on my Montanaisms, by watching it again.  I thought the 10-2 casting instruction offered up by Brad Pitt’s dad in the movie could come in handy. 

One of my goals for this trip was to take full advantage of any opportunity to do the cool things that a particular area is known for.  Thus, when in Montana you really must try fly fishing.  After a bit of research, I identified an outfitter who selected a private guide for my first fly fishing experience. 

When I met Billy Pfeiffer, I was expecting someone who was born and bred in Montana, grew up fly fishing and had no real need or understanding of us “big city folks”.  Boy I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Billy grew up outside Philadelphia, went to undergraduate school at Bucknell, moved to Montana to find himself and go to law school.  Not only has he finished law school and passed the bar but he’s also a practicing Buddhist – thus he’s a paradox on many fronts.  Our conversation over the nearly six hours we were together on the river ranged from meditation, to what we learned from our parents, to Philly sports, to environmental law to fishing practices of bald eagles.  We talked about everything.  Billy was a wealth of knowledge that went way beyond fly fishing and I enjoyed every minute of it.

But anyways, back to fly fishing.  So my expectations of fly fishing (based upon the movie of course), was that it was going to be incredibly technical with almost no chance that I would ever catch a fish.  In fact, I only scheduled a half-day session, because I was afraid that I would be so frustrated with the technical process and the lack of catching fish that a full-day would be too much.  Once again, I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Billy was an awesome instructor.  We started out with a short 30 minutes of casting instruction on the beach into the water before we actually shoved off the beach.  He explained the intricacies of what a fish is looking for, how you select your flies, where to drop your fly, how to “jiggle” it, and all the while made it incredibly fun.  When I did something stupid like flipping the fly into my face or getting it caught in a tree overhanging the river he made it feel like it was no biggie.  He would say things like “great cast,” or “nice feel for the line”.  Things that really gave me confidence in what I was doing – he likened it to golf.  A good cast -- being like a good golf shot.  When you do it just right once and you want to do it again, and again, and again.

The plan for success was to set the fly near the edge of the water, preferably in a shaded area where lazy fish like to hang around, then when the trout decide to come up and take a bite out of the fly you quickly “reverse tomahawk” your line and the fish bites and you have a winner.  Unfortunately, an hour into our float I was pretty certain I was going to get shut out.  We had a couple of small nibbles, but nothing really biting.  I was drinking Tecate (still brand loyal, even on vacation), enjoying the sun and the conversation, thus if I got shut out, it was no biggie.  However, as luck would have it, I caught my first of five fish shortly thereafter.  The first was huge – 16 inches in length and considered a mixed breed of Rainbow and Brown Trout.  It was beautiful, though a bit slippery, particularly when I tried to hold it to get a picture…it got dropped right back into the river.  Montana is a catch and release state, thus it was going back anyway.  Over the course of the day, I caugh five fish.  It was an incredible day

So far, fly fishing reigns supreme on my trip of experiences.  The only thing that could have made it better was if my dad could have been with me, because anyone who knew him, knows nobody loves a good fish story better than Gillie!

Rate-a-Dive 5 -- Oyster Bar

Rate-a-Dive:  Rodney’s Oyster Bar

Though Vancouver is considered a pretty good foodie spot, I really didn’t have any spots in particular that had been recommended, though many people said the Asian food was excellent because of the large Asian population that exists.  However, that was too generic of a recommendation for me.  Thus, while sipping on a beer at the café atop Stanley Park, the overly-friendly waitress recommend I go to Rodney’s Oyster Bar because it had the coolest vibe, the best oysters and was a local hot spot…all key drivers in my dinner selection spot.  Needless to say, it did not disappoint. 

Vibe – 9

This spot was probably the classic hot spot that you might find in every reasonably sized city.  Lots of young, upwardly mobile clientele that all looked like they were out for a night of fun and frolic.  However, what really set the restaurant apart from other hot spots, was the oyster bar in the center of the restaurant.  It was awesome because I only needed a table for one, thus sitting at the bar was perfect for a lurker like me who was dining alone…which has frankly become my calling card. 

Grub – 10

The guy shucking the oysters was right in front of me and he had a selection of eight different types of oysters, mostly from the Northwest.  I told him to surprise me with a mixture of his favorites.  They were all amazing and served with a variety of different home-made sauces that went from mildly tangy to outrageously HOT.  And the best part, they had freshly grated horseradish (I frankly didn’t know that horseradish is a root and could be grated!), that you could sprinkle across the selection of oysters.  Because I hadn’t had enough shellfish, I decided to have a small plate of mussels, which were made fresh right in front of me in these super cool and extremely hot soup bowls (not really doing it justice with my description), which I had never seen before.  To top it off, I decided to go for the troika, and had scallops in a cream sauce.  Amazing!!  Yes, I might come back from this trip weighing 300lbs. 

Booze – 9

When I’m in a city that is known for good craft beer, I will typically try and optimize that.  However, in this case, I saw the same bartender who was making my mussels create what looked like a hot and spicy Bloody Mary.  I’m not really an expert on Bloodies, however, when I do have them, I want them to be super spicy like my brother-in-law Greg makes them (he grew up in New Orleans, and I think it’s a rite of passage to learn to make them correctly).  Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.  But I have to tell you, these bloodies were incredible.  Just about everything in them but the kitchen sink, which is exactly how I like them! 

Top 5 Road Stories

As many of you know, I am pretty much a novice at camping.  Thus, unlike experienced campers who automatically know what to do when a situation occurs, how to handle unique campgrounds, how to prepare to leave a campground and how to set up your vehicle and the likes, unfortunately, that’s not me.  Because of that, some funny stuff has occurred while I’ve been on the road...

1.       While camping in Oregon I get up early, go for an amazing trail run, do my push-ups, have some coffee, do a bit of blogging, take a shower and get ready Ringo to leave.  I get in the van and begin to drive out of the campground for about a quarter mile, when another camper points to the top of Ringo, which makes me turn around and look up.  I freaking forgot to pull the tent top down.  Thus, I was about to get on the road with the fold-up tent still open!!  Like my brother Ruben says, “the dumbest things happen to the coolest people.”
 

2.       As I was preparing to go into Vancouver, I knew I was going to stay in a hotel because there are no campgrounds near the city.  Thus, I had taken my bikes off the bike rack and put them into the back of Ringo.  While doing this, I had also taken the bike rack off to get into closet located in the back of the van.  When I closed the door, I simply hung the bike rack on the back with two small hooks from the top.  I didn’t put the other four latches on thinking I would do it later.  Unfortunately, I never remembered to re-latch it and because I have a curtain going across the back window, I could not see if it was still there.  Thus, here I am crossing the border into Canada, after driving nearly 100 miles I realized that I hadn’t done so, I freak out thinking I lost the bike rack on the freeway somewhere in Washington State.  I quickly pull over, run around to the back and to my absolute surprise, find it still hanging there.  I guess the weight of the rack was enough to keep it hooked on, though I would imagine a sudden turn or stop could have sent it flying!

3.       Over the course of the trip I have seen a pretty good share of deer along the way.  Either near the road, in the campground or while riding my bike.  However, this time it was different.  I was leaving a small town in Canada that I had stopped at to get a cup of coffee.  When I get back on the two-lane road, going about 40 miles an hour, up ahead of me I see the biggest freakin’ deer I have ever seen and I come to an immediate halt in the van.  It’s HUGE.  I’ve never seen anything like it and it’s right in the middle of the road.  It stares me down for a second or two, then, just as quickly as it appeared, it’s gone.  I was too shocked to get a photo and really would have had some serious car damage if I had hit this thing.  Ten miles up the road I see a warning sign saying to keep a watch  out for caribou – I’m an idiot!!

4.       While entering the US from Canada through a border check in Idaho, I answer all of the questions the US Border Patrol is asking.  Where are you from?  NY.  How long were you in Canada? Three days.  Did you buy anything?  No.  Are you bringing any firearms with you?  No. Do you have any Tobacco with you?  No (I did have three cigars)  Do you have any alcohol with you?  No (I did have some Tecate in the ice chest, but figured I brought it into the country I should be able to take it out).  Do you have any fruits and vegetables with you?  Here’s where my mistake was made, trying to be trivially honest.  I lift up the one orange that I have had sitting in my car for over a week and say, “only this one orange.”  The patrolman looks directly into my eyes and says, I need you to go into secondary screening and don’t get out of the car!   Oh no!  Here I have not told him about the cigars, the beer, the hatchet that I have for cutting wood, and I’m getting taken to secondary for one orange.  So I sit in secondary sweating bullets for 10 minutes till another tough looking patrolman comes out and says “so you have an orange with you?”  I say “yes, but I brought it with me from California,” and he says “then it should have never passed into Canada in the first place!”  He angrily takes the orange, turns and says “okay you can go, have a great trip!!!”  Getting send into secondary screening for being honest about one orange!!!!  

5.       As I’m leaving Thompson Falls, Montana and heading to Missoula to go fly fishing, I’m enjoying the beautiful scenery, having a nice cup of coffee and cruising along the road, when up ahead I see a bunch of dust being kicked up.  Not sure if it’s a small twister or what?  As I slow down and creep up, I realized I am right in the middle of a cattle drive.  There are cowboys and dogs everywhere, and here I am sitting in a VW van, I feel like I’m on the film set for City Slickers 4!!

The Vertical Glass City

Day 20

Vancouver is one of two cities in the US (I realize it’s Canada) that has been on my bucket list, having always wanted to visit but never found the time or a reason to be there (the other being Charleston, South Carolina).  Thus, there was no doubt that it was going to be included in this trip and I was excited about what I might experience...

However, my first exposure wasn't very good.  Going through the Canadian border is an experience all its own.  Though Canadians are considered some of the nicest people in the world  (most of them anyways) you would never know that by the exchange that takes place with the border patrol.  The verbal assault is so aggressive you really start to think you did something wrong, that you’re lying to them or that you are probably going to commit a crime while visiting the country because it feels like they disbelieve every answer you give.  Trying to convey that you are just coming for a friendly visit just doesn’t seem realistic to them. 

Fortunately they let me in the country and I have to tell you Vancouver is seriously one of the secret gems of the West Coast.  The city is gorgeous.  It is called the “glass city” because its downtown area has hundreds of high-rise commercial and residential buildings that populate nearly every street.  Nearly all of them are encased in glass with what appear to be amazing views of the water.   The city is also incredibly clean with great running and biking trails that circle the city and run right alongside the bay.  At the tip of the city is Stanley Park.  Many believe it is second only to Central Park, in terms of beauty, wildlife, trails, restaurants, views, etc.  However, as a New Yorker, I think it blows Central Park away.  It was incredible!  Definitely a must see particularly via a bicycle. 

Also, one of the more unique facts about Vancouver is the huge Asian population that lives there.  Nearly 50 percent of all residents are of Asian decent and Chinatown was a fun place to bike around. 

British Columbia, which is the Province that Vancouver resides in has been the host to three winter Olympics, with the most recent being in 2010.  I took pictures of the Cauldron which is lit during important occasions, which was pretty cool to see.

Victoria Island – Tourist Town

Day 19

When visiting Vancouver, most people will say you must spend at least a day in Victoria. Unfortunately, getting there is a big commitment.  There are two primary ways to get there.  Ferry (you can bring your car if you plan on driving around) or flying via seaplane.  Since the ferry took upwards of three hours each way, I decided to fly.  Having never flown on a seaplane, it made the whole experience so much better.  First off, I had Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and Funeral) on my flight.  She was easy to spot and has an incredibly unique voice and with a twelve passenger plane, you couldn’t help but identify her.  The take-off and landing in the water were pretty cool and views over the many islands was awesome.  Definitely the best way to get to Victoria! 
 

Victoria will probably be the most touristy destination that I visit on my whole trip.  Though there is a pretty large population that lives there, the whole island revolves around tourism.  Victoria is actually beautiful, with great restaurants, shopping and fun tourist-type of things to do – rent mopeds, ride open-air buses and eat, however, to me, it was a been there, done that kind of experience.  Not sure I would go back.  One of the most beautiful parts about the island is the Fairmont Hotel, which sits right in the center of town and overlooks the bay.  Not sure the room prices, but I would imagine it’s not cheap!
 

Though the weather was bit sketchy, I was able to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine at a great out-door restaurant and listen to a number of high school bands play big-band era music in the bay to celebrate Victoria Day, which is a national holiday in Canada.