stats!

I've been back in Canada for a month now - life is busy as I try to get settled down and gainfully employed in BC. I've compiled some statistics from the trip....

Approximate amount of money spent: 3,000 CAD (not bad for 4.5 months)

Dates of trip: December 13, 2005 – April 20, 2006
Total Days: 128
Nights staying with friends: 9
Nights in a hotel: 3
Nights in a tent: 102
Nights sleeping in the car: 13
Driving overnight: 1
Days with a dog: 22
Longest amount of time spent in one destination: 4 weeks (Hueco Tanks, Texas)

Car
Name: Betsy
Make/Model: 1988 chevrolet cavalier
Color: blue
Maximum occupancy reached: four people, three crashpads and a back pack
Kilometers driven: approx 19,000

CAA rescues: two, one when the starter died, and one when some helpful strangers helped me swap the alternator out in front of an Auto Zone, only to find that the old alternator was fine. AAA came and put my car back together for me.

America
States visited: 19
States climbed in: 8
States driven through with no overnight stops: 6
Shortest amount of time spent in one state: new york, 1.5 hours
Annoying thing I've heard a lot: “you’re from Canada? I’ve been there.” (it's a big country, you know)

Best driving CD: Beck - Sea Change
Longest driving push with a passenger: 23 hours, Tennessee to El Paso
Longest driving push alone: 19 hours, Utah to Washington

Food
Approximate amount of peanut butter ingested: 5 jars
Cans of tuna ingested: feels close to infinity, probably between 50-100
Favourite recipe created, and then promptly overdosed on: tuna coleslaw pasta salad
Grocery item carried from Toronto, through the entire trip and on to BC: sesame seed oil
Lessons learned:
“how would this taste with tuna?” is a question better left unanswered
Macaroni and cheese by any other name is still just macaroni and cheese
Worst meal eaten: rice, cilantro, Portobello mushrooms, ruined with about a half cup of mayonnaise

Climbing
Number of climbing locations visited: 11
Crags visited total: 15
Crags trad: 3
Crags bouldering: 8
Crags sport: 4

Grades:
Hardest send (bouldering): V6
Hardest flash (bouldering): V4
Hardest send (sport): 11b/c

People:
Climbing "celebrities" met: 7
Climbing celebrities that remember my name: 0
Bizarre meeting: Met a guy in hueco who went to the same high school that I did.

Strangest slang terms:
“Ressy” pronounced “rezzy” – short for a reservation for the Hueco Tanks north mountain climbing area.
“Rig” so cal slang for just about anything. You can rig the rig in the rig while riggin’ it. Confused? Me too.

Dirtbagging
Score boiled eggs from a continental breakfast - save them for sandwiches later, take the coffee for now.
Get a few paper towels from the gas station everytime you put gas in the car so you don't have to buy any.
Dirtbag record: Went 6 days without spending money on anything but gas for the car
Attempted to cook potatoes via heat in the trunk on a sunny day (saves on fuel)
Times viewing family guy movie: 6 (it's the only movie on my laptop)

Pants
Pairs of pants brought: 10
Pairs of pants acquired:2 pants, 1 pr shorts
Total amount of pants: 13
Note to self: 13 pairs of pants? A bit excessive.

Blog
Did you know that as you’ve been watching my trip, I’ve been watching you? I’ve kept track of the hits on my site with a counter, and after leaving hueco, I would check in to see who was visiting. The final stretch of my trip, I would pull up to a hotel to obtain a wireless internet connection, and check to see who had visited recently. This gave me some company.

total entries: 60
entries that never made it out of draft mode: 6
Total visits: ~2,500 (during the trip)
Most interesting hits from a web search: “Toronto homeless”, “girl on road stripping”, and my personal favourite: “quebec swingers pictures”
Furthest away regular visitors: Italy, Singapore, Australia

just a note: I've enjoyed writing for a web audience. Sometimes it may have seemed quite personal. I talked about a lot of things, but there are topics I have intentionally excluded. There's no clandestine reason, this just isn't my diary or journal. This is a collection of stories, experiences on the road, and observations on life on a solo roadtrip. I hope you enjoyed it.

familiar yet foreign

the big move out west climaxes tomorrow when the moving company shows up to transport my things to Vancouver. i saw my family tonight for the first time in six months, and a few of them asked me why i was moving so far away - why to BC? the truth is, i can't really answer that right now, except to say that i've always wanted to move out there, so i am.

being in toronto has been intensely comfortable. I know what neighbourhoods are where, and the bike-friendly route around toronto. it's so nice to see old friends, and stay in my old apartment. i was reading back in my journal today, where i made a comment that i always feel fucked up when i leave a location. i guess that the roadtrip was preparation for the actual move... making toronto just another place to leave.

i have two different places to stay out west, and three different part time jobs lined up between squamish and vancouver. i have an interview for a full time job next week, and need to find an apartment by June 1. this is more than a crossroads of life, it's a freakin' cloverleaf interchange.

the real world strikes back

being back in toronto has been very busy. i'm trying to see everyone - friends and family - as well as pack up all my things for the big move out west. it's been a toss up of visiting my old self, or being a guest in my old home. i'll be writing more later but for now, here are some pictures of the climbing i've done in the past week.

I climbed five out of six of my last days in BC before coming back to Ontario. My rest day was spent on the plane, and it was climbing the next day at my old home crag, the Niagara Glen.

meg leads up the "weird" warm up route in Chek Canyon, Whistler BC

kevin figuring out his beta and trusting those crappy intermediates on Easy in an Easychair - Squamish BC

Brian demonstrates his super smooth beta for us in between our attempts.

hey look, the earth really is round. a view of the rocky mountains on the flight back to toronto

The boys warming up at the glen - Niagara Falls, Ontario

Damian matching the rock and setting up for the toss on a glossy, shiny warm-up.

Paul's send of the day, and a shirt to match the pad as well.

never was a cornflake girl

Moving to Squamish was a very romantic idea that my partner and I agreed upon almost three years ago when we visited the area for less than a week. It seemed like the ultimate sacrifice, and the way to be “real and hardcore” climbers. Well, I just quit my well paying job and drove around the states climbing for almost five months, so I have nothing to prove about being a real climber or not.

As humans we have many classifications, and I was raised with a religious identity assigned to me from my family. While I enjoyed the community aspect of it, I didn’t agree with the belief system imposed on me in exchange for security. I wanted to know how I really felt about the world, so I ventured out on my own. It was tough to find my place in the world; my community had been taken away from me and it felt as if I had nothing to fall back on. It was at that time that I found climbing, and quickly adopted it as an identity. It was an emotional “quick fix” and something to immerse myself in.

This trip was not at all what I expected. Besides wanting to travel and see new places, I must admit that there were some very selfish and shallow expectations from my trip. There were grades I wanted to tick, an appearance I desired, and I wanted to really focus on being a physically strong climber. Instead of being a stronger climber, I feel stronger emotionally and mentally. I've defined my own personal belief system and I feel secure standing on my own.

I’ve obviously had a lot of time on my own, and I’ve had time to think about my relationships with other people, and really reflect on my life thus far. I have been able to make peace with and let go of so much. Really, We control our own destinies.

This year has been like those "choose your own adventure" books that my brothers and I used to enjoy when we were children. instead of navigating my way through a mummy's tomb, (those books always had mummies) I am shaping the sort of person I will become. Every so often I catch a glimpse of the sort of old lady I will be, and I like her.

The reason I’m not roadtripping anymore is because it's time to make money. In squamish the climbers seem to be established locals, or dirtbags. I just can't dirtbag anymore. Not when there's a city so close (Vancouver) where I can get a job that I'm qualified for, and make enough money to pay my rent. I don't need as much money as I made at my job in Toronto, but there's no need for me to be poor while I have a desire to work, and head on my shoulders and brain in there as well. I'm really excited about this decision - to get to know a new city. I’ve seen so many new places these past six months but this one I get to explore as a potential home. What a great year this has been so far. Living on the road I was able to shed my old ways: meticulously navigating through a new place, paying more attention to a roadmap than to my surroundings. Instead I find it fun to just drive, get lost a little, get my bearings, and figure things out as I go.

On the weekend I just decided to get in the car and left the house about 10 minutes after my decision. I miss that old "hitting the road" feeling. I drove to Vancouver, took an exit and drove around looking for a café with wireless internet access. I emailed friends and looked at apartment ads for the city, and got a feel for being there on my own. Eventually I found good friends to hang out with, and ended up spending a very refreshing evening with them.

The next big step is my return to Toronto. I need to pack up my things and figure out a way to ship them out here. I know it’s going to be incredibly busy, and probably pretty tough. I'm looking forward to seeing so many friends again - faces that I’ve thought of fondly during my trip.

Squamish has been a great introduction for my re-entry into society (sounds like a reentry from space) and I’m eternally grateful to my friends for putting me up and putting up with me for a couple weeks as I recovered from the road. I showed up with the social skills of a wet dog, very disjointed from the world around me and not sure where to start to get a life of my own.

I just really believe in myself again. Squamish has helped me slowly get back to society but for now I have to believe that I will succeed and have a happy life in Vancouver. If something changes there, well, I guess I’ll just have to hit the road.