Latest Update: July 28, 2001 by Ben Marcus

11:35 PT JULY 28, 2001 THE TV ROOM, WHISTLER, BC

ODOMETER
TRIP METER
MONEY

Listening to the CBC, answering a few e-mails and getting ready to hit the road. I canÍt access my Wells Fargo online account, so I donÍt now if any money has magically appeared there.

I still have the 200 kroner note. That will get me to Cache Creek, I think, and the next Chevron station.

So IÍm out of here, but in retrospect, I think God Himself but me on the path to Whistler. God put me here to meet this high-spirited Ken Achenbach chap, because after last night, IÍm glad weÍll have him on Team Russkie.

Last night Ken invited me to the season-ending party he throws for all the employees of his snowboard camp. He employs over 100 people, and a lot of them were there last night, dressed up and down, and drunk as monkeys. Colin and Dano were reluctant to go, and when I got in the door I understood why. "Have another, heavy drinker!!!" Ken said and pushed a bottle of tequila in my hand. Not wanting to offend, I downed the whole thing in one swallow, and then bellowed for something to eat. Ken set me up with a lovely steak in spinach and gnocchi, and I sat in the corner and watched all the Canadian snowboarder types go off.

Canadians are polite. They have manners. A few of them came up to me to say hello and ask about the Russia trip and just generally be hospitable and polite, and that was nice. Brad congratulated me on my stellar collection of DVDÍs, and KenÍs lovely oriental friend made conversation and apologized for not going to Russia. He is a nurse and has been off for five months and felt like the system needed her and it was time to get back. I accepted her apology and we talked about the Canadian health system for a while. IÍve heard some semi-heinous things on the CBC about people not being able to get necessary operations for months, and some people even dying from the inefficiencies.

I said that socialized medicine worked well in Norway, but Norway is a small country with less then 5,000,000 people and gazillions of dollars in oil reserves. I suggested that Canada might be too big for socialized medicine. The nurse lady liked her end of the system, because it allowed her to take off for five months, do whatever, then go back to work whenever she wanted. She was a nice girl. She touched my arm.

Achenbach was everywhere at this party, pouring drinks down peopleÍs throats and IÍm pretty sure his sense of fun and hospitality is going to come in very handy in Russia. I had another conversation with a guy (who was wearing a CCCP shirt) who had two friends who had ridden bicycles all through Russia and Mongolia. "People would stop them on the side of the road, whip out a bottle of vodka and drink. Drinking is their social system. Do you like to drink?"

I said I didnÍt but with Ken and Brock and Flea and others on board, they might be able to hold down the fort.

So I chatted for a while and did my usual Cheshire Cat disappearing act, walking out into a cold, rainy night as most of the crowd went to listen to a band. IÍm getting too old for this stuff.

There is a G-8, economic summit kind of protest going on in Whistler today, and Achenbach had some bumper stickers printed up to commemorate the protests. This thing is as good as my Homer, Alaska bumper sticker.

Which is about right. IÍve been wondering what all this protesting is all about, and something tells me itÍs just a bunch of numbskull anarchists who just want to break things and throw garbage cans at cops. The guy in the CCCP shirt agreed with me. He travels a lot, and understands, as I do, that people in Canada and America have it easy. "These people are complaining about a Police State," he scoffs. "They donÍt know what a Police State is."

I agreed. Maybe IÍll put up that bumper sticker to protest the protestors, or maybe IÍm becoming a square.

So now itÍs almost noon and the van is loaded and IÍve got to scoot.

This morning I had to deal with some Ebay purchases. Olga in Toronto is sending my English/Russian dictionary to a hotel in Dease Lake, and it should be there by Wednesday, I may just have to kill some time fishing in the Skeena area.

And I won one of the Garmin GPS 11 Plus auctions, and IÍve asked one contact in Alaska if I could have it sent to his address.

Apparently the Anchorage area had a decent earthquake last night, so I sent him a funny e-mail. It went a little something like this:

John Markel Alaska

John,

What's shaking? HAHAHAHAH. Sorry, not funny. Heard you had an earthquake.

I wonder if I could use your address to have some gear sent up to Alaska. I've bought some hand-held GPS units on EBay for one of our Russian guides, and I'm also buying bunch of discounted swag from Patagonia.

I'll be there by August 16, or so. I'm leaving Whistler today and heading north.

Let me know if it's okay.

Thank you.

Ben

Ha. There was a thing about sharks on AOL today, which confirmed that humans are fascinated by sharks, and that fin just might have a chance. Anyone want to read it? E-mail an address.

Time to split. Ike says hello. HeÍs sleeping nearby, if you can believe that.