Trip to Vancouver in a nutshell (July 31 2003 to August 5 2003) with Joe, Jeff Bryksa. Don Buckley came with us on the Go-Go Cruisey-T on Sunday.

Hey Doug,

Yeah, the fires sure have caused a lot of misery for a lot of people. I wish you had decided to come anyways to try to forget the shitty event but I understand why you went home. I would have been furious, tired and frustrated too. If it makes you feel any better, we ended up taking about 16 hours to get back from Vancouver on Monday. On Monday morning we got out of Vancouver and made good time to Kamloops not suspecting the chaos we were about to witness. Highway 5 north of Kamloops to Jasper was closed, highway 93 between Radium and Castle Junction was closed and travel was not recommended through Crowsnest Pass. Therefore ALL the long weekend traffic going in either direction (esp. eastbound - all Edmonton, Calgary, etc. traffic was on the same road through Rogers Pass and Golden) had to squeeze through Kicking Horse Pass. Needless to say, the traffic snarl that ensued wasn't pretty. Our 11-hour trip ended up being about 16 hours with a burned out clutch to boot. When we got to the start of the lineup, it was at least 15km of solid parking lot (and 2 hours of start and stop) into Golden and then there was still the length of the lineup up to the Pass on the other side of Golden to content with. It was mental. We ended up rolling into Calgary around 3am and I ended up taking Tuesday off of work after all. If we had had more information before leaving Vancouver, I think I would have booked Tuesday off earlier on and simply left on Tuesday morning. We would have missed the traffic and had an extra day on the coast!

Anyways, yeah we had fun but it wasn't the same without you. The Cruisey-T wasn't overly busy but it probably was the highlight of the weekend. The Parade was fantastic too. The Pride Dance on Saturday night was disappointing. The venue wasn't the same - this year it was in a bar in the Plaza of Nations instead of the main pavilion and hardly any people were there. I think it was mostly the boys that had bought weekend passes that were there simply because a ticket to the event was included in their package. It seemed that more people were leaving than going in when we got there after Fireworks. I'm thinking now that the afterhours parties have become the main events, but since the bars were serving until 4am over the weekend, the $60 admission into the afterhours seemed hard to justify.

We spent Thursday night at Grant and Alana's and ordered in food and beer. Friday morning Alana drove Jeff and I around shopping and brunching before Joe got up. Friday afternoon we all did the walk route around Burrard/Davie/Denman/Robson back to the hotel. We went to the Odyssey on Friday night. Joe's back was hurting so he left early, but Jeff and I closed down the bar. Saturday afternoon I ran the Seawall before everyone woke up and we all did the Harbourwalk from Stanley Park to Canada Place. We went out with Grant and Alana for dinner at Delilah's Saturday night before the fireworks in English Bay and the Pride Dance - the food was fantastic.

That's the weekend in a nutshell. Jeff bought some clothes and a pair each of glasses and sunglasses. Miraculously, Joe and I didn't spend anything shopping! I'm saving it up for Toronto and Montreal in September.....

Anyways, I guess you're right. It was meant to be. We were saying on the weekend how bad luck happens in threes. Jeanette backing out was number one, your mishap was number two, and we thought we were getting off scot-free on the third one until the last 'quarter' of our drive back home.

I hope VIA clears things up with you. I'm sure they will, but you may have to wait awhile for a response until the whole forest fire/redirecting/cancelling trains mess is over with.

No need to be sorry. I felt really bad for you and your wrecked weekend. Oh well, what's done is done. We can only hope the next one goes better. There's no way anyone could have predicted that the worst forest fires in 50 years would so conveniently flare up over one of the busiest long weekends of the year.

Anyways, we'll talk later. Maybe I'll show up to Friday baseball for something to do and we can visit then.

Later!
Reid

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Boulton [mailto:dmboulton33@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 12:42 PM
To: Reid Dalgleish
Cc: Jeff.Bryksa@nbpcd.com
Subject: Van


Hey Reid/Jeff, Hope all is well. I'm sure you guys had lots of fun in
Vancouver, boy do I regret taking the train. Sorry I didn't make it. After
16 hours of sitting at Barriere watching peoples houses burn down and then
being told it would be another 3-4 hours before Via could arrange buses for
240 people from Kamloops I said #$@#$@#% it and caught the bus home. I was
in such a foul mood you have no idea. I've asked Via to pay for the bus home
and to reiburese my preference points. Haven't heard from them yet. Give me
a call and tell me all about it. I really wanted to go on the Cruisy T,(Ps
Jeff I will pay you for that next time I see you) Anyway Sorry again, but it
just wasn't meant to be. Talk to you guys later.......Doug