Visiting my little bro

My brother has the coolest job in the world. He is working as a ranch hand at Copper Creek Ranch in Princeton, BC. Since I have been driving his car across the country for him (with the 2 hippies I dropped off in Jasper a few days ago), I have the opportunity to check out his dwellings. The pictures on the website (see link above) do not do the beauty of the place justice. I arrived Thursday night, then on Friday I helped do some cattle stuff (flushing cows and implanting embryos into 90 recipient cows in case you're interested) and today we went rode horses through some of the grazing pastures in the hills. I can't wait to bring my bike back here in the summer to check out some more of the trails through the hills. I don't want Monday to come as that means I will have to be back at the grind and faced with a wall of reality of how messed up one's life is when they have been away for 4 months.

2/3rds of the way there

I only have a few minute to write about my travels with my 2 hippies (formerly known as 'the strangers I am traveling across the continent with') so sorry for the briefness. The trip started out a little rocky as we stopped 20 minutes after leaving my parent driveway since it appeared the hood of the car was about to fly open. This proceeded to happen every time I checked the oil so sorry Dad, I didn't check it every time I filled up. We then got lost in Port Huron which is by far the most impoverished looking places I have ever seen (south and central America included). Hip hip hurray for the land of the free! The next hitch we encountered was in the lovely state of Wisconsin when the guy-hippie was stopped for speeding 2 minutes after getting on the freeway. Fortunately the anal, condensending state tropper 'Splinter' only gave him a warning instead of the $189 (USD) fine that would have had to have been paid on the spot by yours truly (due to hippie-guy's lack of credit card or american cash). Needless to say, I did most of the driving for the rest of the trip (27 of the 30 hours actually). We discussed all the things strangers in a car discuss such as GMOs, politics, travel stories ... but by far my favorite was our religion discussion. I was a little stunned when the guy-hippie told me that he thought that Jesus smoked 'herb' (aka pot) and slept around!?! Within the hour we will leave for Edmonton to visit my good old friend Tonya en route to Jasper than Princeton. Oh, by the way, I think my 2 hippies might be falling in love! Watch for my next post and I will let you know if my suspicion is true...

Snap, crackle, pop ...

... crazy dehiscing wild lentils. I should really consider wearing safety goggles while harvesting seed. Who knew plants could be so vicious.