Travels With Pappy

[+ScroogieII]

The Prologue

It all began waaaay back in the spring of 2020, with a few posts on these very forums and the beginning of a "virtual" friendship via email. Upon learning of Pappy's intention to attend the Abbotsford and Seattle Geocaching events in 2020 and knowing that he had never traveled to Scroogie's old stomping grounds of Alberta, Scroogie implored of Pappy whether he would be even mildly interested in embarking upon such an (obviously lengthy) side trip while in Canada. Pappy's response was sufficiently enthusiastic that Scroogie immediately began building The Grand Plan. Then COVID befell them. Two years of hugely disappointing event cancellations dampened Pappy's enthusiasm not one whit. Nor did it dampen Scroogie's, for he continued his enlargement of The Grand Plan to the extant that, when the momentous event of their meeting did finally come to pass, alas, necessary restrictions of time and distance colluded to preclude the visitation of a full two thirds of his hard won itinerary.

 

Meanwhile, each year Pappy cancelled, then renewed reservations, culminating in his finally realizing one of his most cherished dreams two years later - that of attending the BIG ONE in Seattle, the locus of Geocaching and Waymarking. Secondarily, Pappy & Scroogie each managed to achieve a couple more of their aspirations, most notably through the exchange of their virtual relationship with a genuinely personal one.

 

Despite his relative prowess in the usage of the written English language, Pappy had warned Scroogie that he spoke "very, very little English", which proved Pappy to be very much a truthful individual. Upon their meeting it immediately became evident that Pappy's spoken English was on a level pretty much exactly that of Scroogie's spoken French. The word abysmal comes to mind here. Needless to say, there arose precious few deep, soul searching, philosophical, existential or geopolitical discussions to be overheard in that car for the duration of their  pilgrimage. Accompanied by injuriously bent French and English, desperate gestures and improvised sign language soon became the langues du jour.

 

Moreover, little did our poor Pappy know what that heinous villain, fate, had in store for him.

 

 

What injuries and indignities will befall our protagonist? Stay tuned for Chapter One.

Edited August 31, 2022 by ScroogieII

[+ScroogieII]

Chapter 1 — The Embarkation

OK, let me just say right at the outset that the term "Gang Aft Agley" would fittingly describe the somewhat ill fated adventure which I am about to relate. "Gang Aft Agley" was possibly first coined in the poem To a Mouse, by the esteemed Scots poet Robert Burns, the complete line from the poem being "The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley".

 

'Twas on an early afternoon of a typically hot (35° or so) Southern BC summer day that we departed. First thing to do: turn on the AC. ... ... Waiting for cool air, waiting for cool air, waiting for cool air,, then waiting, and waiting... ... ... ... and WAITING. YUP! That was the start of our trek, which was to be the harbinger of the remainder! The AC WASN'T WORKING, likely out of refrigerant. Save for early mornings, the rest of the trip proved somewhat noisy, with windows partially, or fully, down. Yes, I'll here admit that I seldom use the AC, primarily because I seldom/never have need of it for quick jaunts about town. I don't get out much.

 

It was not long, nor many kliks, down the road of our much anticipated odyssey when it began to gnaw at me that I had forgotten something, this actually being a quite common occurrence with myself. Then, at just about the exact point in our journey that it became just "too much trouble", taking "too much time" to turn around and retrieve the forgotten object, it finally hit home that I had forgotten my phone, having left it lie on the kitchen table, just where I had laid it immediately after answering the call from Pappy announcing that he had (finally) arrived chez moi.

 

Ordinarily the forgetting of a single item, of the many that one generally hauls along on a trip of more than a day or so, would present little problem in the ensuing days. This "forgetting" however, much unlike the forgetting of picayune and insignificant matters such as putting the seat up, then down, one's anniversary or one's wife's birthday, would turn out to be a forgetting of the single, solitary element most crucial to the completion of what, otherwise, would have been a pleasant and successful journey. Prior email exchanges with Pappy had led me to believe that Pappy had successfully loaded route data that I had sent him to his phone. This transpired NOT to be the case. Scroogie has recently been apprised of the fact that what REALLY transpired was that Scroogie, in prototypical Scroogie fashion, had somehow neglected/forgotten/failed to remember to launch a number of said pivotal documents in Pappy's direction. Scroogie continues to wish that he could unearth a scapegoat here, but, typically, none have materialized.

 

Further, route data that I had downloaded to my Garmin Nüvi turned out, later, to be of equal inefficacy, as I was unable, even in the presence of threats of physical violence, to convince the Nüvi that such data actually existed in its vast, yet miniscule and pea brained memory. Oh, certainly, I had also double, and triple, checked the presence, and the availability and utility, of the data on my phone and had ascertained it to be in perfect working order. All to naught, naturally, as said phone chose to take a pass on this trip.

 

This, of course, left us with zero routing information which, for the initial two stages of the trip, was immaterial, as I already knew those intended routes and stops. However, for the third and fourth stages, though I was reasonably familiar with the country, a lack of specific Waymark coordinates presented a bit of a problem. The singular bright spot, with regard to this trip and my planning and execution, occurred just the day before we were due to leave. In spite of my ill founded belief that everything was tikkedy-boo and friend Pappy was about to experience a totally glitch-free, relaxing, informative and inspirational trek with an equally glitch-free, relaxing, informative, inspirational, and, hopefully, humorous and entertaining, traveling companion, I decided that it couldn't hurt to create just one more back-up. Hence, I downloaded ALL of our intended stops/Waymarks to my trusty old Magellan handheld GPS.

 

NEVER, in my memory, have I made a more fortuitous decision.

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by ScroogieII

[+ScroogieII]

Chapter 2 — Setting Sail For Alberta

Stage one along our long and winding road took us from my home base of Grand Forks, BC, to Golden, BC. Given that Pappy began his day not long after daybreak at Richmond, BC (on the coast), the 532 kliks of often treacherous and, to him, brand new, highway he must necessarily travel from there to Grand Forks, plus the great many more kliks to Alberta via Highways 3 and 95, meant that it was essentially impossible to achieve the home of friends north of Calgary at a reasonable hour. Hence, our first stop was at Golden, BC, at a motel with Chalet, Cottage, and Cabin Style Lodging, naturally, a new category for Pappy. Just across the highway would be Phil's next new category, the Husky Truck Stop.
 

 

Without fail, each year in British Columbia, the coming of spring has become associated by travelers not only with riots of wildflowers coming into blossom, but the appearance of equally large numbers of highway construction workers, sprouting like mushrooms in the forest. It's a demonstrable fact that one simply cannot travel a single route in summer in British Columbia without being accosted and delayed by highway workers and paving machines. I swear that the province repaves each and every mile of highway, road, path, artery, avenue and boulevard within its borders at least five times each and every decade. Still more major delays are to be endured within another major ($600,000,000+) highway project for 2022, in which the Provincial and Federal Govmints are collaborating in nailing two more highway lanes to the side of the mountain along the Trans Canada Highway in the Kicking Horse Pass, thereafter at least ameliorating, if not eliminating, a traffic bottleneck there.

 

 

Stage two of the campaign was a two part stage, or three part, actually. After a stop at Lake Louise to allow Pappy a quick peek at the Prettiest Lake on the Planet, followed by a stop in Canmore, AB to pick up the Whitewater Rafting Trips category for Pappy, it was on to Calgary and Peter's Driven In, the Drive In once documented as producing the "Best Burgers In Canada", (an opinion with which I have, for at least 50 years, agreed), then up to meet some Alberta friends and chow down on Peter's Burgers, Onion Rings and Peter's equally renowned milkshakes. (Note here for future reference: Pappy's not really fond of Onion Rings, but loves Banana Caramel [odd combination?] milkshakes. [At Peter's, one is allowed to select from up to three of thirty flavours {4,500 flavour combinations} in concocting their "personalized" milkshake.]) We must, here, also make note of yet another "FIRST" - its being that this specific Banana Caramel Milkshake was Pappy's FIRST! NOT just his FIRST Banana Caramel Milkshake, but his FIRST EVER milkshake!

 

Those poor Frenchmen have been deprived of so much!

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by ScroogieII

[+ScroogieII]

Chapter 3 — Pappy Meets Pappy

With full tummys, it was on to the little town of Beiseker, to grab what will hopefully pass as a Railroad Museum, then further east to the little city of Drumheller. Drumheller is in the Alberta Badlands, on the Red Deer River, a river which has, over the millenia, carved a deep gouge into the sandstone based Alberta prairie, exposing some of the most prolific palaeontological sites in the world. It was this which gave rise to Drumheller's self described title as the Dinosaur Capital of the World and such venues as the Royal Tyrell Museum, one of the preeminent palaeontology museums and research facilities of the world, housing one of the world’s largest displays of dinosaurs. Drumheller itself features a vast (for a small city) hoard of palaeontological and dinosaur related attractions and dinosaur sculptures, including attractions such as the World's Largest Dinosaur.

 

 

It was here in Drumheller that our Pappy first experienced a bit of Albertan Nirvana, expressing his delight at the location by shooting every dinosaur which came into view, of which there are sufficient to keep cameras clicking for hours. Nirvana Number Two was yet a night's sleep and a few score kliks down the road. While we were able to navigate Pappy's Needed New Categories in Drumheller reasonably successfully with the aid of the "trusty old Magellan handheld", the next stage of our trip proved a bit more challenging. Following successful visits to a handful of sites just south of Drumheller, such as The Hoodoos and the 11 Bridges of Wayne (a Guinness Book of Records site), things went sideways quickly thereafter.

 

 

My turning right (west) instead of left (East) sent us down a seemingly interminable stretch of gravel road, culminated only when Pappy's phone map finally was able to point us to pavement, then, however circuitously, to our next destination. This next part we happened to do in reverse, costing us an hour or two of precious time. Had I not been driving at well over the speed limit for essentially the entirety of the trip, this bit (along with the rest of the trip, truth be told) would have wasted even more of our time.

However, after a successful stop at Gleichen, followed by an entirely UNsuccessful stop at Cluny (the First Nations Historical Site there was closed for the day [only that day - how did they know we were coming?] due to unspecified infrastructure malfunctions), it was on to Aspen Crossing, the site of mucho railroad memorabilia and a Scenic Railway Trip, which, naturally, wasn't "tripping" on the day of our visit.

 

 

Upon our arrival at Aspen Crossing, Pappy immediately hit the ground and began shooting a plethora of photos of Engine 5080, a 4-6-2 steam locomotive, a caboose, some rail cars, and pretty much everything else in sight, whether moving or static. After touring a bit of the grounds I entered the main building via a side door, with Pappy in trail, immediately beside which was, OF ALL THINGS, a Fortune Telling Machine! The name of the grizzled old "Fortune Teller" was PAPPY. Upon spying the name, with a distinct ring of genuine excitement and glee, Phil declared to me that: "That's ME! I AM PAPPY!" It transpires that, by his four children and ten (count 'em, ten) grandchildren, Phil is very affectionately known (with good reason, I can attest) as "Pappy", probably even by his lovely wife, Cathy. Though it was within an embarrassingly short ZOOM conversation [between Pappy and Cathy] {embarrassing for me because I couldn't think of anything more to say in French that wouldn't sound, well, stupid, beyond "Comment ça va?"} (I sincerely apologize for that, Cathy)], at the end of that day, I experienced the immense pleasure of meeting said lovely Cathy.
 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by ScroogieII

[+ScroogieII]

Chapter 4 — The Finale

Following our departure from Aspen Corners, we quickly found Highway 23, which was to lead us south to our destination for the day, Lethbridge. It was Highway 23 which was my salvation for the rest of our trip, as I was familiar with it, and probably, it, me. Moreover, the rest of the trip needn't deviate from it, save for a short excursion to the east to our final town, Nobleford. Though there were several small villages and hamlets along Highway 23 housing a smattering of useful Waymarks and new categories for Pappy, the true destination for the day, possibly the entire trip, was Vulcan, the Trek Centre of Canada. For Pappy, all the rest may have been just window dressing.

 

 

You see, Pappy is a true, died-in-the-wool, Trekkie. If you've not yet made the mental connection between Star Trek and Vulcan, then there's no real need for me to attempt an enlightenment. Allow me just to say that Pappy had me photograph him in a variety of poses with Spock, other members of the cast, AND posing as a member of the cast at the controls, or in the command chair, of several of the Starship mockups to be found in Vulcan's Trek Station. As well, he accomplished quite a respectable number of selfies with other members of the various Star Trek crews.

 

 

That evening it was pizza at our motel in Lethbridge, my aforementioned and embarrassing meeting with Cathy, then setting out by early dawn for British Columbia and the truly regrettable finale of our little epic. Gassing up twice in Alberta, because gas is cheaper there than in BC, we made one more stop in the Crowsnest to allow Pappy to visit a past Waymark of mine, an old compressed air powered mine locomotive, now the World's Largest Piggy Bank.

 

Thence we passed once more through the Rocky Mountains and into British Columbia. I feel it absolutely necessary to note here that, though I doubt that they were previously, I can now state with relative certainty that, after Pappy's having passed through them twice, the Canadian Rocky Mountains are now the MOST PHOTOGRAPHED MOUNTAIN RANGE on the planet.

 

 

A few dozen more kliks west we came to Cranbrook, and Pappy's penultimate new categories of the trip: Denny's, which always affords a minimum of three categories. Following a singular, and mercifully short, episode of driving three abreast on a one lane highway, which was entirely my fault, not to mention quite "eye opening", we arrived at the mountain town of Rossland, renowned first for its prolific Gold and Copper Mines, later for its world class ski hills and World Class Skiers. A few more kliks to the north landed us at the site of Pappy's final New Category of the journey, the site of a Cross Country Ski Trailhead.
 

 

Captain Pappy Carefully and Adroitly Warps His Starship Back Home

Exactly 2100.3 kilometres (no kidding), and, more or less, four days following its departure, the car was back in the parking spot from whence it had departed, back in Grand Forks. A mildly tearful "goodbye" followed, after which Pappy slowly disappeared into the western sunset.

 

Some time after 22:00 Pappy finally arrived back at his temporary home on the coast, doubtless somewhat shaken, but still alive and relatively unscathed - my initial objective!

 

— The End —

Or is it? ... ... ... Only The Shadow, or possibly Scroogie, knows for sure...

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by ScroogieII

[+pmaupin]

Thank you Keith for this very beautiful novel of our walk (and your humor). Indeed it was a fantastic experience of discovering your country. The Waymarking made it possible to really bring together two foreign people, who met virtually on the site, who got to know each other virtually for 4 years and finally made this meeting a reality. Despite the language barrier (English-French), the trip was superb. Thanks to your meticulous preparation of our trip, I managed to validate new and numerous categories (impossible in Europe). Waymarking still has that fantastic encounter possibility. Thank you for everything, and thank you to the Waymarking for bringing these discoveries to life.

[+PISA-caching]

Thanks for the interesting insights. "To go where no man European Waymarker has gone before." 

 

[+ScroogieII]

8 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

Thanks for the interesting insights. "To go where no man European Waymarker has gone before." 

 

 

Or might ever want to go again... 

Well done, Andreas. I, too, was going to make use of that "Green Screen", but now that you've done it you've saved me the trouble. Kudos for this!

 

Interestingly, the top left signature on the front of Pappy's Command Chair is that of George Takei, Mr. Sulu here.

 

[+elyob]

What a great account!  That must have been hundreds of photos. I must try a banana caramel shake, even if I can't get back to Peter's.  Thank you, you two, for sharing your adventure. I admit it: I've missed this stuff.

[+ScroogieII]

So, where y'all been? We've missed you, too!

Thanks for the kind words, as well!

[+elyob]

While away from the forums, I still did plenty of posts, visits and reviews.  Are these Waymarking forums as active as ever?

 

[+ScroogieII]

On 10/2/2022 at 4:31 PM, elyob said:

Are these Waymarking forums as active as ever?

 

Nope! Pretty dead, as a rule.

[+ScroogieII]

I note that Pappy is bashing off the New Categories by the dozens!

Stay Tuned to find out how many he discovered while in the Wild Wild West!

Could be HUNDREDS!!!

 

A line of Pappy's that I just noticed again for the first time, which I really like:

Waymarking still has that fantastic encounter possibility.

 

Possibly that could be made into a Waymarking slogan of some sort. I think it's GREAT!

Keith

Edited October 19, 2022 by ScroogieII

[+ScroogieII]

As promised to several and sundry with whom I have spoken or written since the inauguration of this thread, I'm finally, and at last, posting here a list of the Waymarks that Papy had gleaned on his epical North American sojourn.

NO, NOT a complete list of said Waymarks. You can, with little effort, as did I, partake of the few quick searches required to ascertain the number of Waymarks Papy scored, thereby even viewing each and every one in Living Colour.

Here's a list, by area, country, or whatever, resulting from my, admittedly superficial, searches. It may actually be reasonably close to correct. I'm saving you at least that little effort with the provision of this list:

Alberta - 96
BC Interior - 22
Vancouver Area - 66
Washington - 31
Montana - 1
Idaho - 1
TOTAL - 217

(+ one I see which he hasn't done yet)

 

When Phil arrives home from his most recent GeoMarking trip, this one to Spain, I expect he'll take notice of the update to this thread and, true gentleman that he is, provide us with the final word on the actual number of NEW CATEGORIES (the operative number here, after all) he had managed to snag. I would do that, but:

A: I would likely be one or three or five off the true mark.

B: It's spring, I'm getting spring fever, experiencing the attendant lack of energy.

C: I have to go watch reruns of the latest Blue Jays Games.

 

Keith

[+ScroogieII]

Just thought it might be time to drag this back up to the top to allow Papy the opportunity to add the final word on the actual number of NEW CATEGORIES (the operative number here, after all) he had managed to snag.

Hint! Hint - Papy............................

 

[+pmaupin]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:51 AM, ScroogieII said:

Just thought it might be time to drag this back up to the top to allow Papy the opportunity to add the final word on the actual number of NEW CATEGORIES (the operative number here, after all) he had managed to snag.

Hint! Hint - Papy............................

Hey Keith
Here is a summary of the new categories that I managed to have thanks to our journey together. Alberta 33 new categories, British Columbia 38 new and USA 20 new, so a total of 91 new categories in my table. A big thank you Keith for all the time spent with me on the roads of Canada, and for all the preparation work you had done.
Phil called "Papy"

[+ScroogieII]

WOW Papy!!!  Thank you for providing the missing info.

That's a few more than I would have guessed.

Unfortunately, though, we didn't manage to snag a century's worth.

Oh Well, 91 is certainly nothing to sneeze at!

Keith