Peter II: Canada, First drive.

"Socrates said an unexamined life isn't worth living. Aristotle said an unplanned life isn't worth examining. Anna says fuck Socrates and Aristotle too."

- M4TW about my minor issues yesterday.

The philosopher of bimmerpost has spoken.

Since everything was going so well, so well indeed that no hotel room could be found and it was still early (1am), I hit the pavement instead of a bed. My plan was to drive for a few hours, and find a camping ground, but since Calgary wasn't too far away, and driving at night is more fun, I decided to hit that little town straight away.

Things I should've learned by now are a long list, but as a new addition informing your bank about traveling if using American banks was now added. It didn't occur to me, Finnish cards work where ever I go. Naturally I had forgotten the pin code of it so that made the night extra fun.

The theme of the summer seems to be me almost running out of petrol. Fucking hell (Sorry) I did it twice last night. The first one went well, no cellphone coverage to get the damn bank on the phone, the pump didn't accept cash so waiting for an other client to show up to the secluded station was the way to do it.

yeah, fun. Nearest station 30 km away.

An hour went by. It was clear Canadians sleep through the night as most normal people tend to. A truck driver pulled over, gave me a lecture about not getting eaten by bears, and off I went again.

The next three hours were spent on trying to explain to a stupid bank, who's customer I am not going to be after returning home that PEOPLE DO FUCKING TAKE OFF, AND WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE IF A CLIENT HAS TO GET AN APPROVAL TO THEIR TRAVELING PLANS FROM THEM. I don't have a bloody plan was too difficult of an answer again to them and we had to do this song and dance four fucking times!

At the next pump I did the same damn call, again. third fill up was my favorite since the pump free was diesel, and I didn't expect any of my cards to work so I tested that. The faces of a few locals were priceless, I bet they will tell the story of the blondie trying to pump diesel to an M for all eternity.

It was a beautiful drive. A sunrise in the mountains always is, but this one was ruined by my minor monetary crises. I had a few hundred Canadian dollars left from buying the computer, but it was clear more phone time with the bank was needed to get everything sorted. I am never rude to any customer service people. This time though, after the fourth time all cards were locked again, I was in the point of explosion.

no grizzlies, a few goats, more issues, Peter started to act up by insisting I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and mountains.

sunrise was beautiful.

No idea what happened here, but it's a quality shot as mine always are.

I have new words for this song thanks to a bank... A mountain can be seen.

A mountain. I got asked to take pics of these, so here they are. Btw, I fucking hate mountains.

Mountains. If the one who made the request says the M word one more time, I will poison his coffee in NJ.

Who gives a fuck about some stupid rock formations. Get over it!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH! I hate you all.

Yup. It was perfection to the point of pain. Honestly, the drive is beautiful, but I truly advice handling minor issues such as money beforehand. That kind of killed the drive.

Turns out, Calgary also is a busy place during the summer. When I finally made it here, I couldn't have cared less where the hotel was. A beer, bed, a rude wakeup text a few hours later to finish the post about Vancouver, then to write up the next night, and I ran away to get some food to get away from the task. That went well. I spent the night talking hockey and rally.

I truly do think Canadians are English on drugs. Damn people are nice and open and always ready to talk about things with importance like what if orthopedic surgery had been on today's standards when Bobby Orr got hurt. I'd say that's a topic you don't have to cover in the USA. I also got credit for blending in almost perfectly, Canadians actually do enjoy life as it comes, instead of the way you see across the boarder.

Also, even in a sports bar ( I went there to write this) you can spot something truly rare on the other side of the border.