Coquitlam

I’m sat in “Tim Hortons” which is a donut bagel teahouse place like mac Donald's, they are all over Canada and started in eastern Canada that was started by Mr Tim Horton who was a famous hockey player he started the donut chain and its success has been huge but most of its increase in size has been after his death as it is now just a brand name and in the hands of a multi national company, one think i will say is that they put a lot back into the community in the way of youth projects, they may do some other horrible things to the environment or something but on the surface it looks good on the counter.
I am amazed by the huge shopping centers they are massive and cinemas and everything to do with buying and eating, the food portions are so big i can’t finnish what they serve so I'm just eating small sandwiches from now on. I can eat quite cheaply a whole meal bagel toasted with butter and jam and a small coffee for breakfast comes to $2.65 so no more than £1.50 for breakfast then a chicken salad whole meal beget and a mug of tap water comes to $3.75 which is £2.08 then supper can be a bowl of chili and bread for $4.90 or £2.72 so a whole day for food can be only £6.30, if you go to the super market and load the fridge you could eat for even less but i haven't sorted out the fridge and cooking stuff yet.
Yesterday wednesday i checked out of the hostel and made my way back to Vancouver North were you have to take a small ferry called a sea bus, i insured the car for 6 months as doing this with ICBC national insurance is the only option if Canada was the port of entry to North America their is no other way to insure your car legally.
After doing i took the ferry south and called in to see Catherine and her colleagues at the Canadian customs office to give them a thank you card, i then got a bus to the Airport and when i arrived at the Delta hotel called Bob O’Connell and got collected by his colleague Doug who is a lovely English man who has lived in Canada for 41 years he moved to Canada when he was 26 and set up Mannix Freight service and is now in his final year of a 5 year hand over retirement sellout of the company, this is the company to collect my car form the shipping compound and unload it from the container.
The Toyota was parked outside their warehouse and looked good just like i left it, i wanted to be their to take photo’s of it being unloaded but it doesn’t matter.
I then started to get the roof tent lifted onto the roof and put the u bolts back onto it so it could be secured into position on the roof, also i fitted the external storage boxes and my Japanese fold up bike and the sixth spare tyre too all into the correct places. All of this took all afternoon and it was now wet cold and dark, i decided that without my winter sleeping bag as this is still in Scotland at home i would activate my internal capsule sleeping compartment which to many looks like it has more in common with a coffin and it takes some getting use to but it is to be a necessity and i will make the best of it, to use this i have had to remove a flat panel behind the passenger seat which allows me to pull myself up and out of the seat and strait back backwards into the 6 foot rabbit hole of a bedroom.
I had to also remove a large aluminum box with books dvd's and paperwork that i no longer need and I'm not sure what to do with as it’s too expensive to ship home so i may give some items to a charity shop and then burn the rest and post some needed items home.
So i had my first night out side the freight company in my “Rat capsule” that maybe what i will call it. I fell asleep fairly quickly but woke a couple of time when aircraft roared on take off and then at about 5 am i felt a little cold and put a blanket over the sleeping bag, a fair amount of condensation built up on the aluminum door next to my head too.`
I was up at 07.30 am started the engine to warm up the car and was happy that the front windows didn’t steam up, i am also very happy with the concept of having the opportunity to be able to sleep inside the vehicle if needs be. I said morning to Doug and Bob and drove an hour to Coquitlam the name of the blog and it is the town that i am sleeping at tonight, the reason for being here is to fix the rear cab heater so that warm air can be circulated around the cabin at a consistent temp all night then i will have a chance of success up in Alaska, i have slept in a truck cab at temp as low as -28 so i am hoping to do similar in the Landcruiser. The heater is made by Webastow and is a german company and the model is an Air Top 2000s and has not given me any problems but the heat sensor has failed so that has been replaced and is now working correctly so i hope to have a good nites sleep tonight, tomorrow they will be looking at the system under the bonnet called Thermo Top P which heats the engine when the outside temperature drops below -5 and gives me hot water and also blows warm air from the front into the cabin when the engine is off and will keep the windows frost free, this system has failed too and i think it is an airlock and a leaking coolant pipe.
Canada is very civilized and like being in the Uk so not so much of a challenge in some way’s, i have been swimming this evening in a really good community pool in Maple Ridge
and i am happy to be doing some fitness after the two weeks at sea.
My plans are to either drive south to Seattle which is two hours drive to see if i can apply for a work permit for Canada then drive east to Penticton to see where my great great grannies brother Mr Morris settled in Canada which is still in the family and is a small fruit farm then head North to Yukon territory or go east to Alberta to see Dylan and Cj the brothers from who i met in Edinburgh that also support StreetKids International as i want to return a fuel can they lent me in Frankfurt Germany sounds funny but when i was in Russia i said to myself “Right I'm going to take this all the way to Calgary” and it has helped me keep going the thought that i have carried this from their hotel to their door in Calgary over land and sea is funny.
Canada fits on two pages of my Atlas easily and Russia doesn’t so even though it may be the second largest country in the world, it feels smaller to me know and the roads are better to, i don’t think their is anywhere in the world i wouldn’t drive now.