Howdy!
It’s been a long while since I’ve last written anything, so, when presented the opportunity to document another adventure, I couldn’t resist!
It’s Bryan here: your ordinary, sedentary, university kid. Especially for the past 3 months, most likely due to crazy amount of Engineering that I’ve been learning. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, essentially, I’ve been willingly toiling away in a lab on a crazy project for a design course, which ultimately was a meganormous learning experience and a lot of fun. Just imagine you’ve been tasked to build a life-sized castle out of LEGO. That’s how it felt like: gruelling work, tough progress, but tonnes and tonnes of fun.
Anyways, last week, the project finally came to close. Now, I’ve gotten a small break for summer, 3 weeks to be precise. Because these 3 weeks are basically the only extended holiday I have besides Christmas for the rest of my academic time (no seriously, that’s what Eng Phys is…), I was determined to have a wicked adventure.
Well, if you know me, you’ll know that actually, I’m quite inexperienced in the world of adventuring. In fact, when I was a kid, I was very very geeky: often I would rather spend my days indoors protected from the hot Vietnamese sun playing video games. Honestly, I was probably one of the palest kids in the country! It was not until I was introduced to The Hobbit, that I began to appreciate outdoor adventures. Earnestly I imagined the wonder Bilbo Baggins must have felt coming out of his comfortable hobbit hole, to be greeted by a fearsome, but utterly beautiful world outside. How he found qualities in himself he never guessed, and how he grew in courage, experience, and wisdom. From then on, a sense of adventure was planted in me, and since then anytime I am a little nervous about an adventure I think back to The Hobbit.
Of course, I’m much older now, and I’m not quite the stature of a Hobbit to make comparisons anymore, but that sense and longing for adventure has always remained. And actually, I certainly wouldn’t say I’m an inexperienced adventurer, I’ve seen my fair share: from last summer, to a trip through the Rockies, and finally a rather unexpected journey to San Francisco with UBC Sailbots (seriously, I did not expect to drive/survive that far!). Nonetheless, the point is, I’m no Robinson Crusoe, in fact, I hardly know much about the rest of the province in which I live! Of our beautiful British Columbia, I have only ever been to one or two towns besides Vancouver and Richmond. I am straight up naive about BC.
Well, this next adventure will hopefully change that.
THE ROADTRIP
Within 7 days, a group of 5 guys (Arek Sredzki, Calvin Nimmo, Oliver Gadsby, James Petrie and myself, not exactly a large company of dwarves), will be travelling around the Okanagan, as well as parts of the Kootenay Rockies, hoping to fill in the blanks for our BC experience. Along the way, we will visit: Salmon Arm, Revelstoke Mountain, Glacier Park, Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton, Oosoyoos, then finally cap it off with a day at the Cultus Lake Waterpark.
Of course, the method of transport will be via a car. Why? Because we believe a Canadian roadtrip is a right of passage: there’s something about driving through a highway cutting through Canadian country with a bunch of bros, camping at wherever that’s available, and seeing friends from all around the province, that screams Canadian. Oh yeah, one more thing, it is also the cheapest option.
Here’s what the trip will look like:
Within a week, we’ll be travelling around the Okanagan valley. Roadtrip time!
So, when does it begin, you might excitedly ask? The trip starts from Thursday, August 21st, and finishes by at least Wednesday, August 27th.
Along the way, we will capture lots of pictures, videos, and stories which will be shared through this blog.
Finally, at the end of it all, we’ll publish a super awesome trip flick.
Stay tuned!
-Bryan
There and Back Again, BC Edition 