Jul 122015
Day 7 on the road: Pinegrove to Clearwater: 81 (561), 418 (6061) July 12, 2015
Leaving time: 6:45; it was a cool morning at 17C and the guys I left behind, Zachary and his dad from Seattle, Washington, planned to go fishing on a lake up north from the campground. The evening before we had discussed cultural differences between the USA and Canada from the American perspective. In a nutshell this went like this: Canadians are much more friendly and gentle than Americans, Canada is and will always be the "poor brothers in the north"; Fishing is better in Canada; Canadians waste less energy than Americans (Zachary works in maintenance for a heating and air-conditioning company ); the medical system is much fairer in Canada than it is in the USA ... and lots of other truths, half-truths or plain clichés ....
In any case the ride along the highway was fun. Few hills, long stretches of flat which I zipped along after my day of rest, and at only 12:30 I reached Clearwater after 80 km. The plan was to do a minimum of shopping and then find a campsite somewhere down the road. Announced as a "town", I didn't see anything apart from a snackbar with a German and Canadian flag hanging over its roof, a gas station and lots of signs indicating lake activities and R&V parks. Well, I stopped at the bar and guess what, I was immediately offered a "bratwurst" and potato wedges - in German!
It must have said "German" on my forehead - the owner is Markus, who left the region "Pfalz" in Germany many years ago and after owning two restaurants in this godforsaken area downsized to this mini-restaurant. He immediately created a very warm atmosphere and offered me to stay in my tent in his back yard. I couldn't resist, especially since I met another German lady who was in the shop and who chatted me up. Simone is a pastry cook who had spent all of last year trying to make a long term living for herself in a bakery in Clearwater. The previous owners had returned to Germany after offering her to take over the shop which she didn't want to because of the asking price but she stayed on working for the new owners from April to now. In June she got her permanent work status visa which means she can return to her family and her old life in Dresden and still has the option to try again in Canada within a period of five years. What a story! It just proves that you have to try if you want to change, even if you find out it doesn't work out quite the way you wanted.
So now I fled the super-nice (loud?) birthday party going on at the place to a lake with a WiFi from an adjacent hotel which I hoped to be able to on to ... and hopefully for a swim after blogging ...


Mein Fahrrad in Markus' Imbiss - damit wir beide am Abend schwimmen gehen können. Die 400 m fahren wir "natürlich" mit seinem Truck! Putting up my bike in Markus' shop - so we could go swimming together. "Of course" we took the truck for the 400 m to the lake ...
2 Responses to “Day 7 Pine Grove to Clearwater”
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Lieber Rene
Susanne ist gerade zu Besuch und wir haben uns deinen Blog angesehen.
Toll was du jetzt machen kannst in Kanada. Das ist bestimmt alles sehr spannend, vor allem, dass du die Tour jetzt alleine machen „musst“.
Dein Zelt gefällt mir. Es hat nur einen Nachteil:
es gehört nicht mir.
Ich werde hin und wieder mal reinschauen. Weiterhin viel Spass und vor allem gutes Gelingen!
Liebe Grüsse
Klaus-Peter
Hi Klaus-Peter,
danke für die Anteilnahme. Ich bin mittlerweile in den Bergen angekommen und wechsele zwischen Angst und Euphorie. Die Angst wird mich dazu bringen, meine Etappen kleinstmöglich in Abhängigkit von Campingplätzen zu organisieren – was nicht so einfach ist, weil es einfach ein riesengroßes Land ist- und wildes Camping erlaube ich mir erst wieder im Flachland, dort ist auch die Gefahr von Bärenbesuch geringer!
Das Zelt ist wirklich toll!
Liebe Grüße an Regina (und Susanne, falls sie noch bei euch ist)
René