Day 7 Pine Grove to Clearwater

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 ...