The drive from Surrey to Invermere was long, clocking in at about 10 hours, but it gave me a chance to soak in at least a portion of Canada.  The differences were small but pervasive such as getting used to KPH and dollars per liter as standard vehicle notions.  But there were more:

• Bridges said “slippery when frosty” instead of “bridge may be icy”
• The little guy that indicated there was a hiking trail was hiking to the left rather than the right
• The Trans Canada highway goes straight through small towns resulting in a sudden speed drop to 50 KPH.  The US has the courtesy to build these people byways.  There are also several cases where the road is one lane each way despite being one of their national engineering achievements
• Full-service gas stations are manned by the slow old instead of the spry old
• Signs advertise attractions that aren’t even on the current road or one of its crossroads
• McDonalds has muffins but no cookies
• NOBODY OFFERS FREE PUBLIC WIFI

Finally, Canada has an exit sign for everything.  In the US there are four: You can eat here, you can fuel here, you can sleep here, you can poop here.  Canada has:you can sleep, poop, fuel, eat, tent camp, trailer camp, dispose of waste, see history, get an associates degree, get a bachelors degree, alpine ski, crosscountry ski, hike, walk, launch a boat, see animals, see a scenic view, talk to a park ranger, receive information on the area, fish, boat, water ski, visit the First Nations, undertake engineering or science (I shit you not), have your car repaired, and purchase poutine (doesn’t exist but should).

On my way, I stopped to get Steven Harper Funbucks aka Canadian dollars and the person at the RBC asked me how I liked Canada so far.  I told her it was fine and she said to let her know if I had any problems.  Good to know someone on the inside.

I met James Weir/Beers in Invermere at the Tim Hortons, a stop he said I wasn’t allowed to make until we’d met.  Their donuts were a notch below Dunkin’ Donuts and their coffee was identical to what I get from Wawa but it served as a fine meeting place.  I met the rest of his cohort consisting of a lawyer that was boarding with Morgan Blakely/Plato’s mother as an apprentice lawyer as well as Morgan and we moved to his residence for the evening.  My initial fears of them shaking me down for my lunch money was again unmet.

We played a bit of TF2 and I was rewarded with the following gem:

I shot this picture of the group from the side with the aid of a flash and Beers then realized that the game was on.  He didn’t want his picture taken and as the next day unwound there would be a deadly game of cat and also cat.