Best-Ever Canadian Winter Blues Boogie

Clearing My Head

When my feet found the floor Saturday morning, a vague recollection was already pushing its way through the fog in my head. I shuffled bleary-eyed toward the kitchen. By the time I reached the espresso machine, I was awake enough to notice a crystalline blue sky framed in the window. I pulled the first shot and tried to reflect. Half-way through the second pour it hit me: this was the day for my annual trek north to the Canadian Winter Blues Boogie in Silverton, B.C.

Getting Ready to Go

Thanks to a small online cash advance I'd gotten the week before and already paid back, I had snow tires on the car and was ready to go. I wouldn't miss this event even if I’d had to get an installment loan. I chugged the second shot, tossed my junk in the back seat, and was off to see Dr. Fun and the Nightcrawlers. Route mapping and other minor details could wait.

Planning My Route Carefully

I knew it was a four-hour drive, but I was hoping that careful route selection would make the trip  much longer than that. I asked the customs agent at the border if he knew the ferry schedule on Kootenay Lake. He handed me a printed schedule and offered me a sly grin that seemed to say, "Beautiful day to be on the lake." That grin assured me that my careful planning had been worth the extra effort.

Composing a Rocky Mountain Eulogy

People write songs about the Canadian Rockies because they can't help it. With the sunshine flooding through my sunroof, I was composing some effusively sentimental doggerel of my own, when the mountains rose up on the opposite shore, their likeness mirrored without defect on the placid, blue water. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Best-Ever Canadian Winter Blues Boogie"