Rubbin' is Racin'

It is a normal day at work for Jeff Gordon or Kyle Busch to have someone else's paint on one of their quarter panels or to find themselves spinning around the end of a race track after pushing the limits of their car.  I find it a bit unusual for me to ever push the limits of the possibilities of life.

I don't know if that is because of religion, education, the way I was raised or fear of the unknown.  But what I do know, is that life is short and it ends.  Allowing the fear of possible negative results to cause you to avoid all possibilities with incredible opportunities is a foolish way to live.  I am not suggesting you throw caution completely to the wind, but most of us aren't going to race 200 miles per hour around an oval anyway.  But would you take a day off work and say pay for everything the entire day during your adventure with your change jar?  Or would you drive to Chicago and not have a hotel reservation for the night?  Or would you quit a job without having one lined up?  None of these things in the big scheme of life are really that huge, but can often be the unusual, maybe awkward things that can limit us.

On this trip and others, I know things that limit me are tight spaces, the fear of tight spaces, parking in the dark, the possibility of wrong turns that will land me in a dead end.  But I have worked through this fear as insignificant as it really is in life.  Kelly has helped direct me in a number of spaces and we have maneuvered through some very tight areas.  For example, the Helmcken Falls is arguably one of the most beautiful falls in British Columbia and I am fairly confident in years gone by I would not have risked taking the big rig to the viewing area.  But not this year!

Then there was Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park in Hope, British Columbia.  Exit 183 off of highway 5 would lead you to expect to hear some Dueling Banjos playing in the distance and the road was narrow and seemingly not one any large trucks or RVs had recently traveled.  The entrance to the park was equally as intimidating with low hanging limbs and the description I was given in advance was "if the fence is chain locked, park and go in anyway!"  But once we turned the final corner, it was a normal park with plenty of RV parking.  Connie even said this was her favorite place on the trip so far.  If you are ever in the area, go see the Othello Tunnels, they are a special treat!

I can read your mind.  "Oh yeh, you pushed the envelope and everything worked out just fine.  Just wait, your time is coming."  Well, you are probably right, but I wonder what, "my time" might really mean?  Quite possibly I might get stuck somewhere, maybe have to back up and block traffic, possibly even see a body shop.  But are these the kind of possibilities that would keep someone on the interstate their entire life?  I am telling you, life is not on the interstate.  Life happens off the beaten path and staying with the crowd may cause you to miss it!

So less than 4 hours after the amazing Othello Tunnels, we landed at Tynehead RV camp in the dark.  Not only was it in the dark, it was packed as tight as a can of sardines.  Ever the expert, I had help pulling in the camp site.  It was 90 degree left hand turn with little space to swing wide into it.  We moved the picnic table over to create a little more space on the right and I swung over to the newly created area.  As I inched forward, I heard the dreaded sound of crunching metal.  It was not on the right hand side, but the left.  The power post was positioned fairly close to the back of the space and I didn't turn wide enough around it and rubbed paint with it.

You might guess, my anxiety level peaked momentarily, but given time, I was able to let my emotions settle and begin planning our next day in Vancouver.  The fear of that dent might have caused me to avoid Vancouver, but it wouldn't have been worth it!

(As I was sitting here writing this, our neighbor at the campsite, Collins Maxfield, introduced himself to me and reinforced everything I just said.  He took his rig on California Highway 1 with a tow car and pushed his muffler up on one of the turns.  The rig he is in has a feature that on occasion it heats up to clean out the diesel and once he pushed up the muffler, the next time it heated up, it melted a bunch of the fiberglass.  He didn't say it, but he is probably fortunate they didn't get carbon monoxide poisoning.  He also had a stroke last year and was thankful he has lived as he has.)