My lovely wife Rachel has never fully understood my interest in four-wheelin'. She's very supportive of everything I do, but she just doesn't get it. No problem, we don't have to do everything together, do we? Heck no! In fact, some things are best done while we're apart, and four-wheelin' is one of those things. This fact was proven in the Spring of 2000. Rachel was attending a weekend conference at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort. The conference was over by Saturday, and Rachel and I had already arranged to meet on Saturday Night, stay over, and drive home together on Sunday. On our way out of Harrison on Sunday Morning, I stopped to fuel up at the local gas station. Much to my surprise (really, I did not plan this!!), the Herd of Turtles Four Wheel Drive Society was fuelling up at the same station!!! Deej (Dan) was the first to get my attention, strolling over to my truck and munching on the last few bites of a double bologna sandwich. "Hey", Dan called out, "we're going to find some natural hot springs. Are you in?" "Well, Rachel's with me, we're on our way back to Vancouver.", I replied. "Aw, c'mon. It won't take long. Pretty mild run." I turned to Rachel, who was obviously not at all interested in going off-roading (because she never is). One of the nice things about Rachel is she is very supportive of all my nutty schemes, and, because of that, I didn't even have to ask. "Fine,", Rachel offered, "do I have to do anything?" "Uh, no." I replied. "Okay...". What a great catch!! Apprehensive, but still a great catch. Let me paint a picture here. It's early summer in B.C. Very dry and dusty. I'm in a black 4Runner with no air conditioning and a woman in a grey business suit and 4" heels. Rachel's luggage, in the back of the truck, consists of her laptop, some business manuals, and a change of suits.Luckily she had a pair of Liz Claibourne sunglasses, the Globe & Mail weekend edition and a Steely Dan CD to protect her from the Great Outdoors. We joined the procession of five or so trucks and headed toward the mountains. Deej was there of course, and Wes, and Troy, and a few other folks I had never met. And there was a huge yellow full size Blazer, which would soon play a part in the unravelling of our adventure. Now, we were doing prety well, making good time along moderate logging roads. Rachel was happy to humour me, as she listened to Steely Dan and buried her nose in the Business section of The Globe. |
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| Rachel vs. The Great Outdoors |