Return of the Fat Bastard - Good bye George, you've been a Prince!

June 12th 2016

      Our weekend in Prince George once again confirmed that it's not about where you are, it's about the people you meet. We knew that Dr Dan and Ryland and the rest of the family were good people but everyone we met in PG were warm wonderful people. And believe me we met a lot of new people starting with Rylands's girlfriend Avery. I'd seen pictures of her on Facebook but this was the first time we had met. Smart and funny Her and Ryland make a great couple. Her parents, Rod and Angela, invited us into their home and made us feel welcome, They also fed us way too much delicious food and introduced us to so many interesting people.

      Last blog I called Perry's wife Madam X because I couldn't remember her name. It's Lori or Laurie or Lory ...I don't know. At one point yesterday there were 4 Dave's playing pool. The Lori thing confused me because we were invited to a Grad Brunch at Avery's Grandparents house, Lori and Doug. 

      We were up at 9 thinking we were going to the Sunday Brunch at the Semi Luxurious Carmel Inn Restaurant. We were talking about brunch at the party yesterday. I didn't know they were talking about brunch at their house. Ryland called us at 10 to remind us. $17.50 brunch in a restaurant or $0.00 at the home of 2 wonderful people. Dr Dan came by so we could say goodbye to Julia before he took her back to her mothers.

A slightly sleepy looking Julia

      Just before 11  we met Dr Dan at Starbucks for a quick coffee then headed up to Lori's for brunch. When we got there it just kept getting better. The Blue Jays game was on the TV and within minutes I had a hot cup of Jo in front of me. Brian and Deb from Hinton are huge Baseball fans and really know their stuff. I really had to work at the stats I was making up.

      Lori made these little crepes and bacon. Bowls of fresh fruit as toppings and Bacon! I went easy on the crepes with peaches and strawberries and ate too much bacon!

A giant pot of little pancakes

Ryland, Kayley, Avery and one of those 2 guys on the end is named Eric

Your ever loving Squatch, Dr Dan, Lori our host and one of those guys is named Erik

      We hate to eat and run but we ate and ran! I spent a few minutes with Doug checking out his new guitar. An absolutely beautiful instrument with sweet tone and quick action. I can't remember the make of guitar but I still remember how it felt when I played it...muey buenos! Doug is very green as a guitar player but truly has the passion. We traded information and FB friended each other and we will keep in touch I'm sure. I took a moment to make fun of Rylands hairstyle.

Ring toss anyone?

Then hugs all around and promises to see each other soon and we were gone like mill stink on a North wind.

      It was a travel day. We topped up Otto at the gas station beside the semi luxurious Carmel Inn and we left Prince George in the rain. It sprinkled on and off until we hit Billy's Puddle. We had already stopped 3 times! It may have been the fifth cup of Jo or maybe the sixth, I can't recall. Basically there is a rest stop every 50 k or so. We hit them all! Some of them were quite scenic!

      We were making great time. Lisa Andretti at the wheel and me taking pictures so they will be able to identify our bodies if we're pulled from a crumpled wreck! So here's a pictorial of our trip down to Lac Lahache.

Leaving Prince George

Overcast and moist!

The lovely Lisa's favourite sign

One of our many 5 minute stops.

For the second time in our time together we drove through a rainbow 

I looked over and found my pot of Gold!

More cherries this time in Hixon

      Next stop Lac LaHache. There is a heritage site there that is pretty cool. Here's some pictures.

1850's Log Cabin

The Museum...it was closed when we got there.

The Blacksmith shop and cook house.

The Church

      We have done the site several times before. It's a great spot for a picinic lunch and there is a lot of history there. Not just there but all the way to Prince George and beyond. But today we were on a mission. Home to the Ratdogs! Here' some pictures up until Cache Creek where the last battery died because we forgot the battery charger.

The transformation begins

Green fields leading into barren hills.

Blue skies and tumble weeds

The start of the High Desert

      We stopped in Cache Creek to grab some dinner to go. It was A&W or Dairy Queen. But wait, how about some gas station chicken. It was pretty good really and came with some honkin big wedge potatoes. There are no pictures of it because I forgot I have a camera on my phone and by the time I thought of it there was nothing left but chicken bones and a couple of grease stains on my shirt. That's okay it matched the coffee stains on my crotch from when I nodded off with my Jo to go in my hand. It was an instant wake up!
      I love the part of the Fraser Canyon after Cache Creek.

The Ashcroft Monolith

The Thompson River running high

So many business have closed....Thank you Coquahalla

      Hells Gate is under repair. It's one of the only draws left in the Canyon. Other than the river rafting out of Lyton were the Thompson River meets the Fraser River. On the bright side there are lots of tunnels....I like tunnels!  

      So that was our trip. Lisa Andretti did every second of driving. As always she rocks a road trip! We had a great time and met some very nice people. Here are Otto's stats for the trip.He used 3/4 of a tank to get us home. Here's the GPS info.

770 k in 7:45 driving time 

We stopped driving for less than 45 minutes!

That's all I've got
Till next time
Peace Out Y'all

Return of the Fat Bastard - Ballet in the land of plaid.

June 11th 2016


      9 a.m. Found us Back in the restaurant at the  semi luxurious Carmel Inn. With the $4 coupon for staying at the semi luxurious Carmel Inn I had the eggs Benny for $4.95 they were pretty good. I ordered them soft but they were pretty solid. I considered, briefly, sending it back but I was starving!

Eggs Benny for Squatchy

If you believe a 300 lb man could starve overnight perhaps I have some low mileage exercise equipment you may be interested in.
      Dr Dan bought us tickets for Julia' s ballet recital. We were told to meet him at the Prince George Secondary School at 10:30. We showed up at 10:15 and the joint was packed. Evidently Dr Dan gave us the wrong time. The show started at 10.00. We we!e there in time to see Julia and her classmates do their thing. Unfortunately our camera wasn't. Okay. the lovely Lisa had the camera I gave her at the semi luxurious Carmel Inn. Pretty much a paper weight without a card in it. And who's fault is it? Yours! I download the photos everyday so I can use them in my humble efforts to inform and entertain you the obviously incredibly bored eleven people who read this blog. I hold each and everyone of you personally responsible for me not putting the card back in the camera.
      But wait! It gets better.  We were in our seats and watching the other dance groups.By the way the dancers were all excellent. The little ones were so cute and the older ones could really dance. Yet I digress. This is when the lovely Lisa informed me that the camera was useless with a glare that caused my genitals to shrivel. " No problem Hon, I'll record it with my phone"
Shortly thereafter Julia's troupe was introduced They are the Ballet Mini's. I turned on my phone turned on the camera and it said cannot connect to camera.It's happened before so I knew what to do. Turn off the phone then turn it back on. As Julia and her pink clad gang of unbelievably cute Ballerinas entered stage right. I waited, As Julia and her pink clad gang of unbelievably cute Ballerinas went through their routine, I waited, As Julia and her pink clad gang of unbelievably cute Ballerinas spun around all at different times and speeds and some times not at all....Hey lighten up the kids are 4 years old! Finally my camera was functioning. I recorded 40 seconds at the end of the show.

Number 2 on my oops list. At intermission we walked out into the lobby to find Ryland and Avery waiting to go to breakfast with the lovely Lisa and I.Just as we had arranged the night before. Totally forgot and we had just come from breakfast. They had to be back at Avery's house by noon for the party her parents, Rod and Angela were throwing for them and it was already 11:15. There was a half hour wait at Dennys so we moved on down to the Camelot Motel Restaurant. In a strange moment of Deja vu I stayed at the Camelot years ago when I was doing standup. My joke on stage was " I'd like to thank the management for the wonderful accommodation . What's that place called The "Come a lot? Are you renting the place by the hour?" Huh? Funny or what?
      I had coffee because I just had breakfast. The lovely Lisa had a piece of cherry pie, Ryland  had a waffle and Avery had a vegetarian omelet. She's planning on going Vegan before they go to Australia in November. I told her not to let the Aussies know she's Vegan They eat them there! "Alright  Mate throw another Vegan on the Barbie" I swear I sounded just like Crocodile Dundee! We drove them home just minutes before 12 and took off to meet Dr Dan before returning for the party.
      We met Dr Dan at a Starbucks for a coffee before we went to the party. When we got there we saw that Angela had gone nuts with the food.

There was a big crowd probably 40 people not counting the 10 or saw prepubescent Banshees! Of course Julia was one of them. Her dolls name is Baby Jesus. I thought he'd be taller!

Julia and the Baby Jesus

It was a really good party. Lot's of interesting people. Lots of good food. A pool table in the rec room and a couple of guitars. Oh yeah, they also have an animal that creeped me out! The freakin thing looks like Gollum!

Hairless Rat Tailed Gollum Cat

We got to spend a lot of time with Ryland and Avery and Auntie Lisa got to play with Julia.

Auntie Lisa and Julia

      I Played a couple of games of pool and a few tunes on the guitar with Doug Who is the father of either Rod or Angela I forget or perhaps I never knew. Doug started playing a year ago when he retired. He's still learning his way around the guitar. I think He'll be good some day because he has passion and desire and he's a nice guy. The time just flew by. Next thing you know it's 8 and we have put in a full shift.
      We headed back to the place where Dr Dan is staying which is also the house he just bought. We met his pal Perry and his wife who's name I can't remember and the lovely Lisa is asleep and I don't want to wake her because she will punch me in the throat. They have 2 dogs and 2 cats...all of them have hair. Perry is a 26 year member of the RCMP and a well informed and intelligent guy. The house is beautiful and he did all the work. He says he's ADD and a little OCD it shows in his work. His wife ....let's call her Madam X talked about training for their Dog Mars who goes ballistic with excitement every time you move and is going to Doggy Training on Monday.

Mars and Madam X

Another good day in Prince George spent with family and new friends.

That's all I've got
Till next time
Peace Out Y'all

Return of the Fat Bastard - Graduation Day

June 10th 2016

I got a woody for Prince George

     After  good night's sleep at the semi luxurious Carmel Inn we went down to collect our coupon for a continental breakfast or $4 off menu items and an extension cord so we can plug the air conditioner back in. We had to use the outlet for my CPAP, by morning it was a little warm in the room. The bed in the semi luxurious Carmel Inn was muey comfortable. I slept like a baby, a giant snoring, gassy baby but still a baby !
      The food in the Carmel Inn restaurant was very good. What can they do to sausage and eggs? The lovely Lisa had the Eggs Benny. Okay, I could / should have skipped the rye toast and hash browns but look how happy I am!

      We had just got back to the room when Dr Dan called to tell us that people were lining up for the Grad Ceremony. It's 10 am!! The Grads at 1. Guess what is not going to happen? I won't wait 20 minutes for a seat in a restaurant I was not going to wait 3 hours to watch my nephew graduate. Fortunately Dr Dan , his father, has a vested interest in seeing his kid graduate so he stood in line for us. We went shopping for a couple of things we forgot at home and when we showed up at 12:30 Dr Dan already had our seats saved.

      You might remember Ryland from one of my Alaska cruise blogs. He got lost in the woods and had to be rescued. The Captain had to hold the boat for 30 minutes. They were pulling up the gang plank as the search and rescue truck pulled up to the ship. Well, 3 years later he's Graduating High School. Both him and his girlfriend Avery Graduated on the Principals list. I think they both have a bright future. 

      The Grad was held at the Prince George Civic Center and it was packed!

       It was pretty much the same as every other Grad. The Grads all parade in with the crowd applauding for each and every student. The parents were beaming, the Grads were beaming and I have to say when Ryland walked into the room I was beaming too. I felt my heart swell with pride and I realized I was waving and calling his name and I still recall how fantastic it felt when he waved back.
      The MC was pretty good. He kept it moving and had some good shtick too. Though the living in the parents basement till they're forty was a little old by the fourth time through. There were 168 kids in the graduating class ....can you still call them kids? They all seemed so grown up.
      The general rule for receiving your diploma is they come out onto the stage in alphabetical order. Horvat was up pretty quick.

Grad to meet you

      Shortly after Ryland received his diploma I mercifully slipped into a coma. I didn't come out of it until the lovely Lisa dropped an elbow into my ribs from the top rope! "Avery is up next" the lovely Lisa whispered. I was thinking that's a Q. How much longer can this go? Do you know how many S's Graduated this year? Me neither because I nodded off for a few minutes. I only woke up because the lovely Lisa pinched me really hard! "Is it over?" I said with hope in my voice. Right then the MC said "I present the 2016 Graduating class" Woo Hoo 90 minutes....that wasn't so bad. "Now to present the first of the scholarships and burseries" the MC said at which point my brain once again left the building. I was brought back to reality by a shot to the solar plexis from the lovely Lisa. Ryland and Avery both won multiple thingys. I don't know if they were scholarships or burseries I was still groggy from sleep or perhaps from the flying elbows of doom! Start to finish 2 hours 40 minutes.
      Did I mention I've never met Rylands girlfriend Avery? I think I scared her!

OMG

      This is the part where we go out into the lobby, eat cakes, have coffee and take kabillions of pictures. Lets start with the Reception I had 4 cups of Starbucks and still couldn't wake up. I didn't eat any cakes.

      Here are some of the Pictures from the after Grad Reception

Dr Dan, Me, Ryland and the lovely Lisa

Avery and Ryland

Come here sailor!

Ryland with his Mom Shaun and an unknown Hobo

Uncle Dave, Ryland and the lovely Lisa

Ryland and his 2 best friends one of them might be named Nick

      We all met at a Thai restaurant at 5 for dinner. The food was good, I had a salad roll and peanut chicken with veggies sans rice.

MMMMMM Salad roll

And of course the best part was Julia. She's too young to sit still for 3 minutes let alone 3 hours so she wasn't at the Grad.

Dr Dan and Julia

Big eyed Babe

      After dinner we were invited over to Avery's parents house. I'm so bad with names, someone there was named Doug does that help? We played guitar and pool, they have quite a nice table. Any time your making music in the kitchen it's a very good time!

Playing with David, Rylands older brother

      So all in all a full day. Julia has a ballet recital tomorrow morning and the a couple of parties. One in the afternoon and one that night.....I heard it was a pool party. Can you say Squatchnami Cannonball???

P.S. My spell check isn't working.....live with it!

That's all I've got

Till next time 

Peace Out Y'all