I am Dave and She is Gay, Index

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
(Links beyond this point WILL change)
there seems to be some question about the intentions of the email sent out early Tuesday morning.
This page is an example of how messed up the old version of the web site could be.
I understand that some of the photographs are missing on this page. It is because I decided not to include them in
the final version and have wiped them off the server, but not yet this page.
Please don't pay much attention to this page and tour. This area has not yet received the update.
This tour will soon resemble Italy and Ireland, and the other tours.

thanks

www.iamdave.com / iamdave and she is gay

page last updated
March 24 2004

A love story?
Plans were to hang out with a friend on Vancouver Island for several days before heading to Vancouver for an internet chat room meeting. My friend canceled at the last moment, and I couldn't afford to fly, rent a vehicle, and purchase fuel on my own. I ended up renting a car in Indianapolis and driving to Vancouver City alone. Because I had only one week to spend traveling, I left the chat room meeting and headed east to the Canadian Rockies. An Australian gal from the meeting was heading to Calgary after the meet, so I offered her a ride. It would be a shame to fly over those mountains and not have the opportunity to see them from the ground. My Australian friends name is Gay, and she has written a wonderful story about our travels together.

Vikings in
Canada

www.iamdave.com / iamdave and she is gay

Gay has written the story below, but I've not yet gotten all the photos taken care of., so therefore, I've not finished this area.

Hanging Out With Dave

XXXHey, I was fortunate to have been able to have the privilege to Hang Out With Dave for a few days in August of 2001. Spontaneity at work again. I had already decided to attend a chat room meet arranged for a weekend in August in Vancouver and was going along to have an adventure, a holiday and to meet some of the wonderful people with whom I have chatted, including my best Chat friend, Aurora. A holiday for me was long overdue, it had been three years since my last trip overseas, and I was very much looking forward to this one. Vancouver was an excellent choice of city in which to start my holiday, very vibrant, interesting and scenic. My chat pals were lots of fun to be with and we all enjoyed many a lengthy face to face chat, at last.XXX

XXXDave had arrived alone on Saturday. He had planned on camping with a friend on Vancouver Island for the week before the meet. His friend pulled out too late for him to rearrange his holiday time. I had originally booked an airfare to Calgary to stay with Aurora for the balance of my two week vacation.XXX

XXX Knowing this, and the fact that Dave was also headed to Aurora�s for a short stay, he suggested that since I had come all the way from Australia I should see the Rocky Mountains from the ground, not from the air, so he invited me to camp with him and take four days to travel across what would normally take twelve hours to drive non-stop. The additional time would be needed to have a good look around, make time to climb mountains and hike a lot and also for Dave to take many, many photographs allowing for the lighting to be just right. I had a day to decide, but I liked the idea immediately of being able to spend time in the Rocky Mountains, and to visit Banff and Jasper with the added bonus of good company.XXX

XXXDave and I managed to get to know each other a little better by trekking over to Chinatown in Vancouver whilst the other roomies stayed in Gastown to shop. All the while Dave was wearing his trademark Viking helmet. Firstly we met James near the famous statue in the centre of Gastown, he was riding a racing bicycle and was advancing on his endeavour to cycle his way around the world. He had started from the Netherlands and said he expected to be in Australia by February. I invited him to call in for an Aussie barbecue when he arrived. If he sees this story he is still invited.XXX

XXXWe had a bit of fun crossing the park that separates these two cultural diversities. Firstly we ran into a young couple, her in a lovely black lace bolero and sort of evening attire with two needles delicately protruding from her inner elbow region, and him in a cute waistcoat over his opened necked shirt somehow managing to manoeuvre four needles at once. We stopped to talk with the couple for a little while, they seemed oblivious to the fact that drugs are illegal, and this was a public place. Whilst we were still in this vicinity we met a very interesting girl named Nancy. We had a few laughs together and then Dave invited her to wear his Viking helmet whilst he took photos of her. She obliged very willingly, some excellent photos were the result. She gave us each a dime and we had to stand at the edge of some running water and toss the coins backwards into this stream whilst making a wish and she asked us never to forget her. Like as if we could..lol.XXX

XXXOnce we hit China Town I was feeling fairly peckish and felt I would be able to get some of my standard breakfast of fruit here in the wonderful selection of oriental shops. There was a wonderful assortment and I chose a few rambutans and lychees and mangosteens. Dave had never seen such fruits before so I got a few extras and we headed for a small park to devour our produce. We then went on to investigate a little more of Chinatown including a wonderful Chinese herbalist where he bought some ingredients for an energy tea. Hey Dave, have you used this concoction yet? Our time was up, we had to go back to Gastown to meet up with the others for lunch.XXX

VXXX Monday morning��.the beginning of our camping trip. We piled our luggage into Dave�s car and left Vancouver. On the way I had to purchase a sleeping bag to keep me warm whilst sleeping in the mountains, and then we headed for the Okanogan Valley. This is a very famous fruit growing area of British Columbia. Dave and I chatted a little just getting to know each other a bit better and making each other comfortable with each others company, knowing that we had to spend the next four days together, probably knowing full well that it would be no effort. I am a very patient type (heehee) and he is very considerate. Whilst we drove we listened to a radio broadcast on ABC radio (??). A sweet young thing on the program said �Hey, you know in Canada the CAN is more important than the Da. Neither of us knew what on earth she was talking about and we looked at each other questioningly and then cracked up laughing. More ice broken. XXX

XXX At last we reached the Okanogan Valley, from where I wanted to pick up some fruits for my breakfasts for the next few days. We stopped at the first roadside fruit store we came to and I selected a few varieties or various fruits. Satisfied we got back into the car and headed on our merry way, passing many other fruit stalls�..until we came to a sign saying �Pick Your Own Fruit�. I thought this would be a fun thing to do, so Dave pulled into the long driveway and we made our way to the counter in the shed. Whilst discussing the procedure for the purchases we would make, we chatted with some other customers, a Polish girl, with her daughter who was travelling with a Japanese man and his daughter. They had stopped in for the same reason as we had, to pick some fresh fruits for their trip. Two and a half hours later, they were still there chatting and laughing with the proprietors. Dave managed to talk the children into posing in turn wearing the Viking Helmet. He then got some wonderful shots of the Polish girl in the Viking Helmet alongside a clothes line pegged with blue underwear. We laughed and chatted here for at least an hour before we realized we would not make our campsite by dark if we did not leave now.XXX

XXXBy sunset we had reach the top of a high road overlooking a town with a lake and Dave decided to take advantage of the lighting effects and take some shots of the area. We then continued on to find the campsite at Haynes Point Provincial Park I loved the venue, what magnificent grounds they provide for campers, was my first thoughts. Dave pitched the tent whilst I gathered some wood for the fire from the pile across the path. Once we were organised and I had also collected some water from the wonderfully old-fashioned water pump just down the lane, while he lit the fire, Dave cooked up some Dum Dum Noodles for our dinner. We ate and chatted whilst sitting on logs near the fire and finished our meal with some fruit.XXX

XXXBy this time it was pretty late and we both knew we�d have to be up before first light next morning for Dave to catch the early morning light for good photographs so we turned in for the night. It was my first time camping for twenty five years and I wondered how I might find the comfort of tent life, but being adventurous and having already considered this (of course), I was at least emotionally prepared. We were both actually very, very tired, having not slept much in the four days of the meet, so we fell asleep very quickly. XXX

XXXMy other problem is that I am an insomniac and have not slept through a full night for at least twenty years, and I knew that I had no choice but to lie still in the confined space for my awake time during the night so as not to disturb Dave. (Bad enough to have one grumpy, tired person during the day, without there being two.) I did, in fact, wake up some time during the night and heard all kinds of noises. There was the sound of an animal breathing and sort of purring, then seemingly clicking its tongue. I wondered if it might be a bear, decided not to panic and listened for a long while. Well, I figured if it had been a bear it would have already eaten us by now, so I managed to drift back to sleep. In the morning whilst we were discussing this, Dave said he guessed it was a racoon. Whew !!XXX

XXX On the second day we were to make our way across state to a town called Salmon Arm, where we lunched and then called into a wonderful cheese factory where we sampled some excellent cheeses, one in particular with yummy red peppercorns in it. Dave bought a large slab of this one, and we expected to eat some and take the rest over to Aurora�s. We called into a grocery store to pick up some supplies and bread to go with the cheese. XXX

XXX Dave got in line at the checkout, while I looked around at a few unfamiliar things and then had to get through to where he was already at the checkout. I excused myself to a girl who was behind Dave, but in front of me. I said �Can I get through please, I�m with him.� Well, she looked me up and down and then she looked Dave up and down and looked me straight in the eye and said �Are you sure?�. My god, I just could not help myself, I laughed out loud. As we walked to the car I explained to Dave why I was so amused. More broken ice. XXX

We drove on in fine humour, recounting a few of our humorous experiences of the past few days and talking about the meet weekend, our families and other snippets of interest whilst listening to the radio, Dave choosing stations that didn�t have country music or techno, since they are the only types of music I don�t like; techno because I don�t understand the beat and country because I don�t want to get in the mood for slashing my wrists, (sorry to the country music fans, but that�s what I think of country music, the words are always so sad).

Dave�s Mum had left a message on his phone so when we came into range he rang her back. Have you ever listened to a young man, whose mother obviously worries about him and he who obviously thinks extremely highly of his mother, talking to her on the phone? To reassure her that he was okay and in good (?) company he told her he was crossing the state with an Aussie Babe. Well, immediately I thought about how it was assumed I was much younger by one of the members of the meet group and figured that to come to Canada is to invite compliments. I am definitely coming back. I might need some new compliments soon. Lol

For the next three days we travelled over the National Parks of Banff, Jasper and Yoho, hiking around Moraine Lake, Emerald Lake and Lake Louise and glorifying in the beautiful scenery and idyllic surrounds. We climbed Sulphur Mountain near Banff and hiked over the Athabasca Glacier. We visited many water features such as the Takakkaw Waterfall, the Natural Bridge, many smaller lakes and rivers and mountain and forest pathways. We saw wolves, moose, elk, big-horned mountain sheep, marmots, chipmunks and many varieties of birds. All the while, Dave took many photographs of many scenes and I snapped quite a few also. We both basked in the beauty and magnitude of this wonderful, glorious region of the world, and hiked and hiked and hiked.

XXXBy Friday, we had to make our way back down to Airdrie, near Calgary to stay with the lovely Aurora, who was also host to Gon (another chat pal). She had been in touch with us by telephone during our trip and Dave had given her constant updates on where we were and the progress we were making. We arrived at Aurora�s approximately 10.00 pm on Friday night. We certainly had a lot to talk about, then it was phone calls to be made and�..showers (ha�only the second one in four days�yukkk).XXX

Next day we all visited the Drumheller Dinosaur Museum and then trekked over the nearby Badlands. That night we met two others (Dusk and Dano) for dinner at the Smugglers Inn in Calgary and each consumed a wonderful Alberta beef steak, cooked in various ways. Delightful.