Hi readers,
This post is coming to you from outside Century Link Field, aka the home of the Seattle Seahawks (yes, booooo). You may remember them from the worst play call in Super Bowl history a few years ago, but I digress.
It’s been an eventful last few days, crossing country borders numerous times, catching up with an old friend, negotiating with used car salesmen and finally arriving at the site of game #1 the city of Seattle, to see the hometown Mariners take on the Texas Rangers tomorrow (May 16) at 12 noon.
Rewinding back to yesterday, I was greeted in the morning by the ever positive Bryan and Mindy, who advised I should probably get moving for my flight from LA up to Vancouver (where I planned to purchase the car) as traffic was particularly bad that day (which for Los Angeles is saying something).
Well they weren’t wrong.
It took me about 1.5 hours to get from Santa Monica to LAX (Los Angeles International), which for those playing at home is probably a similar distance from the Sydney CBD to Sydney’s International Airport (can’t remember it’s name right now).
Whilst the drive was long (more tiresome in that traffic), my UBER driver was a nice dude from East LA who barely spoke a lick of English – so at least I had peace and quiet as opposed to the UBER drivers in that city who just want to talk about their acting reel and next BIG MOVE.
The flight to Vancouver was fine, and upon landing I immediately knew I was in a friendly country when immigration was smoother then riding the trains in Sydney. A friendly smile, hello, “Welcome to Canada” and I was in a cab (no UBERS there?) headed to the “Auto Mall” to see what would await me.
Ultimately, it was confusion and disappointment.
To no fault of his own, my friend up in Vancouver Scott was advised this was the best place to buy a used car. Unfortunately, I’m guessing whoever advised him clearly didn’t realise Thirty before 30 was on a budget (say it in a French accent) and I wanted to keep the car below the $10K mark.
Whilst slightly taken aback by these “troubles” I was soon alleviated when I saw a GIANT 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 pull up with a familiar face inside. “No worries man, tomorrow is a new day, let’s go throw some meat on the grill and we’ll getcha car tomorrow”, Scott said in a calming way as only a Canadian could.
What followed was one of the most scenic drives paired with awesome chat and two old friends catching up. Scott lives 45 minutes outside the main city area of Vancouver in a beautiful town called “Chilliwack”. On the way, we would also visit the local Walmart and pick up some supplies I’d need including an air mattress, pump and sleeping bag shaped as a fox (I would test all of these later that night and they all get a big pass).
The place is surrounded huge snow capped mountains, lush fields of berries (I’m told Australia likely gets many of its blueberries from Canada), and river that runs through an awesome little community that has everything one would require – needless to say, I’ve assured Scott I’ll be coming back to spend more time here.
But enough about the scenery, let’s get to what really matters here and that was dinner.
When Scott advised he was going to throw some meat on the grill, little did I know that this “grill” would be a full-blown smoker and the meat would be an entire chicken. He fed this wood chips into the smoker, covered that bird in spices, and one hour the two of us would be tucking into a meal fit for a king (ignore the paper plates his furniture hasn’t arrived to his new digs yet).
With a full stomach and feeling satisfied, Scott went to his room (he also had bought a mattress from IKEA that day), and I went to mine to rest and face a big day tomorrow (aka today).
We both woke up early and made the commute to the lots where Scott dropped me off as he went into work. At the first lot is where I met Tony, who I would ultimately buy my car from after checking 6 other lots in the area.
Let’s talk about Tony briefly before we touch on the car.
Nice guy, would highly recommend you buy a car from him if in the BC area.
Ok great enough about Tony, let’s briefly talk about the car.
I’ve gone with a 2008, black Dodge Nitro that’s packing a V6 engine and operates in both 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive (I’ll be driving it mainly as a 2-wheeler to save on fuel). It has enough room in the back for everything I need, an auxiliary cable so I can listen to all my podcasts, and so far has driven like an absolute dream! Super stoked with the purchase and since I’m not a massive “car guy” I’ll let the images do the talking…..
After purchasing and showing / saying goodbye to Scott, I began my trek back to the USA which is where I find myself now (a parking lot next to both the football and baseball stadium in what I assume is Downtown Seattle).
The drive down was beautiful with greenery and even some more ice-capped mountains off in the distance. I played some local radio and true to form, Seattle had a strong “anti-Trump” rhetoric on the talkback shows which was very amusing to listen to.
I’ve been sweating it up, my allergies are killing me, but I feel great and am super excited for the first game tomorrow!
Have a great day all!
Thirty before 30 