Smith Adventures

   For the many years we have planned and traveled by motorcycle and exchanged ideas with fellow motorcycle travelers there has always been two camps. Those who want everything to be an 'in the moment' adventure and those who take steps to plan the adventure to potentially maximize the opportunities the trip will yield. We have almost always fallen into the latter category partly because in sailing you had a number of considerations like prevailing winds, and natural hazards and currents and tides to contend with. Yesterday Sandra came across a quote in a book  " Between Two Kingdoms"  by Suleika Jaouad that I captured. We feel it expresses very well what we are able to get from travel. It resonates with me for another reason as well. As an adult educator in a business environment we used a process called  Accelerated Learning.  Essentially it recognizes that people learn and retain information through four types  of  learning styles:  Visual...

  Entry to Canada using ArriveCan Updated Jan 19. (Minor comment Feb 16th) Information in this blog post is still current until Feb 28, 2022 at which time it will be edited with the most current information)  This is for all Canadians travelling back to Canada or US citizens considering coming to Canada. I thought we’d pass on what we learned in returning to Canada from our short driving visit to our place at ISRVR. First, we used “ Curative ”, a healthcare provider who provides PCR testing. You need to be careful as to the type of test accepted by Canada. A PCR/Naat or PCR test qualify. "Rapid Antigen" tests do not . Our tests and many others were back to us in 12-17 hrs. Some pharmacies also offer tests. Caution when using pharmacies as we are hearing more and more can not meet the 72 hr. testing window and some do not offer PCR tests. Just make sure you get a PCR test. It will take 1-2 days. Curative only offers PCR tests , follow...

Not our Hidden Site but a great one none the less In all the years we have been down in the Palm Springs area we have never been to Borrego Springs during the March “bloom”. And, the bloom doesn’t occur in years with little rain. So I guess we’ve been down in pretty dry years, or been away, like in Jan. Feb. 2017 when they did get a good rainfall. Well this year is the most since 1943. We decided since we had the camper on the truck and hadn’t cycled in a week that we should get out there, do some camping in our hidden gem of a 4WD location, ride our bikes (we did 24 kms the 1 day) Borrego has miles of Sculptures and followed up with 30 kms the next in Yuma. Killing Monarch Butterflies while driving Here are the sites we saw. Sandra outstanding in her field, err, canyon Mornings we'd check out the view down the driveway. Unique formations in the canyon Friendly ones as well Innushuk built This desert is supposed to be sand colored ...

BC is readying for another referendum on what they term “Fair.gov” suggesting to proportionally allocate legislative seats based on provincial results. This is based on each parties electoral balloting by percentage. This has caused me to reflect on both our learnings from travel to other regions that have proportional representation and our most recent experience in attempting to effect change related to a traffic safety hazard in Ladysmith, BC. There are some countries, primarily in Europe that have proportional representation. You can look them up on the internet for a full list but three countries come to mind illustrating their dysfunction, Greece, Belgium and Italy. All are in serious financial difficulties, and the major issues relate to the ability to action a government with a cohesive agenda and message and hold their elected politicians accountable. Many of these proportional models use what is called an additional member system which introduces the balancing of...

Coffs Harbour From Sidney we have a day’s drive up to Coffs Harbor where we have our eyes set on one last camping day. Both Coffs harbour and the Holiday park we selected Park Beach Holiday park did not disappoint. The weather was perfect to the point of being very warm into the late evening. Ocean Beach Coffs Harbour is a smaller town situated on the east coast of Australia and Coffs Creek creates a beautiful backwater entry into the ocean with a sandspit that Park Beach and the Holiday park and surroundings sit on. It is such a beautiful spot with warm shallow water and the holiday park sparkled it was so clean and well outfitted, and, it was one of the last low season days so prices were reasonable and there were few people there. The RV park desk recommended the Parks Beach Bowls Club ( https://pbbc.com.au ) for supper as we were tired of the day’s drive and wanted to maximize our stay there similar to Kiama. While it did not have the elevated view that Kiama ...