No one really knows who will really be in the car. I wanted to choose to be in a car with women just to meet and interact with them. In a way it’s a way to play the odds and learn something. Funny how that works. 

  
Go onto a website and see the rides that are offered. Pick from the available rides and see if anyone has space available. Wait for a response and arrange a ride. I started doing that two days ago when I got here. The ride up was interesting. I was hoping that sharing a ride with some ladies would be more interesting and enjoyable. I had a ride in some truck arranged but cancelled when my first pick accepted to take me. He wasn’t happy but “it is what it is.” I had to send multiple emails with the precise details of my location. We weren’t going to leave on time. 

  
A half hour after the proposed pick up she showed up. There were two other passengers in the car both female and we made the rounds of introducing ourselves. We were going to be inside a Prius for the ride. We are all strangers in the car. Jen was the driver and in the front beside her was Cris(tina) and beside me in the back was… Forgot Her Name (FHN). 

  
We set off and after the initial greetings it fell quiet for a while FHN started to read some book. I stared out the window trying to listen to Jen and Cris’ conversation in between the directions from the built in GPS navigation. When we were driving into Nelson the mountains were obscured by the clouds and the rain. The spectacular scenery competed for my attention as I pieced together the conversations to form an idea of where everyone was coming from. 

  
Jen was on her way to meet up with a friend of hers. She will be staying close to UBC. She has a hard time with directions as evidenced by all the maps inside the car. She is originally from Ontario and has lived in Calgary studying Philosophy and has been living in Nelson for a short while realizing her dream of living in a small town. She enjoys the scene there as it is full of music and all the other arts that create a nice atmosphere to live in. She is crafty producing various fabric creations one of which is an eye mask with attached soft foam ear plugs. She is a dancer and a yogist. She was focused on driving and didn’t talk an excessive amount. 

  
FHN looked young but none of us thought she was young enough to still be in high school. She had dark hair and piercing eyes with soft white skin. She was very quiet and a bit shy. She was going out to Vancouver to visit her boyfriend. 

Cris was a thirty something old blond who was a former tree planteour. She was on her way to Vancouver to visit a friend after spending some time visiting her parents. She will be returning to the Carribean to join her boyfriend who is studying to be a doctor there. Due to the competitive nature of our medical eduction system this was the only way he could. 

  
After about an hour driving FHN announced that she wasn’t feeling any good. She started to feel a little nauseous and the instinctual nurturing facet leapt into action. At the first available opportunity we pulled over and proceeded to make her feel better by making fun of her… Just Kidding! The girls got her to say how she was feeling and asked if being in the front would help her feel better. They scavenged for a suitable container just in case and gave her the balnket I was sitting on to make her feel warmer. They instructed her in the various techniques she could use to decrease her nausea like the cold hand on the neck or the forehead.  We continued on with Cris now sitting beside me. 

Cris was a bit more talkative and out going so we chatted as the forest passed by. At some point Jen announced that she would like to listen to an audiobook. We quieted down and listened to some neuroscientist discuss various findings and how they were used in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. The findings were interwoven into a story about a famous researcher who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s himself. The findings revolved around the concept of neuroplasticity and how the findings of neuroscientists studying strokes were used to treat Parkinson’s patients. Things like excersise to strengthen coordination thereby strengthening the neural connections between parts like the arm and brain were described and discussed. It brought back memories of me studying these things in psychology classes a those years back. It was right around the time I met Robyn. 

  
We made occasional stops at the various different towns and gas stations along the way. The weather was partially cloudy but mostly sunny. The kilometers passed by with the ever changing scenery and certain parts showed the devastation caused by the forest fires that raged here a few weeks ago. The earth scorched and blackened forming a blobular scar across the land. Cris and I continued to talk after Jen asked for some music to be played. There was no AUX connection just an old FM transmitter that accepted the old 30pin Apple phones. I was SOL for contributing to the music. The girls had mostly slow abstract electronic beats. Jen wanted some hip hop. I joked that I only listened to country. They all looked at me in bewilderment before I burst out into laughter. Some country isn’t bad though especially some of the older stuff that had good lyrics. I never thought I’d say that. 

I wanted to know more about Cris and her boyfriends journey to the Carribean to study medicine. It piqued my interest. Essentially she was supporting him in his quest for a medical liscence. The whole process is quite expensive but they are committed to that goal and each other. She is essentially living there with him hanging out figuring things out. She doesn’t have anything in particular to pursue but is keen on someday starting a family and knowing that one day she will find her calling. 

  
We hit some dense rain as we approached Hope. This has always been a favourite area of mine. There is something about this area that resonates with me. It may have to do with a those times we drove up here when we were younger and camped out in the woods watching the fire in an altered state. No pictures exist of those times with only some sketchy memories and a feeling. 

I was dropped off at a gas station by the highway and I walked the rest of the way to my parents house. They escaped earlier in the day going off to visit one of their friends to help them out with something. It was only my sis there taking care of the boys. We hung out and my sis filled me in with the list that my parents left. I’m going to tackle some of those requests in due time. For now I’ll reflect on the ride and the kernel of information that I acquired. I’ll add that to the list of possibilities as well.