The trip is ostensibly to visit his son in Ottawa but…there inevitably is a value added component to these trips to Ottawa, he is going to hook up with a dame!

So…in preparation, he purchases this hat for the princely sum of $4:00! You heard me right, 4 bucks!! All the better to maneuver this little chick, he is playing the role of Mr. Sporting Life, Mr. Cool, no less.

He has made this far east trip quite a few times recently to hunt the elusive Asian Quail. This time he reports a novelty in the Ottawa airport. He is impressed with the fact that the restroom/bathroom is now equipped with stalls for the privacy of the many emerging new genders of humanity, including: left handed, bilingual, bisexual, vegan, agnostic, townhouse dwelling, teetotalers. So well equipped is the washroom that my Asian brother reports that there are dispensers for paper liners to place on the toilet seats before putting your butt down on the seat: this to better protect the incoming users of the seat against the germs of the previous occupant of the seat. These liners, the precise shape of the toilet seat, hole included, must have been conceived of and executed by Artificial Intelligence. Hallelujah!

PIng-pong, table tennis keeps my neighbour in tip top shape. He claims to be the possessor of a sweeping, roundhouse top spinning forehand smash, especially intimidating to old folks at a couple of social clubs in Victoria. He has promised to humiliate the blogger with his athleticism and his still youthful vigour, if the ancient blogger accepts his ping pong challenge: an unlikely eventuality!

From Ottawa, my peripatetic travel companion takes me next to the land of Uncle Sam, the land of Peter Pan, the land of Yosemite Sam, the U.S. of A, (Canada’s soon to be, eleventh Province! or maybe our fourth territory?!) We take a side trip to San Francisco, California, State where the rush for gold, the lore of a ‘Gold Mountain’ pulled hundred of thousand of fevered would be miners from all over the world; California: the home of Yosemite Sam, the wild eyed gun toting, flaming nut case: California, the soon to be Canada’s eleventh Province or fourth Territory. By the way, we Canadians should not limit our ambitions to California alone, why not try for Oregon and for the Great State of Washington as well: Cascadia Plus, so-to-speak.

But I digress. My travel friend establishes a residence in the Great State of Wyoming and gets his credentials in Pharmacy in Wyoming…Laramie and Cheyenne…geographically situated on the historical route to the California gold trail. Unlike California though, ‘thar’s no gold in them thar hills’ in Wyoming, but thar’s gold in them thar pills! Pharmacies, of course, are subject to frequent attempts at robbery from regular burglars going for the cash at the till, as well, addicts must satisfy a craving. So…stick a double barreled-double shotgun under the counter…but don’t shoot ’em up in the pharmacy and wreck the store, wait until the bandits leave the store, then let ’em have it: empty both barrels of your double-barreled shotgun at the buggers!

After the U.S.A. loses its charms, the health care system in Canada is the clincher! My traveling companion decides to emigrate from the United States and establish a business with his credentials as Pharmacist.