The last visit to the Rock.

I say 'last visit' because I don't plan on visiting anymore. Next time I'm back will permanently.

I left late last Friday for a 22-hour stopover in Montreal. I had contacted some friends there before hand, to visit. Living in Banff all those years introduced me to people from all over Canada. My friend Karine, although away the previous week, let me crash at her place. I have to say seeing her when she got back on Saturday was so nice. I've known Karine for about seven years now. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet up with another friend, Annie, but there is always the future.

My life is very blessed with great people. I have a hard time saying that I have friends. I always say that I only count two people as friends. People I trust. People that would do anything for me as I would do for them. But in that I am wrong. I really do have many, many friends. All across Canada. To be able to go anywhere in this country and know that I would be welcomed into someones home, that I would have someone to visit for coffee. I was really proud to know that while visiting Montreal. And the shitty thing is that if and when my friends come to visit me at The Rock Hostel that I will have to charge them because I will be trying to run a business. I hate that thought. I'll work something out.

So after the unforgettable day with Karine and Guillame, they took me to Trudeau to get the flight to Deer Lake. Sunday was spent walking around the prospective town, checking out real estate, looking for various service providers; insurance, banking, etc. I didn't feel very productive though. I was becoming afraid that I had makde a mistake in coming. Monday faired a bit better but I still hadn't had the chance to see anyone or look inside properties. On the up side I did set a lot of appointments for the next day or two.

Tuesday morning was the meeting with the accountant, followed by the credit union manager, then the insurance broker, then the real estate. 4 o'clock I was taken by the agent to the bus depot and treated to lunch. Then the bus at 5:15 to the city. There I had to print off the business plan, purchase writing supplies. All told it took 3 hours to get that all sorted out. I made my way to a B&B so that in the morning I could meet with the Provincial Building Standards guy. In my venture around town I happened by the BDC so I went in to meet someone whom I'd only met through email. This was to be my first business plan presentation. I think it went well. I felt good about how everything had gone so far. I even managed to make my 2:00pm meeting. I was back in town so I could deliver my plan to the accountant, meet with the general contractor and do one more walk through the one building that needs the most work. A determination needs to be made on what building to buy based on what is the better deal. And where to get the money.

My last three days were spent in Grand Falls-Windsor visiting family. After ten days there, my fourth time in a four year period, I really felt comfortable there. The mainland held nothing for me in my heart. No attachment. If fact, I didn't want to have to leave and I want to go back now. I may. This is the decision that I need to make. Why not load up my van with all my stuff and drive off? There are jobs there. I could start my business. My heart will tell me, when the time comes. In the mean time I must continue to work everything out. Develop the business plan to reflect my new idea, my new timeline and implementation plan.

Wow, it's been a while.

Anyone still reading along here must be asking "How's his hostel coming along?" People seem to think that I'm all talk and no action. Ya, maybe for the most part I am. I am full of good intentions but this is one that I'm going to follow through on.

Lately I've been working on the financial part of the plan. That is a process. I've been using the Interactive Business Planner through www.cbsc.org. For the financial statement you just type in your numbers and it does the calculations for you, putting the numbers in the right spot. I was advised by a friend to download my business plan from the net, giving me more freedom to format and adjust to my needs as the IBP was limiting. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I did. The trade off has been that the ability to perform calculations has been lost. I've had to copy the .doc info onto a spread sheet and figure out all the formulas so that the numbers come out the way they are supposed to. Not terribly difficult but definitely time consuming.

I've also been attending two general interest courses at night school. Starting and Managing Your Own Business and Bookkeeping for Small Business. Oh and to help my spreadsheet progress, I'm taking a spreadsheet course. It's a self taught one.

There has been a great deal of research to do as well. A kind of learning curve thing. Ask one question, the answer poses 5 more. I keep trying to write down places to phone and email and the questions I need to be asking. Sometimes I get them written, sometimes I don't. There are just so many questions. I contacted a hostel affiliation in regards to becoming an affiliate. The price is right to go through with it however I must thoroughly weigh the advantages over the disadvantages. That's one of the next steps. I've also been mulling over putting an offer in on the building that I am interested in. I was about to go through with it when the real estate agent told me that the sale terms are "as is". She wasn't clear on what that meant, thinking that if I make the offer and it's accepted then I it's mine. But I want to have it inspected first, a condition of offer so that I know the building is structurally sound. I've seen it and it definitely needs a great deal of work. I'll have to gut the building to make it suit the needs of The Rock Hostel. Great floor layout. Anyways, so there is all that to deal with.

In the mean time, I've also applied for a job in Steadybrook outside of Cornerbrook as a shuttle bus driver. I believe it is to pick-up and drop-off guests of the Humber Valley resort to and from the airport. It requires some sight-seeing guide experience, people skills, etc. Stuff I've done with Discover Banff Tours. We'll see how that turns out. I hope to hear back from them soon.

There's lots more to write about but instead of wasting time typing away at this I'd rather keep plugging away at my business plan. Until later I guess.....

Here are those older images of the cabin I promised

Do you remember that cabin I went to visit, that had burnt down in '04. This is it. Very rustic but very cozy. It had a feeling of absolute comfort. Like snow on a hot spring day, GONE!

So what happened on the drive?

I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked up in the Yukon or of my departure and drive to Ontario. It's a shame in some respects but I remember the beauty of it all. I went for a lot of dog walks. I'd be so amazed with the scenery both near and far and wish I'd brought my camera but pictures couldn't possibly do it justice. It was sad to leave Whitehorse. In fact, I still miss it there, three weeks later. When I arrived in Calgary, I was picked up by a college friend, Dave, where he and his wife, Cathy hosted my last night's stay in Alberta. I was afraid I wouldn't get to see them before I left. They are good people. After some commuting and waiting for insurance papers to come through I was able to get my "new" old van packed and ready to go. My rear license plate showing where I am coming from (Alberta) and my front plate showing where I am headed. The van was loaded. If I ended up with passengers, they would have had to sit on my lap. I don't know how I fit it all in before but this time there was even ess space. I barely managed to squeeze a spot for sleeping.

As for the drive, it seemed that I was more intent on messing with the camera than actually driving, from the number of photos I took. Mostly of how I couldn't see anything. It pretty much seemed like this the entire way. Until I got to Manitoba where there are some trees to break up the wind. All I could think is that if there was visibility, I was more likely to end up in the ditch. The prairies are more beautiful than you will hear most people admit. My favourite part of the drive and therefore most distracting. Distraction equals ditch. So I was a safe alert and paying attention for lack of anything else to do. It was in Swift Current, Saskatchewan that I got an oil change for fear that my van was going to die on me. She was, and still is, running quite rough. The tie rods are shot, the trannie is going, she needed a tune-up (which had just been done. There was, literally, dirt inside the fuel injection something or other. Not good) In Winnipeg, the HI allowed me to stop in have a cup o' soup and a shower before I continued on my way. Another reason I was glad to not have a passenger, I was getting smelly from sitting and sleeping in my van. I was in Thunder Bay the next afternoon. A quick little stop had to be made there for some fuel, some coffee and an alternator. Just the basics.
Now truly, I don't think that the guy a Canadian Tire was telling me the truth about my alternator but the choice was a) believe him and go through replacing it, making it less likely to break down or b) continue the drive to Wawa/Sault Ste. Marie and almost certainly break down a thousand miles from everywhere and thousands of dollars later. You can see the choice I made.

As for coming to a decision, I've decided to go to bed. Stay tuned for more. I will continue I promise. Although now that I'm in Ontario, it isn't all that exciting. The excitement comes in just over three months when I continue to Newfoundland. 'Til next time.

I am here....

have been for a week almost. Got in Sunday night and started straight into fulfilling my commitment to my friend Pat. Last night I finally got more than 3 hours of sleep altogether although it was interrupted by having to go out for 1.5 hours at 4am. I came home and slept until 10am after that. I feel rested except I now have a tonne of things to do to get settled. The hard part is figuring out where to start. And I need my computer to be set up but I haven't the time nor the space and I haven't moved into my place yet. If I can move in, I will then have space to set the computer up, to set-up the wireless and then a bunch of other stuff can be done.

I have pictures and stories to update but can't here at the library as there is not enough time available or is it easy on this computer.

Will do soon though.