Long & McQuade, Surrey, BC

It's a full breakfast at the Packinghouse Pantry, in Spence's Bridge, BC. Somebody at one of the other tables says we should drive up a nearby mountain and check out the view. It's a mountain backroad, and it's been raining all night, but we head out anyway in our rented mini-van. Sure. Right. Is this dumb or what?


Just don't tell National we took their truck miles off the pavement and lost it down a cliff... No. We're OK.


It's a slippery ride up and down, for sure. But it was a bit of a thrill. This country is going to look quite different in a few years time. Many of the trees are dying due to an invasive insect. Are these hills going to burn? Or slide off into the valleys below?


There doesn't seem to be panic about this. But I can't help but wonder what's going to happen to the communities that rely on this eco-system for their jobs and their way of life.




A dramatic, but uneventful drive down Route 1 to Surrey, where we report to Long & McQuade and check into our motel.


It's a 7:00 show here, and we've got a couple of hours to kill. We notice a tough edge to this town— by 5:00 there are hookers on the streets near our motel. There are pawnshops and fast cash joints scattered up and down the street. The King George Highway.

The workshop at Long & McQuade is fun, and goes all too fast. Here's Michael setting up. Do you think we will be loud enough tonight??


Actually, we do the workshop entirely unplugged, no mics, no PA. But the stacks do look impressive. Turn it up, mon, in all frequencies! Back at our motel we arrive just in time for the Presidential Victory Address. We savour this historic moment, and hope that a change is, in fact, going to come to America. Here in Surrey, BC, we load most of our stuff into our motel room. We want to make sure we still have it in the morning. Could use some change around here, as well.