Chapter 3
Kelowna blows. I mean, it's really pretty but there's fuck all to do here unless you're some billionaire politician who can afford a lobster dinner on a floating restaurant. There's a hotel here a ways down the shore that takes up 6 city blocks, it's fittingly called "The Grand". I don't know how comfortable it is on the inside but it looked very appealing from what we could see across the water, on the beach where we slept out last night. Fuck it was cold.
We woke up this morning around 5:30 to the sprinklers just over the seawall behind us. Because the City park is only open 6-11, we had to hideout in a shadowy little corner on the beach just above the tide-line. We barely slept. Every half hour or so I would hear footsteps and get spooked. The sleep sucked, but the view was nice. A beaver came up to within a meter of us and just chilled out for a while. The night before, we crossed the floating bridge to an area called Westbank-Native land. Scooby and Nick showed us a safe spot to camp since the brotherhood patrol has been known to rob or murder tresspassers. We were woken up by the sound of a fleet of escavators a hundred feet up the mountain from us and on the way back down the hill we swore we heard a shot fired.
The people in Kelowna are a lot unlike the people in Vancouver in that they're unified. When we first landed, I saw some kids with dreads and camo and just started asking questions-where's the shelter? Where can we get a free meal? etc... Later on we went to the City park and there they were in a clique with most of the other street youth in the city. We just plopped our butts down and it was as if we had known them for years. The street people here are very friendly. And there's quite a few of them, too.
See, here's the problem with this city-there's a large population of transients for the summer months, there are shelters and for a town of this size, even three different places to get a free bite to eat at certain times of the day. But it's a RESORT TOWN! They have rent-a-cops that patrol the streets here (except they call them "Bylaws") One of them meekly harassed me and Nate when we were checking out sleeping gear over at a bargain shop and told us to put our bags behind the counter. Then the same one came over to the circle in the city park we were sitting in and harassed us. Today they told us we could get a ticket for sitting on the sidewalk-it's against city bylaw!
We got harassed for SITTING ON A BENCH by the security at CIBC. This is fucking unreal. I mean, we're carrying backpacks bigger than ourselves, but we're not doing shit! The holy wrath of the "SS POLICE" as one tag read, coupled with the fact there's nothing here for the poor of the world means we gotta peace. There were only 4 or 5 posters in the whole town and it was for shit back in March and April. They have a venue here called "Habitat" but it's all indie music for rich highschool kids. They have a place akin to the Grind called "The Bean Scene" and besides that, not a whole lot.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from a city of only 100,000 people, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough. I mean, Scooby said that when he got here he found paradise. All there is to do is sit in the park and smoke pot all day. And damn, there's a lot of pot in this town. We've seen other punks around-they might be over in Rutland. We haven't had a chance to connect with anyone but the downtown circle, there could be more here. But one thing I do know is that there's a lot of B.C. and a LOT of Canada left to explore; I'd love to come back here now that I know how to get along in this town, but I feel like it's time to move on to my next destination.
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Survival tips if you end up in Kelowna...
- The cops are nasty. Don't get caught sleeping in city limits.
- Don't sit on the sidewalks either. In fact, don't sit anywhere.
- If you're camping on the west side of the lake, hide yourself very well.
- Most of the shelter services are on a street called "Leon".
- The downtown core is on a street called "Bernard", it's a passable Commercial Drive.
- If you want bud, go to City park or look for scruffy people on bikes. Everyone sells in this town.
- Go up "Ellis" away from the highway and past the hospital, there's a library where you can get free internet access and keep warm.
- We came a few weeks too early, but you can score a job picking on an orchard. They usually let you tent right on the property, too.
- If not, they have a labour ready, TLC, Labour unlimited and a Mission to stay at on "Leon".
--------
Anyway, we're thumbing out! Wish us luck.
We woke up this morning around 5:30 to the sprinklers just over the seawall behind us. Because the City park is only open 6-11, we had to hideout in a shadowy little corner on the beach just above the tide-line. We barely slept. Every half hour or so I would hear footsteps and get spooked. The sleep sucked, but the view was nice. A beaver came up to within a meter of us and just chilled out for a while. The night before, we crossed the floating bridge to an area called Westbank-Native land. Scooby and Nick showed us a safe spot to camp since the brotherhood patrol has been known to rob or murder tresspassers. We were woken up by the sound of a fleet of escavators a hundred feet up the mountain from us and on the way back down the hill we swore we heard a shot fired.
The people in Kelowna are a lot unlike the people in Vancouver in that they're unified. When we first landed, I saw some kids with dreads and camo and just started asking questions-where's the shelter? Where can we get a free meal? etc... Later on we went to the City park and there they were in a clique with most of the other street youth in the city. We just plopped our butts down and it was as if we had known them for years. The street people here are very friendly. And there's quite a few of them, too.
See, here's the problem with this city-there's a large population of transients for the summer months, there are shelters and for a town of this size, even three different places to get a free bite to eat at certain times of the day. But it's a RESORT TOWN! They have rent-a-cops that patrol the streets here (except they call them "Bylaws") One of them meekly harassed me and Nate when we were checking out sleeping gear over at a bargain shop and told us to put our bags behind the counter. Then the same one came over to the circle in the city park we were sitting in and harassed us. Today they told us we could get a ticket for sitting on the sidewalk-it's against city bylaw!
We got harassed for SITTING ON A BENCH by the security at CIBC. This is fucking unreal. I mean, we're carrying backpacks bigger than ourselves, but we're not doing shit! The holy wrath of the "SS POLICE" as one tag read, coupled with the fact there's nothing here for the poor of the world means we gotta peace. There were only 4 or 5 posters in the whole town and it was for shit back in March and April. They have a venue here called "Habitat" but it's all indie music for rich highschool kids. They have a place akin to the Grind called "The Bean Scene" and besides that, not a whole lot.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from a city of only 100,000 people, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough. I mean, Scooby said that when he got here he found paradise. All there is to do is sit in the park and smoke pot all day. And damn, there's a lot of pot in this town. We've seen other punks around-they might be over in Rutland. We haven't had a chance to connect with anyone but the downtown circle, there could be more here. But one thing I do know is that there's a lot of B.C. and a LOT of Canada left to explore; I'd love to come back here now that I know how to get along in this town, but I feel like it's time to move on to my next destination.
--------
Survival tips if you end up in Kelowna...
- The cops are nasty. Don't get caught sleeping in city limits.
- Don't sit on the sidewalks either. In fact, don't sit anywhere.
- If you're camping on the west side of the lake, hide yourself very well.
- Most of the shelter services are on a street called "Leon".
- The downtown core is on a street called "Bernard", it's a passable Commercial Drive.
- If you want bud, go to City park or look for scruffy people on bikes. Everyone sells in this town.
- Go up "Ellis" away from the highway and past the hospital, there's a library where you can get free internet access and keep warm.
- We came a few weeks too early, but you can score a job picking on an orchard. They usually let you tent right on the property, too.
- If not, they have a labour ready, TLC, Labour unlimited and a Mission to stay at on "Leon".
--------
Anyway, we're thumbing out! Wish us luck.