Hotel Vagabond

4 Replies to “Hotel Vagabond”

1. Good advice, but it’s harder than it used to be.
   Tourism, as a consequence of prosperity, has driven the most individualistic, and therefore interesting, people farther and farther afield.
   When I arrived in the Caribbean, in the mid-’60s, it was full of colorful characters. No more. They’ve moved on, chased out by the very meatheads they’d left their country of origin to avoid, now arriving by the boatload and planeload.
   Tahiti … Bora bora … Bali … forget it.
   Best shot is somewhere where rotten weather combined with few conveniences discourages suburbanites.
   Betcha the Yukon, for example, has people worth talking to.

2. Jeeze, you don’t have to leave home for that.
   Guy I used to live next door to in Hamilton was in Rommel’s Afrika Corps, fought at El Alamein and had two different ships shot out from under him trying to get back across the Med. I met a guy one time who worked in the Heinkel factory making HE 111s, and he knew the old bastard that designed the siren for the Stuka. I’ve met jet pilots from Vietnam, snipers from Iraq and SWAT teams, Secret Sam special forces types, cops who were on the super duper NYPD Holdup Squad, all kinds. Also guys with less glamorous professions, like surgeons, power engineers, artists, blah blah blah.
   Everybody has to live someplace, y’know. Even the boring schmuck next door probably has a tale to tell, if you ask him. You can learn wisdom from the garbage man.

3. The Strange Range in Yellowknife has some rather interesting fellas. You might meet some travelers worth speaking with at the Snowshoe Inn in Fort Providence also.
   There are some decent stories to be had in Whitehorse but you really need to work to find them. Seems the federal government just hired a bunch of Frenchman years ago and that ruined the place. If you can get to Skagway, Alaska when the cruise ships are not in port, everyone has a story!!!!
   And I agree with The Phantom; there are some very interesting folks right in your own neighborhood.

4. If you want to meet interesting people come north in the summer with an open curious mind, and leave your preconceived notions back in suburbia.