I'd taken the midnight bus for a six hour ride to Kelowna, and fortunately found an open hostel. Upon this success, you could imagine I was pretty tired from the rough night, so I spent the morning getting breakfast and haphazardly acquainting myself with the streets of Kelowna.

The radio DJ's were announcing how happy they were that it was only going to be 33 degrees today instead of 38. I realized that I had no idea what that equated to, but with a little research, realized that it's about the difference of 100 degrees to 88 in Farenheit. Nonetheless it was quite hot even at 9 in the morning. After tiring myself out getting breakfast, I settled down in the city park with a cheap anthology of essays that quickly lulled me to sleep, back on grass, book on face.

Now, while I was reading, I couldn't help but notice the racket of soundchecks and what sounded like an amateur drummer thwacking away artlessly. Despite all this, I was tired and dozed off anyway.

I woke up, and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I looked to my left, and a Chinese family was picnic'ing. Otherwise, there was no one around, and I distinctly heard what could not be anyone else's voice but Gordie's.

Let me back up a bit.

When one ventures into Canada, it's not unusual to see certain recognizable icons, like the maple leaf flag, maple syrup jars, and mounty uniforms, raised to a level of awkward national representation. Sometimes whole stores crop up, in the busiest tourist districts, to peddle you these wares, so that you can go home and show your friends, definitively that you went to Canada, eh?

To be fair, there are stores like this in every country, even the States. However, one element of the Canadian Trinket store I've always appreciated was that - as if by some national legislation - these stores would, as often as not, play a Tragically Hip CD as background music. This bluesy rock band, as many of you know, is undeniably the most well-known and most prolific in Canada's history. And they just keep going, having been creating semi-annual Canadian anthems for near 20 years now.

I'd grown so used to hearing them on convenient store speakers that I had expected them to stay that way - a fridge buzz that always reminded you that you were in Canada (or at least nearby, as the Adirondack folks will remind us).

So here I was in a park of a city I'd just arrived in, and I was hearing what could only be the Tragically Hip, coming through in concert speakers somewhere beyond the trees. Just me and this Chinese family. I guess sometimes mannequins turn real.

I grabbed my pack and wandered toward the sound, all the while expecting some mondo car stereo to be the source. Lo and behold, there was an outdoor ampitheatre, not far out, and there was Gordie and his cohorts, rocking away a soundcheck of Ahead By A Century. There was a smattering of a dozen others who'd walked over, but otherwise, this was like a private showing to Canada's favo(u)rite band. Wicked.

Anycase, I'm here in the hostel, making sure my room checked out, but soon I'm about to buy some Canadian lager and try to wander onto the park grounds again before they start roping off the show.

Oh, and just to keep this all lake-monster related, the tacky trinket stores here all have stuffed Ogopogos! It's perfect! I've mentioned to some of you my plan for stuffed lake-monsters. If I haven't, you will see soon!