F ANYONE out there yearns for something different in
the way of a vacation, have / got some deals for you.

_ How about a 15,000-mile,
23%-day drive from Tierra Del
Fuego to the Arctic Circle for just
$23.50 — a mere dollar a day? Or
a 42-day sea cruise down the
eastern seaboard to South America
for only $24.95?

True, there could be a few
minor inconveniences.

Depending on which package
you choose, these might include
having a gun shoved against your
neck, threats of imprisonment,
guerrilla ambushes, hurricanes and
pirate attacks, but if these anec-
dotes don’t shut Ted and Marge
up about the lousy hamburger
they had in Barcelona, nothing
will.

in 1987, extreme-sports writer
Tim Cahill (Rolling Stone, Outside
magazines) and Canadian adven-
ture driver Gary Sowerby set a
Guiness World Record by driving
from the southernmost tip of South
America to road's end in Alaska —
in just 23% days.

Road Fever (Random House;
278 pp.) is Cahill’s action-packed,
humor-pocked, thrill-filled account
of that odyssey.

This pair of six-foot, wheelrut-
running Rambos bashed their way
through mud, jungles and deserts;
they dueled with suicidal bus and
truck drivers as they slithered
along rain-slick mountain high-

ways.
And, when driving skills weren't
enough to surmount obstacles in
what Cahill calls “the most
document-intensive set of cultures
on the face of the earth,” they
lied, cheated and bribed their way

time to book!

toll-free_ 1-800-663-1515.

B.C. Residents!
Book your room now
at the Pan Pacific!

$ 00* Ja.
From five Sa
ry aon

per night,

any night.

it only happens once a year: the very special B.C. Residents’

Rate at the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver ~ our way of saying

“thank you" for your patronage.

At this very special rate, there's no better time to enjoy Van-
couver's great waterfront experience. And right now is the

For Reservations call (604) 662-8111 or

*Sing'e or double occupancy per night. plus taxes. Parking extra.
Proof of B.C. residency required al check-in. Reservations based on
availability at time of booking. No limit on number of nights reserved.
Not applicable to preconfirmed group rates. Children under 18 free
when sharing parents’ room. Rate valid for rooms occupied between
Oct. 26, 1990 and Apr. 9, 1991 only. 7% G.S.T. in effect Jan. 1, 1991.

THE PAN PACIFIC HOTEL

Vancouver

AAA Fe Diamond Ava WS 7 @ + A Member ot Thé Reading ktels of the World”

MIKE
STEELE

book review

through.

Equipped with a GMC Sierra
pickup, 1,000 milkshakes and two
bulletproof vests (Cahill’s was
supplied by a literary agent which,
as the author points out, says a
great deal about the publishing
business), the daring if demented
duo crammed more adventure in-
to just over three weeks than most
of us experience in a lifetime.

Thanks to Cahill’s irreverent,
Gonzo-style narrative, Road Fever
is a travel adventure tale no one
should miss.

While Cahill and Sowerby chose

“a south-to-north, four-wheel ap-

proach for their voyage, John
McPhee travelled north-to-south
aboard the freighter Stella Lykes.

if that sounds like a fairly seden-
tary (and safe) way to go, just ask
McPhee about the gun-totin’
Panamanian pirates. This was not
the Love Boat.

McPhee is a journalist’s journal-
ist. With over 25 years as a New
Yorker staff writer and 21 books
published, McPhee is about as
close to being a writing legend as
anyone alive.

Route Awakenings

McPhee’s success can be at-
tributed in great part to two
aspects of his writing style: first, he
lets his subjects tell the story, as
though the author was largely ab-
sent from the events described;
second, his prose is understated
and almost documentary but in-
credibly informative.

The story he recounts in Lookin;
For A Ship (Macfarlane, Walter &
Ross; 242 pp.) is an elegantly sim-
ply one about the sea voyage he
took in 1988 on the Stella Lykes,
one of a dwindling number of
freighters still crewed by the
American Merchant Marine.

McPhee spent six weeks aboard
the Stella Lykes, a non-crew
member who entered the isolated
and uncertain world of these men
of the merchant marine as the
port-hopped their way down the
American coast, through Panama
then down to South America.

They skirted violent storms
capable of breaking a ship's back
and taking al! who sailed on her
without a trace. They were attack-
ed and boarded by armed pirates.
And they shared the loneliness
and occasional terror which have
been the lot of mariners since sea-
faring began.

(In another of those strange-
but-true coincidences of life, the
Stella Lykes was the same vessel
that transported Cahill, Sowerby
and their battered truck past the
undrivable ‘’Darien Gap”’ just a
few months earlier, a case of

<9

Mes. Pat ‘lites, Resident and Jeanme Barrett. Adendunt

very day | watched them build COURTYARD

GARDENS from the apartment where I lived
atone. One day after talking with mry kids, Ljust decided “Why
not! —and moved right in. Making new friends has been so
easy. The staff are great and they really get ta know you—but
Jeannie still can’t believe that once put up 7 miles of barbed
arire fence on horseback on our ranch up in Chav! Really! 9¥

adventurers nearly passing in the
night.)

Looking For A Ship succeeds in
capturing the essence of ship life,
slicing through the landbound
romanticism and conjecture of
what it means to be a sailor far
from home for months at a stretch.

\t also furnishes readers with a
chronicle of what may very well
be the final days of a once-thriving
American merchant marine, a
venerable but vulnerable institu-
tion poised on the brink of extinc-
tion.

John McPhee’s Looking For A
Ship is not cnly a tine piece of
journalistic enterprise but may also
be a most eloquent arid highly
evocative eulogy.

Keep those GST
poems coming!

GOT AN anti-GST poem and
think it’s good enough to win
some great book prizes? All you
have to do to enter is send it,
postmarked no later than April 1,
to:
Mike Steele/BOOKS WEST
Suite 304-145 E. 4th St.
North Vancouver, B.C.
V7L1H7

New Westminster holds the
record so far ior both the
youngest and oldest entrants:
10-year-old Tiffany jasmin and
79-year-old William Molloy.

Wednesday, March 6, 1991 — North Shore News - 25

TUESDAYS
425
PASTA NIGHT

Posto lovers, set Tuesday nights

aside for o real treat at

Courtyard Gardens is
Richrnond!s bexciting
Nea Retirement Residence
Call 273-1225

for more inprnation
and a personal tour,

WY
Gourtyard
@ GARDENS ©

7051 Mofface Road at Granville, Richmond, BCL V6¥ 3W2

Where Life Blossoms!

ARH AATY OPERATED BY DIVERSICARE INCORIUR ED

© Lange Residential Suites

¢ Full-Service Dining

© Housekeeping and
laundry Services

© Organized Recreational

Activities & Excursions
6 24-hr. Emergency

elssistance, RN.
on duty

Boston Pizzo. Mix and match
your choice of fettucini verdi,
linguini, tortellini, rotini or spaghetti
with meat, morinosa, seafood or

creamy alfredo sauce. Or try one

of our baked paste delights.
Only $4.25 for a full order served
with garlic toast.

Tuesdays 5 p.m. - Closing Dine-in only.
Not valid with any other promotional offer.

&
Boston Pizza

Ite re not just pizza anymiore.

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