On Sunday morning a gentleman from one of the little amusement carnival companies called asking about the car. He was looking for something for his daughter and son-in-law.
After running a few last minute errands, we headed to the carnival. The loud rock music and the whirling of the rides reminded me of the weekend before Labour Day every year when West Coast Amusements came to Kitimat. Even some of the rides were the same.
Joseph (the son-in-law) went out for a test drive with Scott while I stayed back and chatted with Bruce, the owner of the amusement company. In the 30 minutes we waited, we had a very interesting conversation, and he shared much of his life story with me. He is on his third amusement company, having sold the first two. The parks had a way of finding him. He spends his winters with his younger daughter in Cuba and his summers in Canada travelling with the carnival. Most of his time was spent doing maintenance on the rides, but it was clear that he was also a savvy businessman and managed the carnival well.
In the end, we negotiated a price and he bought the car with cash. It was amusing handling the stacks of $20s, although a little nerve wracking. Since it is Sunday, we can’t deposit the money until Monday morning.
I am very relieved that the car sold. It was the last large “loose end” that needed to be dealt with before we could leave. We had an alternate plan (leaving the car with Scott’s Uncle Michael and asking him to show it and help negotiate a price); however that felt like a large imposition, and we didn’t want to need to worry about it.
Once that was dealt with, we headed out for a quick 1-hour photography lesson with our friend Keith. It was unfortunately that we didn’t have more time for this, as learning more about photo composition will definitely make for better pictures on the trip. I think we should look at a book or two along those lines for our freighter trip (note to Moms … care package idea: “photography for dummies” and sea bands).
The biggest lesson from Keith that I will definitely use is how the camera’s zoom can be used to make backgrounds seem closer. We did an experiment with Scott standing and town houses in the background. I took one picture like I normally would, then I stepped back about 30 feet and took the same picture using the camera’s zoom. Scott appeared the same size in both photos, but the townhouses in the background were much better defined in the zoom photo. This would be very useful for pictures with a person in front of landscapes such as mountains.
The only thing left for departure now is the last load for the storage locker and cleaning the house. There is some hope we’ll be able to leave at a decent hour tomorrow.