Madeira Park

by Rob Rao

When I accepted an editorial co-op position at Harbour Publishing in tiny Madeira Park, an old logging and fishing community turning into early retirement and summer homes located about thirty kilometres past Sechelt on the upper Sunshine Coast, one of my first realizations was oh no, this is it… I have to get a car. Exploring for the first time, and in all seriousness, the feasibility of living in a camper van and the notion of a completely mobile life, I quickly recognized the truth, deep in my heart, that I was not quite the type of person who particularly enjoyed wondering where I would be taking my showers every morning. And while the question of whether to finally procure a vehicle (having never own a car of my own) eventually resolved itself with the very generous loan of a family-sized sedan by my employer, I resolved at the same time that I wasn’t going to entirely coast along that particular gas-fuelled path, either, even if I could (sorta) afford it.