Rob’s Salmon
Earthquake hit off Vancouver Island yesterday. Hope there was no damage to the area where we have visited. Travel always connects us with wonderful people whom we never have a chance to meet if we are not visiting there. This is about Rob Tucker.
In this photo he is holding his jarred salmon with a big, charming smile. We met Rob at Port Hardy (we took a ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy) where we rent a car to drive around the island at local Budget Car Rental office. Rob is the agent who took care of us. During the paper work process Bob gave us, the enthusiastic tourists, many tips on the island and must visit places. We shared with him the story of how much we are enjoying Canada’s wild salmon almost every day since we started our journey on a VIA train from Toronto (three nights-four days ride to Jasper; the sleeping cars were built in 1950s and kept up to great conditions). Bob was impressed with our love of salmon. While Buzz was signing the rental contract, Rob disappeared to the back of the office and came back with him a jar of preserved salmon. “Here you are. This is a salmon which I caught and jarred. It is a gift to you folks. Enjoy!” Locals catch wild salmon, clean it by themselves (each fish port is equipped with fish cleaning stand) and bring it to their neighbor fish smokers, where they grill and jar it or smoke it in several ways on the customers’ request. On our way to Tofino, we bought crackers at a small store, found a picnic table and had Rob’s salmon for lunch. Oh boy, it was the most delicious salmon which we had in our life!
