#but i've been shipping dc since 2009

[janiedean]

How are you Lavi? I was wondering, have you have shared your opinion about the end of Supernatural? I would especially love to hear your thoughts about Destiel and that love confession.

hey! I'm... extremely tired because a lot of stuff is going on that I will partially share on main about soon but has been sapping my energies a lot (i'm OOOLD) but it could be worse, thank you <3

also, wrt spn: I think I did say it in scattered posts but if you want the condensed version:

I had quit spn like early s12 at the hitler episode then I finished it after the ending because I figured I owed it to them after watching the finale live as it aired so... it was something but going in order

I actually greatly enjoyed s12-15 up to the end and I was pleasurably surprised - like okay it was the usual crazy shit half of the time and it def had gone on too long but 12-15 were eons better than the slug that was 9-11 and I had a lot of genuine fun when watching them and like they actually look/are extremely coherent for spn standards so I mostly have positive stuff on the topic like the apocalypse universe was cool, the ketch redemption arc was cool, tombstone and the tarantino episode were a masterpiece (and the 80s rock episode too sdlgkjd same as the scooby doo crossover) and I loved chuck as the villain and how meta that was

concerning deancas and the love confession: I mean as the resident idiot who had written her first deancas fic after 4x03 aired I always thought that they didn't know what they had been doing until like s5 when they realized what they were doing (sorry no one convinces that 5x03 wasn't written by someone who didn't have the deancas agenda in mind in spades) but like I generally thought that if it went somewhere it was gonna end with sam retiring and being a man of letters or smth like that and deancas going off to fight monsters in a way where you could frame it as THEY ARE BEST FRIENDS™ in places where them being gay would be frowned upon

I also thought that if anything happened whether like... either canonization or adjacent-canonization it was gonna be the last five minutes of the series finale because otherwise some parts of fandom wouldn't have let anyone involved with that show live which is why I was pleasurably shocked the confession was in ep 18 and not 20

now: I think the network authorized it and then chickened out when covid hit because the way the entire thing is structured... like sorry but this story starts with cas rescuing dean from hell, in 18 cas ends up in the empty from which he can obviously be rescued, in 19 every single plotline gets wrapped except that one in an episode that can work as a finale-finale if you leave it at that and I'm supposed to think that the og plan for ep 20 didn't include a reverse thing where dean got him out and they made out? sorry at this point bite me I'mma put my money on that esp given that...

... episode 20 is the most useless finale i've ever seen in the sense that literally nothing happens in it, the show itself had fillers where more shit happened like honestly I've never seen 40 minutes of a show that were more... a waste of time and resources and effort as that one, it looked like they told the writers they needed to have dean and sam be bros™ one of them had to die and they met in heaven again and they did that but just that X°D like sorry but the vampire porn diaries had the exact same finale template - one brother dies the other lives a happy normal life and they meet again in heaven -, s8 of tvd was vastly worsely written than spn s15 like i'm not even arguing that, but if you look at tvd finale actually shit happens in it and when you watch it it actually looks decent/wraps things up/makes you feel stuff, the spn finale is just stupid but I can't even be angry at it because imvho it's obvious they did it on purpose X°D but like tldr if the og plans hadn't been scrapped whatever they were they would have had an ep 20 where shit actually happened and that wasn't the drag it was, and like if it had come at the end of a badly written season (like tvd) I'd have just shrugged and whatever but... it came after an actually well-written season that was actually coherent with the previous four ones so I can't believe that was the real endgame content really XD

anyway: the confession was imvho absolutely ic and coherent with the entire thing starting from s4 because like sorry cas being in love with dean since then is just blatantly making sense, I never thought once it was baiting or teasing because only ppl who never watched the show would think the delivery was bad or that either misha or jensen were cringing while saying their lines, cas saying exactly the stuff he said made absolute sense in context, dean's reaction (as much as I'm sure they cut stuff) was absolutely sensed as well and no one tells me he didn't reciprocate bc the entire thing was built so that he'd admit it to himself at the very end and I mean anon my friend my comrade when I watched that episode I cried for twenty minutes straight after I finished it so X°D

like okay yeah part of it was the SEE WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG FUCK THE DENIERS but most of it was that I honestly was moved and I found that entire speech extremely heartfelt, meaningful and a whole lot of things I'm not sharing on main because I don't want people deciding stuff based on it but like I have zero negative things to say about that confession, I'm glad it happened and I don't regret catching up also because it happened as it really felt like the natural reaching point of cas's whole arc, I'm just sad that whatever the fuck went on with the cw they didn't let dean have a decent ending bc honestly what the fuck was that thing and they deserved to be happy without presuming they met offscreen in heaven or whatever the fuck but honestly all my issues with spn's ending are with the cw obviously getting cold feet concerning episode 20

tldr: the ending-ending sucked but up until 15x19 I thoroughly enjoyed most of what I saw nonsensical or not because at that point spn was the kinda thing you watched bc you liked it with all the faults it has, I 100% believe that the last episode sucked on purpose because I've never seen a finale done with so little effort after four seasons full of effort ever like not even penny dreadful whose finale imvho sucked on purpose sucked this much but like getting there was worth it and deancas being canon in itself was smth I never thought we'd get this explicitly and I'm very very very happy it happened, peace

[roswellroamer]

Day 11. February 9, 2020. Invercargill to Te Anau. 182 km.

We had a leisurely morning allowing to finish yesterday's blog and pack up after an enjoyable 3 night's stay in the apartment. Left around 9:30 dissuaded from attending the street race by the morning rains. We loaded and rode to find the Burt Munro statue by Queens Park. We had turned around just short of it on foot yesterday and got some good/silly shots with our bikes feigning a racing victory versus Burt in his now famous modified 1920 Indian Scout.

After checking off the last "must do" item in In'Gill we headed once again along the scenic southern route through Riverton and Orepuki. The cafe at the latter made such an impression the previous day that we again stopped there. This time for mushroom eggs benedict and blueberry wheat germ hot cakes. 👍 Back in the saddle we aimed for Tuatapere amidst innumerable sheep farms as we turned from the foamy and roiling sea with it's accompanying & unnerving 40mph+ gusts. They required near constant attention to maintain position within the left hand lane, often reversing lean angle on a moment's notice as the road ducked behind a small hill and the vortex/eddy forces instantaneous weight shifts to avoid being blown to one side and then the next. Reminiscent as I said previously of Patagonia. We are in the "Roaring 40's" with regards to latitude and notoriety of wind strength. The ever changing Fiordland weather then obliged us a shift towards blue skies as we turned north at Tuatapere onto unexplored roads at least as far as we were concerned. Saw loads of "HayHenge" stacks of hay wrapped in plastic as if to invite speculation on the etiology of the rows and stacks of waterproofed bales often exactingly placed about the Southland and Fiordland. A brown sign beckoned a turn from the route to explore the Clifden suspension bridge. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifden_Suspension_Bridge

Aside from this still being the longest suspension bridge in NZ and dating from 1899, something pretty cool happened there today. I pulled up near the bridge and saw what appeared to be a couple of bikes parked on the bridge. As I neared the bridge I saw that there were a couple of Triumph's before the bridge and a couple of Rocket 3's on the bridge. I struck up a conversation with the 6 NZ folks riding the 4 bikes and it turns out that two of the guys were on Rocket 3 TFC's! 8 of the 750 sold worldwide were sold in NZ. One there was number 100 something and the other number 500 something. I just took delivery of #446 two days before my departure for NZ. It was fun talking with them about their new bikes which had endured the torrential rains and loads of dirt heading from the North Island to Burt Munro however had been cleaned immaculately since. The one guy gave me his email and I've since sent him a link to this blog. A local woman told me that the Waiau river flowing under the bridge was excellent for fishing at least according to her son. She was also a bit enamored by the TFC display. The Waiau River and lake Manapouri provided beautiful scenery and an interesting if not controversial hydroelectric history. New Zealand's largest hydroelectric plant there is capable of generating 850MW of power but has also depleted river flow dramatically and stirred controversy. The engineering marvel at one time generated something like 80% of NZ power. The tunnels that divert the water now on demand to Doubtful Sound utilize a 750' drop to generate so much power via tunnels 10km long through rock to do so. Impressive. Also note that the Waiau river was used for some key Lord of the Rings scenes towards the end of the first film of the trilogy as the river Anduin. NZ voted down the proposal to rename the river to Anduin in 2009.

We stopped by lake Manapouri in the little town of Manapouri for a view and a Coke Zero and a mince and cheese pie. Serene. Warm. Scenic. I could've sat there for another hour or more. But we remounted and headed the 25' around to Lake Te Anau and it's eponymous town. The bright sunny and warm day that emerged from the solemn and somewhat harsh Invercargill was a stark but welcome contrast. Loads of tour companies and souvenir shops were sprinkled between the lake shore road and the town's main drag. This is something of a jumping off point for trampers and folks looking to enjoy the scenic lake and all there is to offer in this pristine section of NZ. The lake itself is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the whole of Australasia and is the largest on the South Island. Volume is huge due to the enormous depth of the lake going to 1,368' deep putting much of the lake bed hundreds of feet below sea level. One of the topographical features that made this area one used in a number of scenes in Lord of the Rings are the 3 inland fiords (south, middle and north) on the western side of the lake. The only inland fiords in NZ. The area is a world heritage site, with 99% of the well over 4,000 square miles of the Fiordland National Park not ever coming into contact with human presence. This is how NZ looked before it was settled. Covered in trees and dramatic. Found the hotel I booked and was very pleased. It was a convent nearly a hundred years ago and converted into a special B&B type lodging. The confessional has been re-engineered into a dumb waiter in the lobby. Mark the owner is very hospitable and interesting. He owns the museum of language in Paris and also the DC-3 that we rode by on the tarmac at Manapouri airport. He informed me that I had reserved the "homestead" which turns out to be an entire house with 3 bedrooms, full kitchen, dining room, living room, etc. Sweet! Big, old, charming and a view of the mountains across the lake. Mark persuaded us to commit to his Greek chef's planned Hungarian dinner of goulash and also explained the myriad of touristic options. When we had stopped at lake Manapouri I had inquired at the docks regarding a boat trip to Doubtful Sound. More remote than the very popular and now for us canceled Milford Sound boat trip (due to the aforementioned road wash out) the agent informed me that all excursions for tomorrow were fully booked. However, Mark suggested at our Te Anau Lodge that the float plane excursion was a great way to see the Doubtful Sound as we as explore the many waterfalls and lakes of the Fiordland NP. I said yes right away and Ted was also in. A quick call revealed 2 open seats on the 6PM flight. Kismet in our favor today. After unloading our stuff we headed to the lake shore where it isn't difficult to spot Ivan's plane, the only float plane on the lake. We head to Bailiez cafe for some adult refreshments and soak in the beauty of the town, the screams the passers by at an outdoor high top table. At the appointed time we stroll back to the dock and find 3 folks from just outside Madrid (Spain, not New Mexico) also on our flight. We have a brief safety talk then climb into the six seater. Everyone has a window seat and headset communications make it easy to talk over the propeller/engine sounds. We taxi into the lake and as we gather speed watch a waterski boat make some much needed course corrections... the skier gave us a wave as we released from the light chop and soared overhead, about a hundred meters off our port (my) side. Pictures don't really do justice to the hidden lakes (13 of them, all super deep carved by glaciers), waterfalls, tree avalanches that take 400 years to repopulate, mountain tops and fiords. I put a couple here anyway. Lots of incredible views. Doubtful Sound info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubtful_Sound

Our forty minute plane ride was so worth it. To see Doubtful without aerial assistance requires a cruise ship or seagoing trip or from here the journey involves a boat to a bus, over a mountain then down to another boat. About an 8 hour minimum to explore. On the way back we passed by Browne Lake and the largest waterfall in NZ at 2,742 feet tall, Browne Falls. But the falls are more of a water slide as it covers over 3,700 horizontal feet. This last issue prevents the falls from competing with Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world. We got loads of pics of course and a lifetime memory of this stunning and pristine place. A brief ride back the the old homestead (😆) and we went right to dinner. A cherry yogurt like appetizer was tasty followed by an unconventional that was accompanied by a barley salad in place of the usual noodles. But very good it was. Dessert was homemade carmel "Hokey Pokey" ice cream and a poppyseed pastry. Conversations with a couple Oregonian women, a Danish couple and an Australian couple as well as wine which was included with the dinner experience. Great day and night!