Pacific Rim

I had two memorable dreams last night. In one, we adopted a black bear (like the ones they have in Whistler) which escaped; but we found it and bought it home safely. In the other I dreamt I became a civil servant dealing with the implications of Brexit. One of our problems was that the EU had funded road improvements in rural areas, which they were claiming back. I had to supervise digging up the roads, putting them on to boats, and shipping them to France.

Anyway ...

The rain had more or less stopped by this morning. We threw everything in the car and tidied up, ready to leave as we had planned by 8a.m.

Which is when we noticed the flat tyre.

Been a long time since I've changed a wheel on a car. Not helped by the jack buckling and collapsing. Fortunately the camp site had a trolley jack which one of the maintenance
guys lent us. We thanked him with a six pack of Tofino lager, cleaned ourselves up, and hit the road an hour late. This left us with no time for a breakfast stop (although we did grab coffee to go at a Tim Horton - they looked at me as if I was crazy when I asked if they had soya milk so we had it black). But we did make the 12.45 ferry from Namaino back to the mainland.

The Girl Racer is a good driver which is just as well as the roads on the Pacific Rim coast have every type of twist, climb, drop, rock face and blind bend going. But stunningly beautiful.

We stuck to the Vegan ethic and had salad and chips in the cafeteria on the boat. But it was very nice. Surprising how you adapt and relax to new circumstances. And we had a veggie pita and rice in Nando's whilst they put new rubber on the Girl Racer's car at Canada Tire - our version of Kwik Fit.

Saw an enormous train carrying freight containers - and I mean enormous, it literally disappeared out of sight at either end of the horizon. Impressive but also scary.

One last coffee at the airport and we said our goodbyes. By now my stomach was churning like it does when we have to say goodbye again for an extended period. We talked about it. The head is okay but the heart aches.

I love our daughter.

Anyway ... I very rarely fly on my own and always make an arse of myself going through security, trousers falling down and carrying too much crap ...but Vancouver airport is okay, better than many I've been to. Cool Jazz and lots of greenery and fountains, places to plug your charger in and more maple cookies than you can shake a maple tree branch at.

Time to go home.




PS just remembered - it was six years ago today that I started blipping - and I haven't missed a single day...