Saturday, September 21
Although
we are taking a roundabout way home, today is the official start of our journey back. We were up at 7:00 and found the usual
overcast skies and fog when we looked out.
We were on the road just before 8:00 and made it to the construction
site on Highway 4 about 8:20. Traffic
was stopped as we knew it would be, but we were one of the first cars in line
and after a 45 minute wait, we were back on our way. As we traveled east, the weather had started
to clear and it was partly sunny, another nice day.
We
didn’t have to be at the ferry terminal until 12:45 and had plenty of time, so
we decided to stop for lunch in Port Alberni.
We wanted to drive into the town and away from all the services on the
main highway and find a place to eat there.
We found a café and decided to eat there and that turned out to be a big
mistake, it was and probably will be one of our worst meals of the trip. It wasn’t that the food tasted bad, it just
didn’t taste at all and was really, really bland. The service was also slow so it took us a
while to get going again. We also had to
stop and get gas which happened to be next to a Tim Horton’s so besides the gas,
we also got ourselves some treats to wash the grease taste out of our mouths.
By the
time we were back on the road we realized we had spent quite a bit of time in
Port Alberni and our schedule to make the ferry schedule got a little tighter. It is a beautiful drive across the island,
but it always takes longer than I think it will and our time was getting
tighter. We finally reached the east
coast and got on the expressway headed south towards Nanaimo where the ferry
terminal is. Although the expressway is
a big improvement over the last time we were here, as you get down in the more
populated areas there were stoplights and traffic which slowed us down.
Luckily
we were leaving from Departure Bay at the north end of Nanaimo instead of the
southern end where we arrived so that saved us some time. We took the exit for the Departure Bay ferry
terminal and got on an even busier street with even more stoplights. The ferries were all full today and we had
reservations, but if you are not there 30 minutes before departure time,
you forfeit your reservation.
Finally
we went through the final stoplight, turned into the ferry
terminal and through the pay booth with a whole four minutes to
spare. I don’t know whether they would
cancel your reservation right at the 30 minute time limit, but I’m glad we
didn’t have to find out.
We were one of the
last in line so that meant we were also one of the last onboard and one of the
last to get off when we get to the mainland.
It’s
about an hour and forty-five minute ferry ride to Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver and the
time went by relatively quickly. It did
take us a while to get off the ferry, but soon we joined the traffic on Canada
Highway 1 (The Trans Canadian Highway) and headed east towards Abbotsford, our
destination for the night. There was
quite a bit of traffic, but once we cleared the Vancouver area, it was an easy
drive. We got to our hotel just after 5:00.
After
resting a bit, we decided to get some dinner.
There was an Old Spaghetti Factory right next door to the hotel so we decided
to just walk over there and have dinner, but it was Saturday and I guess a
popular place as the wait for a table was over a half hour. That was too long for us and we didn’t really
feel like getting back into the car so we saw an A&W next door and decided
to eat there. The food was pretty forgettable,
but I had forgotten just how good their root beer is. It was a pretty forgettable day as far a food
went, but we had made it through the construction and ferry crossing without
a problem so it was a good day.
We were
both tired from getting up early so we called it an early night. Tomorrow we have a short drive so we can have
a leisurely morning.
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