We managed to make it up to Powell River to spend the night last night, and after a bit of searching around for a place to stay we settled on a "cabin" down near the water. If I were to describe it would be more of an efficiency apartment, but it beat the crap out of setting up camp in the rain.
So we got up and were moving around 8 AM today, and we headed up to get some coffee at the Edgehill Truckstop, which we had been told was a good place to get a bite to eat. Unfortunately, since I was the only one who had not had coffee this morning, I was the only one who was hungry. So rather than eat a meal out of sync with everyone else I decided to just have some toast. While we were enjoying drinking coffee and chatting with some locals, the coffee pot managed to overflow and cover the counter, shelves, and floor underneath it with coffee. So Lawrene jumped into action, grabbing a mop and going at it like the old pro she is. So we got things cleaned up in short order.
From Powell River we headed up towards Lund, which is the start of Highway 101, which I subsequently learned is the longest continuous highway in the world, running from Souther BC all the way to somewhere in Peru. Lund seems to a quite a tourist town, and it is also the jumping off point for people looking to explore the discovery islands. The car seems to be a huge parking lot, since it is the only place to park for the people who take long hiking, biking, and kayaking trips out to the islands. There are also some really cool buildings one of the houses here had the siding cut in such a way that it looked like it was all wavy and uneven, and it also had cool windows, with the frames and veins of the windows shooting off at weird angles. One of the other interesting buildings was a small shed near the boat ramp which had siding that made thee sides of the building look 3-dimensional.
We stopped at a bakery in Lund called Nancy's which had some really amazing pastries. Despite the variety available everyone ended up choosing the blackberry sticky buns, which were superb. Lawrene also had a really good yogurt, fruit, and granola bowl.
From Lund we headed back down to Powell River and caught the Ferry over to Vancouver Island where we landed in the town of Comox. From Comox we headed on north to Campbell River, where they have a ferry over to Quadra Island. Everyone was starving and jonesing for some fish and chips, so we asked around and everyone told us that "Dick's" down by the Ferry Landing was the spot. So we headed on down to Dicks, and had the best Fish and Chips I have ever had. I ordered the the fried Cod and everyone else ordered the fried Salmon. I definitely preferred the Cod, I don't believe that Salmon is a fish that should be fried.
Well, this is my second day in the good ole land of the canuck. I spent all day yesterday driving, and with the car loaded with over a thousand pounds of gear and people, was squatting pretty hard, which made the handling very interesting. But we were able to do about 500 miles in the mountains in the 10 hours that we were on the road.
Today involved driving through Vancouver, and catching a couple of ferry boats to try to make it up to Powell River, BC. We ended up being about 10 minutes late in line to catch the first ferry, so we had to wait an extra 2 hours at the first ferry which sucked, but, I have become aware that it is the lifestyle around here. But we finally made it only the ferry about 4:30 PM, which was going to make it a close call to make it to the next ferry on time.
The ferry was pretty cool. It was my first time on a big ship, so it was odd to feel vibrating steel under my feet. But the views were great. The whole area was socked in just like I expected this area long the coast (the Georgia Strait) to be. The ferry ride was about 40 minutes, and then it is a mad rush back below decks to get in your car and get rolling out of the ferry so you don't hold up traffic.
Right now I am at "The Last Resort" in Earls Cove, BC waiting on the next Ferry. Luckily for this one, we are fifth in line, so there shouldn't be any issue catching the next one. I just had one of the best hamburgers I have had in quite some time, which is rare for a place like this.
Once we get a across we are going to try to get as close toe Powell River as we can tonight, and get a camp site or a motel (my preference since there is a light rain). This a beautiful area, and my fears of my dad and I having a huge blow up over my driving seems to have been assuaged by both of our attempts to keep one another happy.
