The Final Run

I have waited a few days to do the final blog entry for this trip because I wanted to get the feel of home again.  While the trip was an epic journey and one of the adventures of my lifetime, being back home puts it in perspective.  Travelling and seeing new and wonderful things each day is a terrific thing to do, but there is a reason, other than financial, that we don't do it all the time.  We all need to have our own place rather than moving to and from others' places.

When I was preparing to leave Burlington on Friday morning, I experienced two familiar things that had been absent for the past five weeks.  First, the day began with a covering of fog, the first I have seen for a long time, but for me, a reminder that I am back on the West Coast.  Second, the morning temperature was a little cooler and decidedly damper than I have been used to.  That, to me, is a harbinger of autumn, even if it is a month early.  I was glad to experience this and was looking forward to being home,  but I was also somewhat saddened that my adventure was coming to an end.

I left Burlington at about 9:00 a.m. and it was a straight run up I-5 to Bellingham, or so I thought until I came to the worst traffic tie up that I had seen since I was in Joliet, Illinois.  There was road resurfacing going on south of Bellingham and the traffic control was poor and combined with fairly heavy traffic, the result was a monumental slowdown that lasted for more than a kilometre.

After getting through that bottleneck, I was able to move along quickly through Bellingham to the Canadian border.  I love going to the Duty Free shop at the truck crossing.  I am an afficionado of single malt Scotch and the opportunity to pick up a bottle of Scotland's finest at about half price is too goood to pass up.  I was able to buy a litre of Macallan's Five Cask for $55.00, a real bargain.  Leaving the Duty Free, I was able to drive right up to the Customs booth without a delay.  After a passport and license check, I was passed through only to see an incredible traffic line up that was at least a kilometre long heading south to the US.  Sometimes it's good to go against the flow!

Discovery Passage from the beach near our house

Float plane leaving the Spit, Campbell River

Painter's Lodge, Campbell River

The ferry ride was uneventful and before getting on the freeway, I stopped in Nanaimo to talk to the owner of American Heritage Cycles.  While I was in Sioux Falls, SD I met a rider from Alabama who said that he had lived in Nanaimo, and who had asked me to pass on his regards.  Rick recognized the fellow and was glad to hear that he was doing well.  I was struck by the strange coincidence of meeting a person halfway across the continent who knew someone that I had met by chance last fall.  Sometimes it is a small world.

Leaving Nanaimo, I headed for home, stopping only in Courtenay for gas, arriving at my house after travelling 12 761 kilometres.  It was strange riding up Rockland Road which I had ridden down five weeks before thinking about what it would be like to return.  Now I was returning and it really didn't feel that I had been gone that long.  It was great to see Darlene again and to reacquaint myself with our place.  It was good to see that the garden had done well in my absence with an abundance of beans, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, and peas.  One of my sunflowers was now three metres tall and another one was more than two metres in height.

View of the harbour from the Foreshore Park, Campbell River

Wood carving, Foreshore Park, Campbell River

Cruise ship Veendam passing Campbell River

Veendam from Foreshore Park, Campbell River

Over the past five weeks I have seen a tremendous amount of beautiful landscapes and sights, but when I arrived home I was struck by the beauty of where we live.  Being away removed some of the familiarity of where we live and allowed me to see it again with fresh eyes.  The sights I saw on my trip were not any more spectacular than the sights I see every day here in Campbell River, and on Vancouver Island.



Coast Range across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (Salish Sea)

Coast Range looking northeast across Quadra Island

Canadian Navy ship across the Strait of Juan de Fuca

View of Johnstone Strait at Seymour Narrows where Ripple Rock was blown up in 1959.

It's great to be home and in my place again.  There are so many places to go and things to see and I can hardly wait to see what comes next.