On the Road 2011 #15

It was, of course, great to be in my second home. It was nice to be able to open up my box that I had mailed to myself and to have a wider range of clothing to wear. It was great to have a bed to sleep in, and even better it was quite wonderful to know where I was going to sleep that night. There was of course the immeasurable bonus of being able to hang out with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. But there were times during those first few days of being in Duncan that I felt something was missing. I had in fact had this feeling ever since I had gotten on the ferry at Horseshoe Bay. For awhile I could not figure out what it was and then I realized - I was missing my adventure!

I was grateful for the rides and would not have wanted to change a single part of my trip. Everything had gone so smoothly. It could not have been better organized if I had hired a tour guide to arrange the rides. I had made it across the western half of Canada in what I thought was record time. No one I have spoken to has hitchhiked that distance any where near as fast. Most have never heard of anyone coming close. So I felt pretty good about my luck. BUT nothing exciting had happened. Now I want to be clear (in case the Hitchhiking Gods are reading this), if I had a choice between really good rides (if a bit boring) with no waiting between, or wonderful exciting rides with day long waits in between - I think I would chose the former. Although if I was allowed to be picky something in the middle would be nice.

All of that says that either I am getting old and my sense of adventure is less,or perhaps now that I have a clear destination in mind, the old saying about it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey....perhaps is no longer true for me. If the latter is the case - I feel bit sad. Sad because I will still be wanting the adventure, but not be prepared to do the work.

Non-the-less I was more than prepared to relax and enjoy my family. And I did for a few days. But I had plans to make and places I wanted to do to. One of the reasons that I had left so early from Ontario was that I wanted to go to the Rainbow Family's National Gathering in Washington (USA). I didn't know how I was going to get there and so spent some time looking at bus and train schedules. Just before I had left Peterborough I had talked to my friend Sally on Salt Spring about finding someone who was going and who had room for both her workers and all of her stuff (Sally was injured in a bicycle accident some years ago and is now a quadriplegic). It seemed unlikely that such a vehicle would appear. When called her from my son's four days before she wanted to leave, there was no van.

I went to Salt Spring Island on a Wednesday in part to tell her that I had decided to go down by bus or train. Just ten minutes before I had gotten there, someone had offered her a van for the trip. There was going to be room for me. Things always work in mysterious ways around Sally and her household. I stayed for supper, slept on the floor and the next morning took the first ferry back to Vancouver Island. I packed up my camping gear, gave the folks a quick hug good bye and I was back on Salt Spring Island in time for supper. (This was Thursday in case you are confused about timing)

When the van was delivered it was filthy. We had to work to hard to clean it but by just after noon on Friday we were off for the first set of ferries that would get us to the State of Washington. In the van there was of course Sally in the front seat, one of her workers driving and three of us in the back. Which sounds as if there would be a lot of room. But Sally does not travel light, not only was there the wheel chair and her bedding (encased in a tarp) tied to the roof but inside there were three drums, a guitar, a mandolin, a wok to cook popcorn with, glass jars to carry the popcorn and assorted packs for clothing and other stuff. It was perhaps not surprisingly, crowded in there. What made things a bit more complicated was that the back door didn't open at all and the two side doors had child locks that could not be released from the inside and therefore those of us in the back had to wait to be let out. But were off to a Gathering and that was all that mattered. According to the map, it was only 9 hours drive away. How long could it take?