On the Road Again 2014 #10

I finally got to hitchhike!!!! It felt so good to have my thumb out - waiting for a ride. Even if I was hitching on Salt Spring Island (which is generally an easy place to hitch) it felt as if things were finally getting back to normal.

I had arranged to go to Salt Spring to visit a friend. I didn't plan on hitchhiking. I was not sure if my back (and in particular my back muscles had healed sufficiently well enough to carry a pack any real distance or to even to just stand in one spot for an hour or so. I had checked the bus and ferry schedule and it looked as if all of the connections were quite doable. On paper it looked as if I would only have to wait 10-15 minutes at each location. With any luck at all I would only have to hitchhike the last 3-4 kilometers.

I really need to have someone look after me. Or at least have someone to stop me from making dumb decisions. The bus/ferry schedules have never in the past lined up. Why would I assume that they would this year? Because of course they didn't. The Duncan/Crofton bus left 10 minutes later than I thought the on-line schedule suggested, which meant that I missed the ferry to Salt Spring, which meant that I missed the bus from Vesuvius to Ganges etc etc.  All of which was fine. I don't mind hanging around Crofton for 45 minutes. As long as the fumes from the pulp mill are drifting the other way it is a pleasant little place. I also didn't mind hitching from the ferry terminal to Ganges. It is only a 10 minute walk up the hill to a shady spot with room for a car to pull over, the weather was pleasant and I was glad to be on the island. I got a ride fairly quickly from a ferry employee. We had the usual chat about the glories of living on the island. There are so many that time one compares the island's many attributes with the sad failings of the rest of the country, one is already in Ganges.

I walked to the bus stop, found that I would have to wait for well over an hour for the next bus to Fulford Harbour and decided to hitch. After all - I had got a quick and easy ride to Ganges.....obviously my luck was with me or the Gods were smiling upon me or something. I did get rides, in fact I got three of them (for what is, I think about a 20 minute car ride from Ganges to Fulford ). Two of the places I was let out were in really bad spots with no shoulders which meant that I had to walk a fair distance to get to a safer spot. The last walk took about 20 minutes, much of it up hill. I beat the bus to Fulford Harbour by about ten minutes. I was already tired, hot, and more than a bit sore by the time I got to the turn off to Beaver Point Road. This was the last stretch - the spot that I had known from the beginning would require some walking. After walking a bit I did get a ride that got me most of the way to my destination.

Beaver Point Road is a pleasant shaded road with relatively little traffic and non-existing shoulders that wanders besides two lakes and through a lovely forest. It would have been a very enjoyable walk if I had not picked up my pack too many times, gotten into too many cars and walked too much. As it was , I was sore to the point that all that wanted to do was to lay down on the side of the road and not move for a few hours. But I persevered - not because I am strong, or because I am particularly hard working, but because I didn't have a choice. My choices were miles and a few hours behind me when I decided, in Ganges, not to wait for the bus.

It was great to finally get to the house. It was particularly great to sit down and do nothing.....except I am really poor at doing nothing. At some point in the late afternoon I decided to help someone move Puck. Puck is a three foot high cement statue of Puck or some humanoid/elf like woodland creature. He is, perhaps not surprisingly, rather heavy. Again I really need to have someone look after me. Or at least have someone to stop me from making dumb decisions. Needless to say - my back hurt after the move and twelve hours later it still hurts.

But I am on Salt Spring and that is a good thing.