Slowly heading home

Well, we spent some time at the Royal BC Museum on Monday. It was a holiday in BC and we were amazed watching traffic congeal around the arteries of Victoria. We had no problem finding a campsite that night though. (Well, after we ignored the GPS - because it directed us to the Parks Maintenance yard several miles away first.) We stayed in a National campground just above the main road leading to the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal. It wasn't too bad if we pretended the traffic noise was wind in the trees. We arrived at the terminal at 7:20 a.m. in hopes of making the 8:00 ferry to Vancouver - it was not to be. We watched as a plethora of trucks and cars were loaded without us. When it was clear we were not going to be loaded - Cheri went out and turned our propane back on and made breakfast.

We were able to meet Jenny from the last paddling trip for Dim Sum lunch when we did arrive on the mainland. Then we started our drive south. We were warned to expect an hour delay at the border - so we were happy it only took us 50 minutes to get through. When the Officer heard we had been gone three months he looked at us and asked. "So are you folks employed these days or what?" When Cheri explained that she was retired and Kris was a teacher - he stopped asking us questions and sent us on our way. We didn't even get a chance to declare the new waterproof camera we bought in Canada.



It is a good thing we ran into a little traffic on Vancouver Island yesterday. It helped to prepare us for the freeway driving and the incredible snarl of traffic in Seattle. Of all the miles we have put on the Bee in the past few months - we haven't driven on a freeway or had any traffic issues since we left California in May! We had to readjust our defensive driving from watching for wildlife to watching other drivers. We both are suffering from a mild case of culture shock.