Apr 20 - Jennie & Doug Have Left the Island!
For those of you who are keeping score….yes, we did leave a day later than advertised. Ahhh, but I won't bore you with all the "work" details as to why.
So today is the big day! And the day did not disappoint! The sun rose this morning and gave us an absolutely splendid day to travel. After leisurely getting Alfie and Ali ready, we stopped and had coffee in the sunshine with Betty. Then it was "okay, we gotta get going!"
We exchanged hugs with Betty and headed on down the highway. Just a short distance north of Nanaimo there is an electronic BC Ferries sign – great, the 12:45 ferry is only 30% full. We arrived with an hour to kill which went by very quickly.
On the ferry, we headed up to the cafeteria for a spot of lunch, followed by a stroll around the passenger deck with Jen. We went back to Alfie and Jen settled in for her afternoon "recharge the batteries" nap. Me? I grabbed my camera and went up to the top deck.
This picture features Mount Baker (10,750'), the port facilities just to the north of the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, and a line differentiating the mighty muddy Fraser River from the Strait of Georgia water.
Off the ferry just around 3 pm, we stopped in Tsawwassen to mail a parcel, then headed south towards the border. This is our lucky day…..only a 5 minute wait and no problem at all. The border person just asked the standard questions and went into the rig, then we were on our way. We were through the border by 4 pm.
Heading down I5, the temperature reached a high of 28C in the sunshine!
After a grocery run in Mt Vernon, we headed to a rest stop just south of Arlington, WA on I5 for the night. It's a little noisy as the interstate is not that far away, but we are safe and comfortable in Ali – Ali who now has working lights, water pump, and ceiling fan thanks to our battery bank.
We heated up some frozen home-made soup for dinner along with a salad and some nice fresh 7-grain bread. I got the Coleman stove out to heat up the soup; Jen was ready to put the soup in our microwave dish and throw it in the microwave. Uhh, sorry, sweetheart, the microwave doesn't work off the batteries.
It's now just before 9 pm. I don't think either of us will be too long before the sandman beats us to death.
See you tomorrow.
