Biggity Bloggity Boo June 19 and 20

Woooo, the day is finally here that we begin our long journey across the country. However our first destination is the zero mile marker in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria. Three of us have final exams today so we have to wait until the afternoon before we can leave. The packing of the van turns out to be a bit of a challenge, as we now have to fit a Tandem mountain bike in here as well. The Tandem is supposed to be the solution to Brett resting is torn muscle while still managing to peddle across Victoria and some of B.C. We finally leave Lethbridge at 6:30pm and drive all night to make it to the Ferrie for 9:00 am. We were hoping for the first Ferrie of the day at 7:00am but between inaccurate GPS instructions and the late departure from Lethbridge we arrived a little later than anticipated. The Ferrie was fun as always and I even managed to avoid the gift shop, which was quite the achievement.

We arrive in Swartz Bay and head off to find the Chateau Victoria for lunch with several University of Lethbridge Alumni, the GPS did not let us down for this destination as we find it quite quickly and arrive exactly on time. After a nice lunch on the eighteenth floor we head down to Beacon Hill Park for the Zero Mile Marker photo shoot and the kick off to the trip of our lives. However the road was on an uphill and although I lost my shoe and almost fell over about five times we managed to get the Tandem going, and headed off through downtown Victoria. The Lochside and Galloping Goose trails were recommended to us to get back to the Ferrie terminal. This made the trip across the island much more enjoyable compared to the highway. If only the Tandem bike was not quite so difficult. Seriously if it were made of wood I would burn it!

Anyway, we made it back to Swartz Bay and the Ferrie at 7:00pm. Rather than pack the giant Tandem back into the van Kelly rode it onto the Ferrie. The catch was that Kelly actually made it in time to get on the earlier Ferrie, the rest of us had no idea where he was and when we finally boarded our Ferrie we could not find him or the Tandem anywhere. The level of concern amongst the group was beginning to rise until Alan received a call on his cell phone from Kelly’s mom letting us know that Kelly was just an hour and a half ahead of us in Tsawwassen. Instant relief! As we were all thinking that maybe Kelly got on a different Ferrie and may have ended up somewhere other than where we were heading.

With us all reunited in Tsawwassen, Brett and I jump back on the Tandem (unfortunately) and carry on towards Surrey. The sun was quickly beginning to set and rather than continue on and risk getting caught in the dark we spent the night in Surrey. In a rather sketchy hotel in, so sketchy in fact that we brought all of our stuff including the bikes into our lovely cigarette smoke scented room. Not only did our window not have a screen but the air conditioner did not work and apparently Nick loves Ashley forever (this was written with black Jiffy marker on the bathroom door.) We fell asleep that night to the sweet sounds of inebriated gentlemen arguing over who was smarter. It was the end of a very eventful day.