Journey Day 1 - 22 Apr 2010

Well, it almost WASN'T Day 1! I had set the alarm for 0615 so that I could leave by 0740, knowing how slow Sooke Rd can be during rush hour & having to be at the ferry terminal right in downtown Victoria by 0900.

First, I woke up early.....about 0500. Knowing I needed more sleep, I rolled over & went back to sleep. Can you imagine my horror when I next awoke & looked at the clock to find it was 0743????? I have no idea if the alarm ran down without me hearing it or didn't go off but either way I was in trouble!

I packed up my computer (I'd planned to do some lookups & check email just before leaving), threw on my clothes and dragged my 2 suitcases (one of which weighs a ton thanks to a couple of family history books plus paper), then my computer backpack which is anything but light. Did a quick house check & list check, jumped in the car and was on my way. Fortunately, as I left the house at 0810, the traffic on Sooke Rd wasn't too bad however, the Trans Canada (TCH) was at a snail crawl from Thetis Lake to Tillicum. Was just entering downtown Victoria (by the 'old' Hudson's Bay store) at 0900 so NOT at the ferry terminal. As luck would have it, as I arrived at the Belleville St. terminal, the traffic was lined up Belleville so there was no panic about me arriving at 0910. Phew!

Weather was gorgeous with fluffy clouds drifting by in the blue sky with bright sunlight. A group of Jaguar owners were on their way to a car meet in California so I chatted with some of them. On the ferry, I met a couple with a beautiful white Great Pyrenes dog. Got some photos so will include one. I also met a fellow photo nut while we were snapping photos from the top deck. He is Belgique & travelling around the Pacific Northwest with his backpack. He had also visited relatives in Sudbury & Calgary and loved Canada so much he plans to come back. Today he was heading to Forks in the Olympics by bus & hiking.

After carefully packing the car with those things I expected customs to want to go through being easily accessible, they never looked at a darn thing! That surprised me. Once we were off the ferry, we went through Customs again which meant that from docking to driving off the ferry, was more than half an hour then a wait in line to get through the checkpoint.

Made a stop for a late lunch/early supper in Tumwater WA about 1530 then stopped for gas at Kelso-Longview WA, $33.02US for 3.189 US gallons. As I was in need of a stretch, I stopped at a rest stop just before Sutherlin OR. Arrived at the Holiday Inn at Roseburg just after 2100 only to find.....wait for it......no room at the Inn!! So I had to backtrack to the previous exit to the Best Western which fortunately had room. I really wasn't in the mood for room hunting at that stage of the night.

Now that I know that my guesstimates on where I can get to in a day are fairly close, I can safely reserve ahead of time to avoid the above.

Now I'll download my photos so I can upload the lovely dog one.  Till tomorrow night....  Check out more photos at
http://picasaweb.google.com/joansjoy/JoanSSWUSReunionTrek?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCasKaWscSx3wE&feat=directlink

8-)
Joan