Made It to Victoria

Yesterday was our one-day lightning dash to Victoria. It wasn’t without it’s little challenges, but overall things went pretty smoothly. There were five of us, including Murphy. This is the second time we’ve travelled with him. Compared to the previous time (last August) I think that he was just as well-behaved, but the weather was conspiring against us. The biggest obstacle was that it was a hot day. BC and Alberta are both under a heat warning, and once we got to Salmon Arm, the A/C was on in the car and it stayed on. We saw indicated temperatures of as high as 36.5 degrees, and the humidity is much higher than we are used to. The upshot was that each time we stopped, we had to be aware of the temperature in the car so that Murphy wouldn’t swelter. That meant:

• In Kamloops, where we stopped at Subway for lunch, we parked in the shade of a tree with the windows cracked and the sunroof completely open
• In Hope, where we stopped for ice cream at DQ, I stayed at the car and even idled with the A/C running from time to time. It was 36 degrees there.
• In Tsawwassen, we parked at the base of the causeway eating our takeout White Spot, hoping that the ocean breeze would be cool, but it was still 26 degrees without shade.

Murphy made it just fine, and that was the challenge of the day. What wasn’t a challenge:

• Getting out early. We were actually on the road before 5 am. Everyone was organized and helpful. 🥰
• Getting through Kicking Horse Pass. With the construction, we might have been stopped for a while, but we didn’t even have to stop.
• Catching a ferry. I made a reservation for the 7 pm sailing. Normally, I don’t, but the ferries have been so full it seemed like a good idea. Turns out I was right. We were able to relax a bit and stop for dinner before going to the terminal.
• Filling our circles. The weather was so warm that we stayed outside on the ferry for the whole sailing. Tammy and I did many laps of the boat. Made for a funny map of GPS data as the ferry backed up and then sailed away.

I forgot to add when I posted this that we saw some aquatic life in Active Pass! We saw two harbour seals and two orcas and one… not sure what it was. I thought it might have been a dolphin or a porpoise. It was definitely “porpoising” as it swam. The orcas we only saw fleetingly near Village Bay on Mayne Island. We just saw them come up to breathe once and then didn’t see them again.

One interesting thing was how early the sun set. With our BCC evening rides, I know pretty much exactly when it sets in Calgary (so we can get back to the shop before the sun goes down) and it’s about 1/2 hour earlier here.

We were at Dad’s by 9:15 or so despite the construction on the Pat Bay Highway at Mt. Newton X Road. We got everything organized and then it was off to bed.

Tammy’s working this morning, doing her meetings with students for the last day of the semester. Sounds like it’s going well and she’s almost done.