Safe Home

    The Journey home has been successfully completed and the final paper for this term is turned in with almost an hour to spare!  My grades for one course are in and it appears to have gone well.  My new friends of UNBC held a lovely going away pot luck supper the night before my departure (though it seemed only a handful actually did any cooking - and excellent cooking it was - thanks to Allison and Hyae-rim (new academic daughter) and Dennis and Paul and Gabrielle and Kylee and and and . . .)  Almost everything was packed and ready to load into the van by late Friday night, though my part time roommate Kevan was not sure it would all fit!  Hah!  I KNOW how to pack a van!

    Cathy, soul sister and venerable fellow crone, came over Saturday morning early (and I know how hard that was my dear - you are NOT a morning person) and in -20 C we loaded the van for the road.  The bikes and the weary bike rack proved troublesome, but eventually - it was time to go.  Of course a couple of blocks and one speed bump later the bike rack collapsed - sort of - so another stop, another 20 minutes of fiddling with numb fingers and this time all was good for the long haul.

    It was bright and sunny but cold.  Prince George does not seem to believe in snow ploughs until later in the year, so there was a great deal of hard packed snow that had turned into slick shiny ice on the highway.  Some areas were quite rough and rutted so it made for a challenging few hours until things began to warm a bit.  I had done the waypoints on my GPS for the trip and found it to be quite a useful way of keep track of progress.  I shall have to try that again.

    There were some beautiful vistas in the snow and sunshine.  5 hours into the journey it began to cloud over and still there were breathtaking scenes along the way.  Snow began to fall in the early dark as I came into the rolling slopes leading into the Fraser Valley.  Wet sloppy snow.  Conditions continued to deteriorate all the way into Vancouver.  Had lovely sequential visits with my children, then headed to the ferry home.  How was I to know it was a US long weekend and a reduced fare weekend to boot?  I sat and waited through the 3, 5, and 6 o'clock sailings and the 7pm ferry arrived over a half hour late!  The terminal was congested with people lining up for an hour just to buy coffee.  So I hunkered down in the van faced with a dilemma.  Do I rummage through the tightly packed vehicle to get at any of several boxes of books to get one I wanted to read or wait for an hour in a lineup to pay for a magazine?  Eventually I rummaged!  It was a long and chilly wait with the winds picking up 'til they rocked the van a little with every gust - sweeping down in an Arctic outflow through Howe Sound for those of you who might be interested!  Snowy winds, cold wet winds.

    The crossing was rocky with a following sea, but Bonamine is my friend!  My delicate stomach stayed content and I enjoyed a protracted supper in the buffet - the only reasonable way to make the crossing (though this last crossing it too was crowded and noisy).  Once in Victoria I was unimpressed to see that there was even more snow!  Off I went to Calvin's house to deposit my kayak and bikes.  His house is in a heavily wooded area and branches were cracking and crashing to the ground on a regular basis.  Had to stop twice to haul debris free of the roadway before I could proceed. 

    Finally arrived home to an apartment still chock a block with unpacked boxes and no heat!  Mike had kindly provisioned my fridge with a few of the basic food items and a lovely bottle of white wine.  So I left everything secured in the van. (underground parking) No point in unloading the van with no place to put anything until I did a little unpacking.  I contemplated a nice hot bath, shivered at the prospect and crawled into bed wearing a great deal of fleece clothing and clutching a glass of wine.   I was home. 

    Thank you all so very much for making the three months in Prince George so worthwhile.  I am truly blessed with good friends and family wherever I go.  I will continue with my studies here in Victoria and go back to UNBC (an excellent little university) a couple more times to complete my masters and then, who knows?  For now, I am home.