18-August-2022
What a day. Started out the morning by going to White Rock, BC to look at a set of almost new alloy wheels taken off of a 2020 R1250GS. They were pristine, and a heck of a deal. I’ve had two sets of wheels for a previous GSA and it was convenient to be able to slap on the knobbies for an off road outing, but not wear them out riding around town the next week. So I bought a couple of wheels.
After meeting up with Ainsley, the seller who I met through ADVRider, I rode to Tsawwassen, BC to take the ferry to Sydney on Vancouver Island. Yup, that’s right. Vancouver is not on Vancouver Island. <This is the stuff that makes my head want to explode> The ferry trip offered beautiful weather, a comfortable ride, and amazing scenery. I saw a couple of killer whales surface a few times, and a couple of seals. I spent most of my time on the bow of the lower car deck, just facing into the wind, enjoying the peacefulness and serenity of it all, living in the moment.
It’s a quick highway ride from Sydney down to Vancouver, so I went down residential side streets and admired the waterfront real estate to see how the other 90% live.
I haven’t been in Victoria for over 30 years and the downtown core has really changed. It’s losing its charm as a small harbour town and starting to look like every other tourist centric city with multiple souvenir shops, lemonade stands, ice cream vendors and ‘experiences’ like helicopter rides, boat trips, sail planes rides, etc.. It’s still a great city, but in my memory it has lost some of its small town charm. As for the ice cream stands, I’m equally amazed and appalled that an ice cream stand not much bigger than an old school phone booth can offer 77 flavours of ice cream. A quick glance inside shows that they have 77 bottles of flavours and one vanilla soft serve machine. Mmmm. Fresh artificial flavour.
The harbour itself is a beautiful sight, with the always impressive Empress Hotel.
While at the Victoria ferry terminal I met a group of 9 guys traveling together who were friends from some sort of Scotch club, hockey club, live life to the fullest club. I think it was just amateur hockey, but the trash talk between them was definitely pro level. I had a great talk with Rob about life, family, travel, work, motorcycles, etc. These 9 guys travel together often and this ride was for the memory of a 10th rider who passed recently. I hope when I finally go to the human recycle bin any friends I have that are still living will get together and ride. (Note to self – start making younger friends)
When we boarded the ferry to Port Angeles I was surprised to see it was a side loader. I don’t think this is as common as bow and stern loading and know of only one other ferry that loads from the side.
The ferry ride to Port Angeles was also a fun time, and I spent a good part of the journey just walking around the perimeter of the ship outside. After sitting on a bike for over a week it was nice to get my 10,000 steps in, although they were a bit harder to do as the ferry was rocking quite a lot, and the port side had gale force winds while the starboard side was calm. We arrived at Port Angeles after seeing a beautiful sunset.
Have you figured out the title of the post yet? Twoday. Bought a couple of wheels, rode a couple of ferries, saw a couple of Orcas, saw a couple of seals, went to a couple of countries… A day of Two’s