We settled into our new temporary home and slowly got to know the area and our new charges. We were warned that Bobo the dog was a bit of a drama-queen, and she certainly lived up to it. She seemed very moody, initially depressed, then lethargic and mopey, sometimes playful and fun, with always the big sad eyes whenever we had to put her in her little room. But over time she got to know us, and we started to have fun together.
And the cat Assy, short for Asteroid, well, he was a classic cat. In other words, as long as you fed, watered, and opened doors for him upon demand, he didn’t seem to really care one way or another. Kidding of course. He was very cute, and despite warnings, became pretty affectionate. He spent most nights on our bed with us, and enjoyed the occasional cuddle.
The home and the area was easy to fall in love with. There’s a gentleness to the climate, and everything seems quite lush. We did a little exploring on foot, and by motorcycle, checking out the area with an eye to a possible move out this way sometime in the medium to longer term.
As you know, I tend to babble on a couple of sailing forums online. One of the good virtual guys on Cruisers Forum lives in Nanaimo and suggested we meet for lunch. Robert and wife Carla flew their small plane from Nanaimo up to Courtenay. We had a wonderful lunch (outdoors, and appropriately distanced) at a local eatery. It was lovely to put a real face to the virtual name.
The days rolled by and we settled into our easy pace. Mostly our jobs consisted of opening doors for pets, and keeping ourselves comfortable and fed. Bridget’s home was full of family warmth, and lots of character, including spiders. Lots of cool spiders. Kinda reminded me of living in Belleville where the boat became infested with dozens of pounds of the arachnids .
The weather was warm and dry. In fact, we hadn’t seen rain for weeks. This was true of the whole west coast, which would soon erupt into a conflagration that would blanket the area in smoke for weeks. But for the first week it was beautiful and quite warm. So we enjoyed the time, the space and mostly the critters.
But then the smoke blew in…
Sadly our time in Black Creek went all too fast. We said goodbye to Assy & Bobo and headed back to Nanaimo. We had arranged a bike servicing at a local shop there. We also met up with Carla and Robert again for another outdoor lunch, and further cruising chit chat. These people are true cruisers. They’ve been all over the world with their boat, and are a real inspiration for us. We even discussed moving our boat to the west coast. Robert has done a similar trip many times, so maybe…
After lunch with Robert and Carla we spent the next few hours wondering around the Nanaimo waterfront and downtown. It’s a lovely small city. I could definitely see us here in the future.
With the bikes in tip-top shape, including fancy new tires for us both, we headed off toward the ferry to begin the journey back to Alberta. Even though the ferries have been quite busy due to Covid-19 changes, we had no problem boarding. Motorcycles are always ushered to the front of the line, so we don’t have to book ahead, or even worry about how early to arrive. It’s great! The crossing was gentle, but due to the dense smoke, we hardly saw a thing.
It was Ann’s turn to lead this day, and so she diverted us down to some goat trail that ran right along the USA border. We almost inadvertently came right to the border crossing, but bailed at the last second! The trail was small, with lots of big speed bumps and surveillance cameras. Had we stopped we could have touched the pyramid-shaped international border markers, but the presence of all the cameras, and the US Border Patrol vehicle, convinced us to keep moving.
We drove back to Beauvais Lake via the same Highway #3 as before. It’s a fun ride, with enough twistys and passing lanes, and pretty light truck traffic. The drive was fun, and uneventful. We stopped for lunch a few times at some of BC’s great highway pull offs.
Now we’re back at our current temporary home at Beauvais Lake, thanks to the kindness of Donna & Sam. We really are blessed with incredibly generous family and friends. We’d be lost without you! We’re going to hang out here for a few more days. Our plans are to store the bikes at Ann’s cousin’s farm (the Crook Farm where June grew up), then head back up to Calgary.
We plan to spend Thanksgiving with some of the family before heading to Penticton to do one more house sit in BC. We were contacted by our first home owners. They want to travel to the Ottawa area for a few weeks, so we get to go back and see our grumpy little wonderful Maxi!
