POST # 557
The Thoughtful Wanderer is once again on the move, today being another travel day. Since my last post on June 28th, I returned briefly to Vancouver, sleeping on another airport bench, prior to heading to Horseshoe Bay, for a quick day trip to Nanaimo to pick up a sauna bed, that was going to be travelling to Washington with me.
I arrived in Mount Vernon via Amtrak, to be greeted by Mary and Dora-dog, for our short journey back to their home in Shelter Bay. That all happened on June 30th. Our original plan was to leave the very next day for Whitefish Montana, but I was exhausted from the previous two days, so we made a sensible decision to hang out in Shelter Bay on July 1st, and set off on our adventure the very next day.
We've done this trip a couple of times before, and I think that I had forgotten just how long of a drive it was to get to Whitefish. Thirteen hours after we departed at 6:30 am we arrived at her daughter and son in law's place, at their new home, which is in a rural location about fifteen minutes south of the city of Whitefish.
The main reason for the trip was for Mary to have an opportunity to visit with Chani and Hugh, and their dog, Confetti, aka Fetti, but a secondary objective was to get away from the constant fireworks noise that is the norm at this time of year around Shelter Bay. As we were south of the main town of Whitefish, we anticipated a quieter evening on July 4th. How wrong we were. Many of their neighbours decided to celebrate the holiday, with plenty of fireworks, and one neighbour in particular just couldn't seem to quit celebrating. He was still doing it at 2:30 am, so needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. The humans are one thing, but poor Dora-dog, gets freaked out by the sound. She is a bundle of stress, and it is a very sad experience to see her like this.
Somehow, we all made it through the night, and we departed early on July 5th for our return journey to Shelter Bay. Our plan was to take a different route back to Washington, with the hope of shaving some time off of our outbound trip. It probably would have worked, but somewhere east of Interstate 5, as we travelled along highway 20, the traffic came to a halt. It lasted for an hour, and we never did work out what caused the traffic jam, but eventually we were once again on our way, arriving back home around 7:30 pm.
We had chosen to return on the 5th, which gave us the opportunity to get settled back in, and relax, do some gardening, and spend time down by the channel yesterday, so that Dora-dog could have a chance to swim and play with other dogs. Somehow all of the stress that she had recently experienced seemed to just evaporate into thin air. It was such a joy to see her happy once again.
And speaking of Dora-dog, Mary stumbled across a photo online that was a picture of a dog breed called an Armant. If someone had told me that the picture I was looking at was Dora-dog, I would have believed them. It was almost a carbon copy of her appearance. Here is a Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armant_(dog)
Well who knew, that little old Dora-dog was such an exotic creature?
Yesterday went by way too fast as far as I was concerned, but it certainly was an enjoyable day to spend.
This morning I was up early, in preparation for yet another journey. We drove to the Amtrak station this morning, said our goodbyes and once again, The Thoughtful Wanderer was on the move. Today's journey started off with the train trip back to Vancouver, followed by a ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, where I will be settling in to a new house sit location for only five short days. I will be pet free this time around, which is a change for me, as I usually am hanging out with a four legged critter or two or three.
Well, so far, so good. This update is from the ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay. I made it out here with plenty of time to spare, and seeing as I know of a little out of the way place here at the terminal, where I can connect to the internet, I'm taking the opportunity to do so. Soon enough, we'll be heading across the Strait to Nanaimo, and once I arrive, it's a short bus ride to my next location. I'll do a final update at that time, and have this posted before the sun goes down. Then it will be time to put my feet up and relax as my travel day will have come to a close.
Finally, I have now arrived at my destination for the next five days. It will be an early night for sure.
Also, the reader will note the lack of photos in today's post. I could say that it is because I put in so many photos on my last post, but the real reason is that I have been having issues with my yahoo email account in the past week, and I have had to change the password three times. I used to be able to take photos, email them to myself, and then upload them to my blog, but I can't do that at the moment. Hopefully by next week, I will have sorted this out.
Okay, that's all she wrote for today. It will be an early night for this weary wanderer.
grateful for every breath,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
No comments:
Post a Comment