Trip to Victoria

This week, from Tuesday to Friday, I hopped in the new Tiguan and headed to Victoria to visit with Mom and Dad. I got back last night, safe and sound. There were lots of things that distinguished the trip: I was on my own, it was the first time I’d tried driving Calgary-Victoria in one day and it was the first 2000 km on the VW, among other things. On the way back to Calgary, the car was packed full of stuff…

I’m getting ahead of myself. This all started when I planned to take Spring Break off to look after the kids. Tammy only gets 2 weeks’ vacation from her job at Geos, and I get four from Esri. The idea to visit Victoria was planted when I was considering what to do with the week off without Tammy. The winter has been particularly warm and dry this year (Mt. Washington ski resort on Vancouver Island closed in February due to lack of snow), so I was reasonably confident the roads would be clear. With all that Mom and Dad have gone through, and with Mom on the mend now, I thought it would be nice to visit with them. We are planning on going to Victoria in August, but that seemed so far away. Also, it was a bit of a critical time for them with their schedule to sell their house. They need to disimpact themselves from 45 years of accumulated stuff. I wanted to help move stuff out and take stuff away that they wanted me to have.

When it turned out that Tammy had the week off too, that meant I would make the trip on my own. Unfortunately, that nasty cold she and I had delayed things somewhat, but Tuesday morning, I was up at 4:00 and on the road by 5:00.

My first impression was that I’ve forgotten how to drive highways in the dark. I haven’t driven an unlit highway in a while, and it was disorienting. It was also very strange to know that I was driving into the Rocky Mountains, but not be able to see anything until the sun came up around 7:00. I stopped at Kicking Horse pass to stretch my legs:

As hoped, the roads were clear and dry for the most part. The only exception was the high elevations north and south of Merritt, where it was snowing but not staying on the road. I almost made the 3:00 ferry! I arrived at 2:36, and missed making the ferry by 11 cars. That was too bad, but gave me a chance to stretch and walk around.

Arriving in Colwood, I was pretty tired but okay. Stephanie arrived right away and we all got to visit for a while. Mom was doing okay, but obviously thin and needing the walker to move around and reliant on Dad. Stephanie said that Mom was much better, so I am hopeful that she will slowly recover. She was in good spirits and really happy to see me, but frustrated at her limitations and inability to help out and “organize”.

Dad had put aside a pile of stuff for me to take back, which only grew over the next couple of days. Tuesday, the big tasks were to haul stuff to recycling, like their big projection TV. That didn’t fit into his truck without removing the canopy, so Mr. Rowan helped out with his truck. It was great to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Rowan after so many years. When I was working for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources as a work term in 1994-1995, quite a number of times Mr. Rowan picked me up at the bus stop and gave me a lift downtown (he worked at the Royal Bank at Fort and Douglas). We finished the hauling by lunchtime, which surprised Dad.

In the afternoon, we started going through stuff. There were some old clothes, dishes and assorted other things whose fate needed to be decided. Stephanie came over again, and we got Tammy on FaceTime on my iPad, and worked at that for a couple of hours. We referred to her as “Tambot”, after the Mobile Virtual Presence Device on Big Bang Theory. It was very cool and weird to have her in the room but not. 🙂 I took a picture, but it was blurry, of course. Dinner was take out White Spot, courtesy of a gift card from Peggy and Al. We called Peggy after dinner and had a short chat with her. Al was out at a car meet thing, unfortunately.

I had some “free time” Thursday morning, so I got out of Mom and Dad’s hair for a while. I drove out to Sooke to see the old homestead.

I also stopped in and visited for an hour with Jackson and Michelle. Since Jackson works out of his garage making kilts, he was the one person I though would be available mid-morning on a Thursday. Michelle was there too, so we had coffee and shot the breeze, mostly discussing raising teenage daughters.

The afternoon was running loads of stuff over to Stephanie’s garage for keeping during the sale, and packing up the Tiguan. We did three trips of stuff in the Mazda, and took about an hour and a half to load the car. There was a lot of stuff to pack, and we were surprised at how much fit. Just going from memory: an end table, a smoker table, six paintings/cross stitches, scroll saw, router and table, serger and related, coats, clothes, material, train set, mugs, plates, sound system, heater, tools, and on and on…

Mom held out until about 8 that night. She didn’t want to miss out on the visit, but she was falling asleep in her chair. We were all up before 5:00 the next morning and I was on my way again (not without a few tears). The trip home was uneventful, with the weather cooperating beautifully. Mom and Dad were able to track my progress on Dad’s iPhone (I showed them how to do it and shared my location for the day). The ferry ride was beautiful and calm, with fog banks setting off the sunrise.

I got home just after 8:00. With minimal stops it takes about 10 and a half hours to drive between Calgary and Tsawwassen, which isn’t that bad. It took nine and a half to do it from Prince George. It’s a long day for sure. The one thing that really stood out was an 18-wheeler truck overturned in the ditch just east of Golden. I guess the driver didn’t make the turn.

It was a successful trip. I’m really glad I did it. It was nice to see Mom, Dad and Stephanie, and it felt good to help them move out a bunch of stuff before they bring the realtor over next week. I got to see the house, hopefully for the last time. I also got that pile of stuff into the car and out of their hair. Stephanie won’t need to store it at her place until the summer.

Now to unpack the car…