Dominoes

We slowly chug into Vancouver. Our cruise is about to end.

They took most of our bags last night. We shall see them next on shore.

The vast majority of the passengers will be hauled to the airport on fleets of buses. Lola and Bernie pick up their car on the dock, drive The Momma home, and then continue on for five hours to Vernon.

Helen and I cover far fewer miles, but it is quite complicated.

We'll pull our bags a dozen blocks through downtown to catch a particular city bus. It will run us about half an hour out of the city, where we pick up a ferry north.

On the other side of that trip two more bus rides await. The final will deposit us a kilometre or so from our door.

So for us it will be walk, bus, ferry, bus, bus, and again a walk. If it all connects perfectly, we may be home within five hours. Taken together, it is a great buffer between our time aboard and our real lives.

Snags can add to the travel time considerably, but are unusual. I fully hope to make it to Jiu-Jitsu. I always miss that greatly when we travel.

***

We have hit a snag already, and we're not even off the ship yet. Our predicted departure time was around 9am, but things were already 40 minutes behind on offloading even the very first batch of passengers. I would guess this means we'll end up a bus or two behind, which will have us missing our ferry, which adds two hours onto our arrival at home. Oh, well.

***
A miracle. We finally got off the boat, very late, and rolled our bags through down town. I think we looked quite strange. Helen is a shade taller than her bag, but it is both thicker and wider. We reached the bus stop, and the exact right type was there waiting for us. On we hopped, and fares were being waved due to some big transit kerfuffle.

Got into the ferry terminal with moments to spare, ending up on the exact same boat we were shooting for before experiencing the cruise ship unloading delays. The only problem is that the ferry is well behind schedule, so we'll miss our bus on the other side, which will make us also miss the next. This whole trip is a shakey construct made of dominoes.

***

I can't believe it. Many times Helen has managed to magically produce rides home for us in the ferry. She knows tons of people, and they are always ready to help her out. I get to tag along.

This time, there were no friends on the boat.

So what happens? She meets a professional driver that is heading through to Powell River. After chatting to Helen for a minute or two we are in his vehicle being given a ride almost to our door. I am gob-smacked.

Home on time.