Cars buses and boats

Going to Vancouver for some extra Jiu-Jitsu has been very good for me.

Did a couple of visits early in December with my car. I know that sounds pretty normal, but it isn't. It is impossible to drive to Vancouver from my home. The roads end, and it is necessary to ride a ferry for 45 minutes to reach the roads that lead on into the city.

Anyhow, I took the car along on the boat with me. This makes the rest of the trip very simple, but increases the price exponentially.

Anyhow, I drove and sailed over to the City, and received excellent instruction, and worked with grand partners.

Since then, I have continued with weekly visits, but went transit style. I would drive to the ferry terminal and park. Then I'd go aboard as a foot passenger. Once over on the other side, there would be a bus waiting. A second bus put me just a few blocks from the training location. This is a lot more hassle than taking a car, and vastly slower, but much cheaper.

All of the instruction has been very worth-while. Normally, I get to partner with a good friend, Elizabeth. She moved to the city a while back, and trains fanatically. I like working with Elizabeth.

The whole place has an excellent vibe, following the mellow lead of Black Belt Marc Marins. He is wonderful at answering any questions I have, and does things just ever so slightly differently than what I'm used to. This helps me grow.

Today, was a throwback. Helen wanted to go along and visit Costco. This just can't work on the buses, so we took the car.

Helen dropped me at the school, and went off on her shopping expedition. She was back and parked outside again when the class ended.

Normally, Elizabeth goes home after class on Mondays, and then returns for a second, evening session. This entails a convoluted path of badly scheduled transit links with a notable walk on either end. She also had a cracked up, nail-less big toe that would make the trip significantly less pleasant than normal. She never asks me for anything, but today inquired if she could get a ride home.

Helen and I were happy to oblige. Sometimes cars just make things easier. Even though Elizabeth lives in the exact opposite direction as the ferry, we still easily made our planned-for boat. I messaged Elizabeth once were were in the ferry terminal, and she estimated that would have still been riding transit without our little bit of help. 

Her day would have contained four trips, each involving a major walk, a train ride, another major walk, a seabus ride, and yet another major walk. Our car eliminated one of the four. Still a very walkie and transit-ie day for her, especially with her hooped-up foot.

I'll be continuing the Monday visits until my next promotion. After that, Helen and I will be travelling a great deal. Promotion periods are 8 months long, if you attend sufficient, appropriate classes. They can be much longer if you cannot. I like to keep them as short as possible.

With all our upcoming travel, I will be 22 classes short, even assuming perfect attendance (like that could ever happen) when home. The Vancouver weekly visits could theoretically improve this to only 7 classes short. I think I'll add in Saturday visits in Summer and Fall when home, and that could not only reduce the shortfall to nothing, but actually give me a few classes over as a buffer.

If I do it, I'll also be getting twice as much of Marc's instruction, and twice as much work with Elizabeth and the other city dwellers.

And I'll get to ride twice as many ferries and buses.