This is the second story of a 17 part series about my trip to British Columbia in August 2015 as the photographer for the Canadian Bible Society's Bike 4 Bibles bicycling tour. The first part can be found here:
http://www.thelilydipper.com/uncle-travelling-dan/b4b15-roadies
Just after my thirtieth birthday, in July 2006, I bicycled across British Columbia with the Canadian Bible Society's Bike for Bibles program. It was an incredible week of fellowship, scenery created by the Master Artist, and testing the capabilities of my body and mind, capped with back-to-back 155 km rides over Kicking Horse Pass and Rogers Pass. I finished my ride out west in Canmore, Alberta. Ever since then, I wanted to return to British Columbia, and in August, 2015 I finally made it back, to serve as a photographer and roadie for the BC B4B tour.
The Lily Family, with the sign they made for my arrival! ("Daniel L. B4B 2015") I am very grateful and blessed to have a friend named Chris Kloetstra, who was crazy enough to rap on my apartment window at two on an August Saturday morning to get me to Pearson International Airport in Toronto for a 6:30 AM flight to Vancouver. Chris was the first person that I talked to when I came to Country Hills Church in Kitchener a decade ago, and he has a wonderful young family. So now Chris considers me to be a good enough friend to do a three hour round-trip in the middle of the night. Thanks Chris! (I am also very grateful to my friends Lise and Mike, who battled summer weekend traffic to pick me up from Pearson International Airport at the end of my trip.)
Eight smooth hours later, I was standing outside the Vancouver Airport waiting for a fellow whom I had never met to pick me up. Dave and Lily Louie are fabulous people! When Dave and I arrived at their house near the airport, there were platters of fruit and muffins and other wonderful foods set out for lunch, and a baking sheet sized fillet of fresh Pacific salmon that was about to go into the oven. I thought I'd arrived in foodie heaven: I mean, I'd been off the plane for two hours and I was about to dig into a perfectly cooked salmon on the west coast, with fresh fruit and other goodies!
There were also two cyclists from Alberta, Jim and Ralph, who had been on the Alberta Triangle Ride the previous week with Dave and Lily. They had all returned to Vancouver the previous night. It was a long trip made even longer by a serious crash up in the mountains. Jim and Ralph were taking a day to rest between the week long rides among the Rockies and the Pacific Coast. I should also mention that Jim and Ralph are both over two decades older than this 40 year old author! A few other riders were doing the same thing, participating in both tours back to back.
Eight smooth hours later, I was standing outside the Vancouver Airport waiting for a fellow whom I had never met to pick me up. Dave and Lily Louie are fabulous people! When Dave and I arrived at their house near the airport, there were platters of fruit and muffins and other wonderful foods set out for lunch, and a baking sheet sized fillet of fresh Pacific salmon that was about to go into the oven. I thought I'd arrived in foodie heaven: I mean, I'd been off the plane for two hours and I was about to dig into a perfectly cooked salmon on the west coast, with fresh fruit and other goodies!
There were also two cyclists from Alberta, Jim and Ralph, who had been on the Alberta Triangle Ride the previous week with Dave and Lily. They had all returned to Vancouver the previous night. It was a long trip made even longer by a serious crash up in the mountains. Jim and Ralph were taking a day to rest between the week long rides among the Rockies and the Pacific Coast. I should also mention that Jim and Ralph are both over two decades older than this 40 year old author! A few other riders were doing the same thing, participating in both tours back to back.
Katlyn and her future mother-in-law Karen, enjoying the sunshine on the ship.
BC Ferries operates several large ferries, and by large I mean 184' longer than Ontario's Chi-Cheemaun (1) that runs across Lake Huron from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island! The largest ships, the 547' Spirit Class vessels (2), ply the waters of the Salish Sea from the Vancouver Port of Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay at Sydney, just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island. These two ships pull a terrific move making a dog-leg turn in close quarters within hailing distance of each other through a small strait between Galiano and Mayne Islands.
Passing another Spirit Class BC Ferry between Galiano & Mayne Islands.
A lazy seal along the trip across to Sydney.
References:
1. MS Chi-Cheemaun, retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Chi-Cheemaun
2. S-Class Ferry, retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-class_ferry 2016/07/03
1. MS Chi-Cheemaun, retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Chi-Cheemaun
2. S-Class Ferry, retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-class_ferry 2016/07/03
RSS Feed
