Post 149: A Snails Trail – Day 8

We finally arrive in Vancouver, BC. It was a very long trip with some interesting sights and events :). Arriving at a location suggested on various sites, we park behind a very small Walmart on a  side street. 

There were trailers and truck campers lining these roads all around the 1 block radious of this store. lol. Looked very odd in the middle of a huge city.

Once we were parked, Bill walked back to the Walmart for food while Joy stayed in the truck with the girls. The girls were quite content to sit and watch out the windows which we call doggy TV lol. 

Bill came back with plenty of fresh food (which was more expenisve than we are used to in Ontario). He made us delicious chicken wraps that were huge.

The decision was made to eat in the truck because we didnt have the room to open up a slide on the road. Therefore, we couldnt sit at our kitchen table lol.

By the time Bill had shopped, made us our dinner and we ate, it was time to head over towards the ferry. We had a 10:40 pm reservation for the Horseshoe Bay ferry over to Nanaimo.

Ready to head out on the last leg of our adventure

After travelling over 5000 klms, you would think it would be easy to find the Ferry terminal!! WRONG!!! The streets of this area were very confusing and 1 way (the wrong way lol) with steep hills and quite narrow.

We were looking for a gas station and became really lost within the side streets. Going down 1 very steep hill we managed to find a station at the bottom that we could fit into. Not easy when you are in the city with a truck and 31 ft travel trailer in tow. 

Heading back up the hill to the highway, neither of us thought we were going to make this grade. The trip was a long slow haul and a little nerve wracking on the narrow road. 

Finally, we reached the top and were able to continue our trip. The terminal was not really that far away once you knew where you were going. Pulling up to the booth and giving our information, we were quickly told where to go. We had made a reservation a few days before.

Arriving at the Ferry terminal

This whole process was so well organized, it was almost impressive lol. Once on the ferry, we were parked on the bottom level beside an inner wall. The parking goes in around a center section of stairs to go above deck to the other parking areas. 

Because it was the last ferry of the night, it was not completely full and we had no one beside us. Before long, we were underway. This was an adventure. We have not  been on a ferry in  a very long time. DEFINITELY never while pulling a trailer lol.

Arriving at Nanaimo, we disembarked very quickly and followed the crowd to the highway. The whole process seemed very quick and a little frightening as we wound our way through roads to get out of the terminal area. 

Back on the road again

Back on the road again, we found a really nice highway. Nothing like we were expecting at this point. Andrea, our future employer suggested to us a rest area 1.5 hours from the ferry terminal that we could stay at over night.

Walmarts in BC, REALLY did not want over night  campers in their parking lots and would wake you up at 6 am or earlier to tell you to move on, if you were not already towed.

We found the rest area fairly easily since it was not far off the road and well marked.  Pulling into a decent sized parking lot that was well lit, we found a spot to park under a light with ease. 

There was one other vehicle there already and the rest of the lot was empty. Washrooms were available, but we never made use of them.

This was the perfect place to rest for the night.