not lewis&clark, but hey

[piranha]

i have acquired tickets.

and since 80 hours on a bus was just not challenging enough all by itself, i've added a ferry through the inside passage to the return trip. :) i've wanted to do the inside passage for years; no better chance than this.

here's the itinerary:

date	dep time	city	date	arr time	where / what	transport	hours
sep 10	10:00	nanaimo	sep 13	20:20	montréal	bus + ferry	82:20
sep 14		montréal	sep 21		farthing frolic
sep 21	11:00	montréal	sep 21	19:25	toronto	bus	8:25
sep 21		toronto	sep 22		frolic w/ graydon
sep 22	17:15	toronto	sep 25	20:10	prince rupert	bus	74:55
sep 25		prince rupert			sleep
sep 26	06:00	prince rupert	sep 27	12:30	port hardy	ferry	18:30
sep 27		port hardy			sleep
sep 27	09:00	port hardy	sep 27	16:10	nanaimo	bus	7:10

oh, this will be fun, FSVO of cheerfully nutso fun.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I spent summers making the rounds from Vancouver to Victoria to Nanaimo when I was growing up. Nanaimo equals "heaven" to me :).

I think you're nuts, in a very good way! :)

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, did you? i never knew that about you! clearly i should post more pictures of nanaimo for you then. :)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I think that would be *very* wonderful of you! :)

(My mother's mother and her sisters and brothers and parents emigrated from England to Western Canada. My mom was born in Vancouver, and my dad was born in Victoria. I am first-generation American, and when I get tired, I'm told I speak with a Western Canadian accent, and I have a lot of Britishisms in my vocabulary. My favorite great-uncle-by-marriage was very much a Cockney. He died nearly ten years ago, and I still miss him so very much. I have a strange and wonderful and rich extended family :). Only two of the great-aunts are still around, but I have about a million cousins in Western Canada :).)

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

one of these days we shall meet! :)

if there's any particular location you'd like to see, maybe to check out how much things have changed, let me know! i love traipsing around the city to take pictures.

[godbecomeanimal.livejournal.com]

This is what I'm doing:

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

woohoo! i hope you'll enjoy yourself. i wonder if they still do baggage checks in the US; they actually had metal detectors for us when i last travelled to california, and they went through our carry-on luggage, pretty much like airport security.

umm ... since you're ending up in quebec city, you're not going to jo's farthing party, are you? (i have no idea who you are. :)

[godbecomeanimal.livejournal.com]

I'm not planning on going to Jo's farthing party, but I don't know who that is. I just saw your map on that page that shows recent LJ pictures posted. Trips are fun!

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

ah, and you're going in your car. i see you didn't have such a good start -- here's hoping the rest of the way is smoother sailing. i've made the trip coast to coast several times in years past, twice in a real beater of a car. that was entertaining in its own special way, *wry grin*.

i do love roadtrips.

[dirtynumbangel.livejournal.com]

Mapquest doesn't spell Sault Ste. Marie correctly.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

mapquest does, i am sure, but since it didn't bother, i inserted it myself and made a wordo. thanks for catching it!

[ckd]

My itinerary seems so mundane by comparison. Walk to T, Red Line to Silver "Line" to airport[1], fly to YUL, bus to downtown, walk to hotel. Return trip, same but in reverse.

[1] Barring tunnel problems, which would result in Red-Green-Blue-shuttle bus instead.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, but see? there's a possible diversion! :)

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

Will you have any spare time (for a meal, say) in your Toronto stopover, or is it all spoken for?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

time is probably less an issue than energy, though there isn't much time either since i can't delay my return trip to port hardy in order to meet that ferry (it does not go every day). i'll have been on the road and continuously in the company of strangers for 12 days by that time. that is ... i don't even know how i'll do that, frankly. i haven't spent that much continuous time in the company of strangers in a decade. graydon i've known for ages, and i've argued myself into stopping to see him with the rationalisation that he can handle if i am a wreck. i don't know that i'll be in any state to actually have a conversation with another net.pal who is as yet a relative stranger.

it's not that generally i wouldn't like meeting you -- i would, so this isn't a blow-off. but i don't know whether i'd be able to rub two neurons together to actually have a conversation. and whether i want to travel within toronto in addition to the trip from the greyhound to graydon's and back the next day. i really don't know, and i am afraid that i won't be able to tell until i am actually there. if you're flexible about the mealtime, send me your phone number in email, and i'll promise i'll call you to either set something up or say at least "sorry -- i am such a lamer".

[velochicdunord.livejournal.com]

Well, if you _do_ have energy (or need a place to crash at any point) I'd be up for dinner. Want the phone numbers in email?

I'd volunteer to drive you up to where ever Graydon's hanging his hat these days... except that the car went off the Car Heaven(TM). Oh heck, I can rent if it helps things along and I get to say "hello". :)

I'd have loved to go up to Jo's, but I'm Not Allowed Out to Play until this portfolio foo-forah is done.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

So I guess the reason why you can't do Vancouver -> Nanaimo on the way back is the ferry stuff? (I was just wondering logistics, mostly.)

Have a good time! (And hopefully there'll be enough decompression space.)

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i do the nanaimo <-> vancouver ferry N times each year, so there's no reason why i'd want to do that crossing any more (it's simply the quickest way across).

i want to do the inside passage, because ... here, have a look at some flickr pictures. not all of those are in the section i'll be travelling through by ferry (some people don't tag their images too well), but lots of them are -- usually the ones that are also tagged "BC", or "canada". here is the actual route from prince rupert to port hardy; see how it winds between all those islands? mmmh.

PSYCHED!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's freakin' gorgeous. I hope you get to drink every little iota of it in.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

Heh! A fine plan.

Go you!

[velochicdunord.livejournal.com]

Candidate for the Iron Bum Award?

[prairierabbit.livejournal.com]

It sounds both exhausting and exciting, and I'm so, so, so looking forward to "ferry tales." I love ferries, but the ones that used to be within reasonable distance from me are now gone, replaced by bridges or just eliminated.