On the road (water) again! 9.27.09

The title says it all, well almost. :-) After all the craziness of the past three weeks, it was just as crazy getting everything packed up and ready to leave. We left several things here since we’ll be back next year – clothes, computer stuff, things we’ve purchased specifically for the job, etc. But everything else is stuffed in the van. We're not doing wheelies....yet.... :-)

We had a wonderful dinner last night at the Moose lodge with a couple of the Duck captains – Captain Don, Captain Larry, & Captain Sean – as well as their significant others which was nice. After working all summer beside them, it was great to socialize and talk about the craziness of the summer! Captain Don is on the same ferry as we are – the 5:30am departure to Prince Rupert, Canada – so we both decided instead of getting up at 1am to get everything loaded up & get in line, we would just sleep in our vehicles in line at the ferry terminal. We got in line early – around 6pm. And at 4am….



well, the photo really says it all….we were the only 2 vehicles in the lot. Captain Don has a cabover on his truck and we popped our top. It was COLD!! Inside wasn’t too bad but in the morning it was only about 42 degrees outside – brrr!! We boarded the ferry, the Taku on the Alaska Marine Highway System, headed to Prince Rupert, Canada.

It’s an overcast day, not incredibly picturesque, but still beautiful. There are islands on both sides of the boat, lighthouses everywhere, we’ve seen whales, Dahl porpoises as well as Pacific porpoises, and other boats, of course. Tugs pulling barges, other ferries, fishing boats, you name it.

Here are a couple videos of the whales off the bow of the ferry this morning...







Luckily the seas are pretty mellow and it’s been a nice ride.

Once in Prince Rupert we had something amazing happen to us....we were not stopped by customs & border patrol! We nearly had a heart attack when we were told 'Welcome to Canada'! Those of you who have followed our travels know we get stopped, checked, & searched at every border. It felt good to be waved on in. :-) We found a campground, got all checked in and went for lunch at our favorite place in town, an eatery called 'Charlies' that is located inside the Coast Prince Rupert hotel. We have eaten there a couple times and have found the food to be amazing at a very reasonable price.

Back at the campground we got the van ready for proper camping, pulled out all of the essentials, watched as two white tail deer ate the grass around the campsites, found a wi-fi signal to check e-mails, updated our position report, & updated the blogs! It will be an early night as we were up at 3am for our ferry ride this morning and tomorrow we have to be in line at 5am. We will arrive in Port Hardy, on Vancouver Island tomorrow evening around 10pm or so. I should be able to upload some pics & videos in the next day or so.



Woohoo! We're on our way...
More to follow...
Rene