2005/08 Alaska Trip - The Island and home - Chilliwack |
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Monday August 29th
We said our goodbyes and then everyone except Rogan was off to work and daycare. We packed up and set off back across the hump. We’d already heard the news that a ferry on the Departure Bay run had broken down, and that a number of sailings had been cancelled. So we headed for Duke Point, Nanaimo’s other ferry terminal. Unfortunately, so did many others, and the first ferry was full. We barely got onto the next one, two hours later. It was still sunny for the ferry trip but there were heavy clouds over Vancouver and reports of flooding in Richmond.
As usual, it was a slow drive from the ferry terminal to Chilliwack. Once there we went to Steeltec, the welding company, and verified that yes they were expecting the trailer in the morning. The trailer was, of course, still sitting in Bob and Pat’s driveway, so we moved back in.
Tuesday August 30th
Steeltec seemed very efficient. I backed the trailer into their workshop and between us we had it on the jacks and the wheels off in a few minutes. After crawling around and checking out the cracks, the welder, a French Canadian, reckoned on three hours to cut out some gussets and reweld both sides. While he was doing that I took our threadbare spare wheel off and had our last remaining good tyre casing put on. Steeltec did a good job, as far as I could tell, but one of their other workers backed into the trailer and put a dent in our bodywork. They gave me a discount as compensation.
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That evening was the first time we’d heard about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, where we’d been back in March. We noticed that media now used the term “Gulf” to refer to the Gulf of Mexico, rather than the Persian Gulf. The war was no longer as newsworthy.
Wednesday August 31st
Next.