We met for breakfast at 8:00 to hear Brian’s plan. Little did we know, Ashish threw him a wrench and decided he and Swati were also ready to return to Vancouver. The clouds opened up and the rain did fall, leaving us with no bush pilot willing to brave the deteriorating conditions. While we got our sugar high on fruit filled crepes with whipped cream and granola, Brian rounded up the 4WD vehicles and said, “Today we drive.”
With the two of us in the Tundra pulling a 14 foot trailer with Brian and the Indians in the Land Cruiser with Ashley, we caravanned the 220km to Williams Lake across the Chilcotin.
The first hour and a half were muddy and slick dirt roads where our speed rarely topped 25mph. We did see some nice views like the Redstone Gas Stop, a cattle crossing and a raging river that looked like it would have been fun to raft.
Fifteen minutes outside of Williams Lake we rode through Frazier and across the bridge where we pulled over for us to join Ashley in the Land Cruiser. Running late for our 2:20 flight to Vancouver on Pacific Air, we attempted to make a quick lunch stop but were stymied by the long lines at the world famous Tim Horton’s drive thru. We were sorry we had not asked Jamie to put together a sandwich for the flight.
It was a 50 minute, uneventful flight back in the Beechcraft 1900 where we took a shuttle from Million Airport to the main Vancouver terminals and picked up the SkyTrain for a 35 minute ride to the Waterfront where we transferred to the Millenium Line of the SkyLink, getting off at Main Street Science Center Station. We are getting really good at navigating public transportation in other cities.
Across the street was Pacific Central, where we picked up our tickets on the 5:45 Amtrak Cascades for passage to Seattle arriving at 10:10pm.
The Amtrak Cascades is an easy passage with full internet, bistro car, roomy leather seats and large windows looking out on the Pacific coast on one side and Olympic mountain range on the other. The seven cars were about half full. Personally, as we sit in the lounge with our Kokanee Gold beers, watching the sunset we have to agree that this is our favorite form of transportation.
Tomorrow is our last day. We are thankful to Bill Wright for flying up from Florida and staying with the kids so we could make this adventure togeher.
Location:Trying to get home