episode 5: unexpected adventure

This past Saturday we took a trip down to Victoria to visit my grandparents and take the kids to the forestry discovery museum in Duncan. The ride down Island was pretty much normal and the weater was decent for a late October day. We stopped at Matticks' Farm Market in Cordova Bay for a small lunch before moving on to Fred and Netties' house for a well overdue visit. My grandfather is suffering the affects of an ailing heart and is not very mobile anymore. It is hard to believe that only 5 years ago, at 85 years old he was still curling, golfing and doing much of the yard work around the house. To see him bed ridden was strange. We had a great chat. He is a grand inspiration in my life as well as many others who are close to him. My grandmother was in good spirits as always, and was very interested in Hailey and Corbins' activities and schooling. It just goes to show what a strong faith, wholesome food and healthy active lifestyle can do for you. I think we will try to make the trip a few more times this year as we try to keep the visits short to allow Fred to rest. A couple hours flew by and it was time for us to head towards home, so we jumped in the Honda and made way for Hwy 1. The forestry museum in Duncan was having a spooky train ride for kids, Hailey and Corbin were excited and I was glad to take them there. I visited the museum a few times when I was a kid and always loved the train. Little did we know there was an unexpected adventure in our near future. We approached the Trans Can and all seemed normal, that is until we got to the Hwy 14 overpass to find Hwy 1 closed. Now what? Thanks to the wonders of modern technology we were able to find out that the Malahat was closed due to an accident and would likely not re open until 9:30pm. The only available detour at the time was to take Hwy 14 to Sooke then carry on to Port Renfrew, then take Hwy 18 to Lake Cowichan and then to Nanaimo. To those of you who are unfamiliar with the geography of the Island this is quite the detour. It was a dark night. I had never taken this route before. We were reasonably ill prepared for an extra three hours of travel. With help from the GPS we found our way to the pacific marine highway. To call this trail a highway is rather misleading. Blind corners, rough patchwork and more single lane bridges then I have ever seen. I tried to maintain a balance between safe, defensive driving and making up time. I also tried not to become angry at the people who thru a wrench into our plans. The kids were understandibly dissapointed. We finally made it back to Hwy 1 and stopped for a bit of energy at DQ. We were safe and we were together. We made it home some time around midnight. Nikki's mom came down and fed the horses and dogs for us earlier that night, which was awesome. I took the dogs for a quick walk before hitting the sack, exhausted. This morning I found out that a motorcyclist was fatally injured in the accident. Early in our trip I had explained uto the kids that someones dad or son was probably not coming home that night and we were fortunate to be together safe even if our plans were ruined. Those words really sunk in for me today. When we are behind the wheel we carry a huge responsibility. Drive safe out there folks!