Slight change of plans today, as Leona wasn't feeling well in the morning. We had planned to head out to Tofino today, but instead we spent the morning at the house resting and relaxing. There's another day tomorrow to head west, and we are on vacation after all. By lunch Leona was feeling better, so we headed into Nanaimo to do some laundry. We had Subway for lunch while the clothes were in the wash, and ended up spending some time sitting in the laundromat waiting for them to dry. There was a young lady in there doing laundry, high on what appeared to be meth, and seeing the poor girl kind of rattled me. What drugs do to people is so incredibly sad, and it reminds me of a path I used to be on (and thankfully got off before it got bad). Once we got back on the bike I silently prayed for that girl.
Leona had found something online in the time leading up to our vacation that peaked her interest, so we headed out to the Old Country Market in Coombs. Their gimmick to pull in tourists is "Goats on the Roof", which turned out to be even cheesier than it sounds. There were only 2 goats up there, and we hardly ever in view, which is exactly what I assumed it would be. The market was filled with all sorts of different things, and we walked out with probably the only thing in there worth it's price. Once they go up on the house at home, our house numbers will proudly hail from this tourist trap.
Without a plan, and much of of the day already gone, we headed into Parksville for gas, and then headed north up the Oceanside Route on highway 19. It was a very relaxing ride, with much of it on the coast, and before we knew it we were in Courtenay. Leona had a recommendation from her boss that the Black Fin Pub was a great place to eat, and we were both surprised that it was in Comox. I thought I remembered her saying it was in Duncan. We headed into Comox, which is right next to Courtenay.
The pub was one of the cleanest (and loudest) I've ever been in, and it was right on the Marina with an amazing view of the water with a backdrop of mountains. Leona had some kind of salmon and rice meal, and I went with the halibut. I don't really like seafood, but it was harvested up in Hadai-Gwaii close to Prince Rupert. Needless to say, the halibut was amazing and tasted so fresh. Leona said here meal was great too, though I don't really like salmon so I didn't try it.
Once we had out bellies full of fish, it was back on the road for the 130 or so kilometres back to our house. We had a very close call heading out of Comox, and it took me a little time to get comfortable after that. There was a left hand turn, with two turning lanes, and the light turned green just before we got there. I was on the inside, and the SUV was on the outside turning lane. The sun was directly in my eyes, so I was leaning through the turn and looking for the hard-to-see yellow line so I'd end up in the proper lane. Halfway through the turn Leona taps my right arm and I look over to see the SUV so close it as almost touching our legs. It was at that time the driver of the other car noticed us, and swerved back into her lane. She was changing lanes in the turn as though we weren't there, one of the dumbest mistakes to make while driving. A little while down the road I noticed my highway peg was halfway up, which was strange as I always have them down. It's possible the car got close enough to touch it, though I don't remember feeling anything.
We got out of town and onto the Inland Island Highway, which north of Parksville has a posted speed limit of 120km/h. It was fun to ride that freeway at that speed, sun behind our backs and beautiful scenery all around. The ride back took a little over an hour, pulling up to our house at quarter after 9. Even though it felt like we didn't ride much today, it was still almost 300km on the day again. The weather was amazing once again, and hopefully that holds for tomorrow, as we'd like to head out to Tofino.
"goats on the roof"
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