QC2BC15: The Final “Mile” (2020/08/05)
The trip to our house in Vancouver is less than an hour away from Fort Langley, so we had time for a visit and even a trip to the local ice cream store.
We left just after noon so we would still have time to unload and clean the RV in preparation for its return the next day.
The Working River
Our final trip followed the Fraser River on one of our favorite drives along highway 17. At this point, the river shows its “working” side as it passes railway and truck hauling yards with equipment to lift containers from one form of transportation to another, railway “sorting” yards where trains are broken and re-assembled according to origins and destinations, ship-loading and unloading piers with piles of containers waiting for transfer among ships, trains, and trucks.
We are saw three tugboats pulling and directing a long log boom to sawmills along the shore–and others hauling huge barges of sawdust and chips to pulp mills in the region. We got a special treat as we neared the Alex Fraser bridge: the soothing smell of cedar as we pass a mill specializing in this type of wood.
Home
We finally pulled into the laneway behind our Westfalia: tired, but glad to have arrived safely and with a new set of memories. There remains the unloading and cleanup of the RV and the eventual arrival of our boxes and other materials from Québec. The former seems like a minor demand and the latter is, fortunately, a couple of weeks away.
