The next morning we were dragging a bit, and after stuffing ourselves (and pockets) on the free motel breakfast, got slowly packed and organized in the warm sunshine. We missed the 11 am checkout deadline but I told the clerk our clocks were still set on Alaska time (technically true).
Goal for the day was Sidney, with a stop in Nanaimo for a break on the way. Sho’ nuff, Nainamo eventually rolled under the wheels and we made our way to the downtown section near the bay.
Twas a cool and hip little town and after a few circuits looking for parking and a coffee shop we got off the bikes to the sound of bagpipes playing. Even cooler.
We wandered over just as some guys in skirts finished playing the pipes and we noticed a conglomeration of men dressed in suits with necklaces and other paraphernalia across the street. Apparently a small parade was forming up. I told them we were honored to have arrived in Nanaimo but having a parade in our honor really wasn’t necessary. They didn’t think it was funny (the bastards!) and informed us that it was to honor the new Bishop who was a Mason and about to lay a new Masonic cornerstone at the cathedral. I’d prefer to have seen him lay a golden egg so we could witness a miracle, but I kept my mouth shut.
With impeccable timing we looked up the street to see the new Bishop wandering towards us dressed in his white caped-crusader outfit. Before we knew it, a couple of Mounties in red outfits were there, as well as the bagpipers and the suited up Masons. It took a lot of milling around pointlessly but eventually the parade began. The crowd swelled to at least ten people as they marched past and up the street the two blocks to the cathedral.
Seeing the bishop walking down the street towards us unleashed the Monty Python monster in my head and I couldn't think of anything but this…
The parade moved quickly past, complete with Pythonesque silly walks...
In keeping with the retro TV show theme, Bo and Luke Duke (looking much older) peeled out around the corner...
Boss Hogg was a no-show but I did get to see another sweet Mopar monster that brought back memories of my 1969 Dodge Coronet RT with the 440 magnum engine. Sigh.
Kim and I wandered back over to a small plaza for our lunch of boiled eggs and pastries lifted from the motel that morning, then found our way down to an open air market on the water. There were hand-made wool sweaters, pottery, jewelry and other artisanal items, Kim picking up a pair of earrings since she had room in the cases. One good thing about motorcycle travel has been the inability to buy extra crap like souvenirs, chainsaw log carvings of bears and such. My cases are so tightly packed they almost qualify as a black hole. I only have room for small thin items like bumper stickers...
We talked to several artists there who shared our desire to live minimally and it’s been surprising how many people we’ve met who’ve had it with life and are planning on selling it all and living in Sprinter vans and such. Hmmm.
Anyways, we finally got back on the bikes for the trek to Sidney but were distracted by the ships docked as we left town - especially one loaded to the gills with logs. Kim spotted an open gate at the Port Authority and we rode through, finding our way down to an old and dangerously derelict looking dock.
It was fascinating watching the logs being loaded, workmen standing on them as they floated in the water by the ship, catching cables from the cranes above and attaching them to the logs before hopping to the next as the lift began.
This went on for a few moments until, as expected, a rent-a-cop came screeching down in his little car to tell us to get off the dock. I’m sure his pulse was pounding at such a terroristic moment, and it likely made his year to have actually gotten to tell someone what to do.
From the docks we rode south until a traffic jam outside Duncan slowed us to a crawl. Amidst the traffic we’d traded spots back and forth with a couple of KTM 950’s, until they fell far behind. As we sat, both KTM’s passed us on the side of the road and waved for us to follow, They seemed to know a shortcut so we jumped in and left the traffic jam behind, weaving through neighborhoods and side roads until we reached the downtown area of a village, where one of the riders yelled to me “Would you like to get a coffee?” I nodded and we sped off again, eventually ending up back on the original highway with little traffic until they pulled into a roadside coffee house.
I’ve always been a fan of the 950 series KTMs and there were two versions produced that I always wanted, one being the blue-ish silver 2004.5 and the other, the candy blue with orange frame. As would happen, both of those bikes were the ones they were riding. Dave was on the blue and orange and Johann was on the silver.
Johann and Dave
Our timing wasn’t good for coffee, as the skies were threatening rain and Johann was anxious to not get caught in it, having discovered his new riding gear was not waterproof earlier in the day. The coffee shop was closed due to a power outage anyway, so we geared back up. Dave and Johann said to follow them to Victoria and they’d signal where we needed to exit for Sidney. We rolled on, a bit anxious as our hosts had asked us to be there at 6 since dinner was being made. The bad traffic had slowed us and because my GPS showed Sidney to be relatively near, I wasn’t too worried… until I realized the GPS was routing us to a ferry going directly across the bay and not showing the longer land route’s mileage. When I finally got it sorted, we had much further to go than expected and the pressure was on.
As we followed J & D, the traffic began stop and go on the highway. I punched “shortest route” into the Garmin and decided to exit early. I couldn’t really communicate with them and saw them frantically waving to follow as they saw us take an exit. Felt bad, but the decision was the right one to get off the main freeway and we made it to our hosts Dave and Shan’s home just a few minutes late.
Dave and Shan in Sidney
We spent a nice evening with them, both adventurous, self-sufficient souls who’d lived in many places. Shan made a wonderful meal and we talked over dinner and an evening walk before retiring for the night.