Sunday, July 17, 2011
Chilliwack, B.C.
This page of the journal is about our days with Bob and Celine before our roadtrip began down the coast. Bob and Celine are friends who live in Palos Verdes, near Los Angeles, in California. We met them on our 2009 World Cruise, and they visited us here later in the summer of 2009. We visited them in October of 2010, and now they have come back to see us again. We will have a few days in and around Chilliwack, then take them home to Palos Verdes via the Washington, Oregon, and California coast drives.
They spent a couple of days in Vancouver, planning to visit Celine's neice but she didn't return from Hawaii on time so Bob and Celine were tourists in the city instead, sampling Granville Island and Gastown shops and restaurants. We met them at their hotel on Friday morning at 11:00am, loaded them up, and headed out of town via Highway 1. Luckily we were early and maintained the speed limit all the way through the construction and out to Abbotsford. Later, I'm sure the highway would have moved at the speed of a parking lot.
After a good lunch at 'The Olde Spagetti Factory' in Abbotsford, which had all the taste but lacked the atmosphere of the downtown parent outlet, we continued on to Chilliwack. There, after unloading, Bob and I went out to the garage and monkeyed around with the TR6 which is supposed to go in the Minter Gardens car show on Sunday. Its a 'must' event for me as a member of the car club that is putting on the show. Bob already knew the car as he helped me install the new seats and headlights down in Palos Verdes in October, and he dove in with enthusiasm and a chamois and a rag and soapy water, making the thing as pretty as possible. Seriously, a great job done with care.
We had not quite finished when Shane and Kevin Notthecat and Danno rolled in from the Motorcycle tour through the interior. Shane needed to pick up a camera battery charger but we had a few minutes to visit and introduce Bob to Shane, as both had heard a lot about each other from Jan and I. Introductions complete all around, we were busy hearing road stories when Jan and Celine returned from their dyke walk, beginning another round of introductions. More chatter, then the rain started and we all got a bit wet before the bikers saddled up and headed out again. Bob and I didn't think about the wetness and didn't go in to dry off or change as we should have, and I think we were both to regret that later. Eventually we closed up the garage and went inside.
Later, the four of us went to downtown Chilliwack's 'Party in the Park' for a bit, a local street fair, and then off to a local 'gastropub' called The Duke of Dublin for dinner. Bob notices some goof had left his lights on outside, and told the waitress about it. She didn't, or couldn't, find the driver so when he and his ladyfriend returned to the car later we watched him discover his battery was well and truly dead. A little drama played itself out as we watched the scene below us out the window, until another car appeared with jumper cables. Later, a walk back to our car and then home for the evening.
Saturday morning dawned bright and early, but I felt very out of sorts. I made the waffles, which were enjoyed by all, but I was definitely off my feed. Later on, Jan and Bob and Celine went off to the Heron Reserve for a nature walk, but I stayed home and napped, feverish. Later, Garry (whose wife Marion is in the hospital) joined the four of us for dinner and we shot some pool afterward. I still felt lousey, any my pool-playing was beneath contempt.
The next morning, Sunday, dawned for me at 5:00am as I had to get to Minter Gardens to fulfil my role in helping to park the cars for the event. I am feeling better this morning having sweated the fever out overnight. Gross, I know, but the sweats are a good thing, fever-wise. I arrived at the gardens on time, parked my car as directed, had to move it soon after as the parking captains discussed placements, and then I was off to meet my teammates Ivan and Doug parking the 'C' class cars, domestic models up to 1972. All that went smoothly, and I was having breakfast with Garry and some guys from the club when in walked Jan and Bob and Celine. We then began a tour of the site, visiting the gardens and the cars parked around the premises. We wandered, enjoyed, took pictures, and talked with exhibitors all around the gardens. A good lunch back at the park entrance, then Bob and Jan and Celine took off back to town to do a visit to Marion in the hospital and then back home. I was finished in mid afternoon at the show, and back home by about 5:30. We had a very simple snack and munchies dinner, then an early evening, not very exciting here in 'the wack' as our home town is known to the locals. Big day tomorrow, the start of the roadtrip.
