20240905 Thursday, September 5, 2024 The Canadian Rockies and North Pacific Crossing Begins

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Another adventure begins.  This trip will take us across the Canadian Rockies in the Rocky Mountaineer from Calgary to Vancouver BC, and then we board the Viking Orion for a North Pacific Crossing, stopping in Alaska and Japan before flying back from Tokyo.  

We have to take an early am flight which requires us to be at the airport before 4am Friday September 6. Unfortunately, the Whidbey SeaTac Shuttle’s first run arrives at closer to 5am, so we had to book a hotel to spend the partial night since we’ll be checking out at 3:45am.  We were scheduled for pick up at 6:15pm in Coupeville, so we planned on having dinner at 5pm and having Price drive us down to Coupeville.  However, we got a call at 4:30pm from the Whidbey Shuttle driver who said they had some logistical issues that required us to be picked up early and taken to Oak Harbor instead of Coupeville, but that they were willing to pick us up at our house.  So our pick up got moved up to 5:30pm.  This meant we didn’t get to eat the dinner we prepared, but Price will have leftovers to sustain him for a while.  

We texted Price with the change in plans, and he texted back that there was a big accident that shut down the highway off the Island to the North, and that he was stuck in a long detour.  As we boarded the shuttle van, the driver told us there were no other pick ups for the south end, so they intended to save the ferry fare and drive around north over the bridge.  This was a very plush 7 passenger Sprinter van with reclining leather seats in back like a limousine.  We thought that was pretty fancy.  We told him about the accident and highway closure and as he got to the Oak Harbor pick up site and transferred us to the main shuttle van.  We were a little disappointed we weren’t going all the way to the airport in the fancy van. 

Well it turns out the highway north was closed and the Shuttle ended up having to drive off the south end of the Island and take the ferry anyways.  So our early pick up and transfer into town was all for naught.  

The Shuttle was able to catch an earlier ferry so it arrived 45 minutes ahead of schedule at the airport.  There were a few empty rows so Janet, who had been sitting along the aisle, moved back a row.  Well, just as the shuttle arrived at the airport, a preschool age girl who was with her mom suddenly got car sick and spewed all over where Janet had been sitting earlier.  Boy, that was a lucky thing she moved back a row.  I was fortunately just outside of the “splash zone”.  

After all the other passengers were discharged at the airport, our van took us to the Rodeway Inn, which was close by.  When the van driver saw a rather marginal overhead clearance by the lobby, he opted to drop us off in the parking lot and didn’t use the drive through lobby.  That was a solid decision because as we were checking in, we heard a sudden scccccrrrrunnnchhhh behind us and turned to see a Sprinter Van for Cedarbrook Hotel wedge itself firmly under the driveway roof.  He was taking a passenger from Cedarbrook to pick up a water bottle he had left at the Rodeway Inn, apparently as a favor.  Boy, that was an expensive favor.  The driver was able to back the van out, leaving some nice scratches and dents on the roof of that van.  

The Rodeway Inn was not the cheapest, but on the lower end of the price spectrum for the area.  We weren’t expecting anything fancy, or even dangerous, but it is certainly pretty dicey.  The fixtures are pretty ancient and the rooms smell musty, but we’re just spending a few hours so we’ll make do.  The sink and air conditioner seemed to be working and we didn’t see any blood stains on the sheets.  Next time, we’ll spend a little more money, even if it’s just for a few hours.  

We walked to the next hotel over, Sure Stay, a Best Western property, which had a casual bistro where we got a decent cheese burger, fries and personal pizza for dinner.  We were the last orders before the kitchen closed.  It looked a whole lot less dicey than the Rodeway Inn.

While we were eating, we got a text from Price who said the dishwasher was leaking and threw an error code.  We had him turn off the water supply and vacuum up the mess.  We’ve been on the verge of replacing the dishwasher, and it looks like it has made that decision for us now.    We said he’d have to do dishes by hand until we got back in October.  His response was “I’ll just eat out more often to avoid dishes” 😄

We’ll get a few hours of shut eye and be up at 3:15am to prepare for our 3:45am Uber to the airport departures lanes.