top of page

Bowen Island: The Departure

Laura

It was a strange departure. On previous trips, there has always been an airport or at least a driveway goodbye or something. But this time, I was all alone.


Before leaving, I cleaned my apartment vigorously for about eight hours (I was moving out at the same time I was leaving on my trip). Then, I put the key under the mat for the landlord, got on my bike, and rode away. No one was there to bear witness – the house was empty. My landlord was gone for the weekend. I just rolled away very quietly and glided down the hill to the Bowen Island ferry.


Which is, of course, where all the fun started. As the ferry docked in Horseshoe Bay, it absolutely SLAMMED into the loading bay. I was holding my bike and waiting to disembark with the pedestrians, and the sheer force of the docking made me fall over. And then my bike fell over. And scratched someone’s car.


Cars: 0. Laura: 1.


Luckily, they were very nice about it. They figured it was BC Ferries’ fault. Actually, so did everyone else. Everyone was collectively yelling “it’s not her fault! It’s BC Ferries’ fault!” Suddenly, the collective province-wide hatred of BC Ferries was working in my favour.

But I still thought I was going to cry. It was not the majestic departure I had pictured.


When I finally did get off the ferry, I was greeted by the steep hill out of Horseshoe Bay. I had biked this hill before, but never with a fully loaded bike. In fact, I had only really biked around my own driveway with a fully loaded bike. There was so much going on in the days leading up to my departure that I hadn’t really found time to practice. Or train. Or do anything except write report cards and clean out my classroom and my apartment and write Grade 7 grad speeches and drive my dog to Saskatchewan and then drive back to BC and pack all my belongings into boxes and say goodbye to my friends and… you get the idea. It was a busy time.


So it was a bit of a tiring ride to my brother’s house in East Vancouver. To be honest, I’m not sure I recommend cleaning vigorously for eight hours before leaving on your bike trip. Maybe leave the next morning instead if this is a dilemma you are facing in your own life.


But I made it. The first 33 kilometres was done. The bike trip had commenced.


It looked so cute before I actually had to start hauling it around.

Recent Posts

See All

Comentarios


©2024 by Laura Is On Earth. Proudly created with Wix.com

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
bottom of page