Day 43: Seattle to Home

March 17, 2015

Avi came to join me when he woke up this morning, and he managed to snuggle in there while taking care not to bump the injured wing. I showed him what I have been listening tp or watching on my iPod Nano during the trip. This includes "Through the Wormhole", a science series with Morgan Freeman. We agreed Morgan Freeman is cute.

Avi checks out my touring listening material

We got to have one walk to school with the kids, but we need to get home quickly to get to further doctors for followup. Violet found that a little hard, so we had to promise a quick return.

Dodie declared herself fit to drive, so off we went.

While we were gone, Spring came to the Northwest.

Traffic in the Seattle area is some of the toughest in the country. Dodie, who seldom ever drives anymore, set off with white knuckles. Clinging to the side of the fast moving freeway does not quite work, because the right lane often exits. Out in the middle of the stream, impatient drivers whizz by left and right. As with bike mechanicing and luggage lifting, this accident episode has thrown Dodie into zones of discomfort. She is pretty tough though, and she managed to pilot us all the way onto Vancouver Island.

We had sent Jeremy an update on progress, triumphantly announcing that we had reached Marysville. He checked that in Google Maps and was dismayed to find we had progressed only 50 km in about two hours. Hmmm.

We did take time in Marysville, nonetheless, to slap the latest Bluetooth keyboard failure back on the counter at Best Buy. It is not clear if our keyboard woes are just from universal poor quality construction or whether the standard is somehow also finicky. In this latest case, the rot began when typing "i" produced "piy". Pressing the "pairing" button also yielded no action, but a day later it worked again. No matter, because in pairing, the tablet generates a four digit code which is to be typed on the keyboard, followed by (enter). For this keyboard now, you could hit enter all you want - no reaction. So another one bites the dust. Any suggestions?

But first a stop for a "little word" with the keyboard supplier.

Jeremy and Melissa met us where the ferry docks north of Victoria, and took over the driving duties for the remaining 70 km to home. Then they got the fire going, reset the cuckoo clocks, carried in the gear, and put the chickens to bed. Marius and Sandra had already stocked the fridge with food. Promising to return to check on us, Jeremy and Melissa headed back to Victoria.

Now our job is to heal quickly and get back out on the bikes!

We will still post occasionally here on how it is going, and soon there will be our traditional summary pages with opinions and statistics, so keep checking.

For now, here is Sabrina's account of continued mulling of the situation by Amelia and Evee:

"There's been a lot of talk about you today. Amelia and Evelyn got a huge kick out of 'Dodo fixing the bikes' and loved seeing their cousins. But it really started with talking about Joseph's birthday tomorrow, and Amelia said, "And Dodo and Grandpa Steve are coming for Joseph's birthday!" I had to continue with, "well, no, because...because,,," thinking on continuing in a gentle way like, Steve is recovering, but Evelyn didn't miss a beat and finished, "because Gampa Steve hit by a biiiiiig truck!" Then Amelia confirmed, "That's right! Grandpa Steve was hit by a truck!"

Then they started in on what things we're going to have to save to eat for when you come. We will have to save porridge for Dodo, and rice, and granola bars, and green beans (the memories on these kids is amazing, but I know that some of this is from reading the blog.)

So I'll just set those things aside and keep them for your next visit. I'm sure they'll keep. ;)

For Steve we need to save eggs and coffee. Steve, Amelia was interested in how you like your eggs prepared. And finally (and what surprised me the most) was when seeing the photo of Steve in a cast for the first time, Amelia looked at it and said, "ah, the cast is on his left arm."

I was shocked that she had the spatial awareness to see a photo and realised that it was a mirror image but thought maybe she heard us talking about it so asked how she knew it was Steve's left arm.

The response?:"Because I know everything!"

Touche, kid. Touche."

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