Traveling Port Alberni To SaltSpring Island, Visit Our Best Friends...

What up my Steemians, welcome to the @D00k13 Digest, on the road again leaving our home town of Port Alberni. We are heading to SaltSpring Island and I wanted to show some of the beauty along the trip, much of this day was spent traveling. We took mostly scenic routes and passed through Whiskey Creek, Coombs, Qualicum, Parksvillie, Nanaimo, Ladysmith, to finally reach our destination of Crofton to take the ferry over to SSI. Again is a day where I had tons of footage and trying to be selective about what I include in this video, trying to make it action packed and keeping it short with the GoPro Quik software.

We stopped in Whiskey Creek, originally named after all the moonshiners that were known to hide out in this area. They have a ton of ice cream flavours at the CO-OP gas station and Mel shared with Jerry a few licks of her cone, lucky dog got a second helping so I could record it the second time around. If you think that you have tried all the flavours of ice cream I highly suggest you stop here on your way through. Not much here just a gas station on the highway and a few odd stores spread around, the diner next to the gas station is pretty good also and they are old school drive-in bringing your food out to the car on a window hanging tray!

We drove through Qualicum at the waterfront which that road takes you right through parksvillie and back to the highway. We took a little detour at the Parksvillie Waterfront Park, they have a sand castle competition in the volleyball court held every year. I can remember when it was free on the beach but the one year they had an issue with vandalism so now it is behind a protected fence and requires admission to enter with security everywhere and pilons so you cannot touch the art. Thats right its art, these guys spend days working on their pieces for this art show even having to do touch ups daily because as the sand drys out the castle will start to crumble and they are meant to be shown for 2 weeks.

Driving through Nanoose, again not a lot here, I spotted the Hitchhiking Gnome, world's largest gnome? I am not sure but it is part of that property and is not allowed to be moved from the property. This used to be one of my favourite places as a kid, Mini Golf and Go Karts, now it is just a gas station. I am stoked to see that the Gnome associated with the location of so many childhood memories is still standing, a little dilapidated but and in need of a new coat of paint but still hitchin for a ride.

We stopped quickly in Nanaimo so I could get some new shoes then headed back to the highway, through Ladysmith to finally reach our destination the Crofton Ferry Terminal to SaltSpring Island.

Stopping on the waterfront Jerry always finds something to eat, he is such a scavenger having started his life on the streets of mexico. Ferry ride was only about 20 mins, shortest one of three on and off the island. Jerry gets so excited when we pull off the ferry, this is one of the only times he will keep his head out the window past about 30 km/h. He starts to whine and chatter, getting excited to go see his girlfriend Daisy. Jerry does so well with Chelsea, Forest, their 6 kids and the dog Daisy, he really does include them in his family pack.

The whole family was out for a swim on Tripp Rd at Saint Maries Lake when we arrived, we hung out for about an hour with them before heading back to their house for Pizza. The older kids were super excited to perform water tricks for me with my new GoPro, jumping and pushing each other into the water and waving to the camera underwater. Isabella was more interested in showing me her treasure box while the youngest was just passed right out the whole time, probably the easiest baby I have ever met which is a good thing since he is named after me!

I called it an early night for both doing stuff and recording. I was fairly tired so instead I just parked a bum and BS'ed with our best friends, many of our discussions would not be what you would call "family friendly".