The weekend actually started on Friday for me. I’m not sure about you, but when I have planned to go on a trip, the night before departure I can never sleep.  Between being excited, thinking I forgot to pack something, thinking I’ve overpacked and need to lose some gear, wondering if I did the last minute safety check on the bike to the old did-I-set-my-alarmclock-check-the-alarm-open-one-eye-did-I-sleep-through-the-alarm?-did-I-set-the-alarm-for-am-or-pm?-check-the-alarm-again-is-it-time-to-get-up-yet?.. annnnnnnnnnnd  repeat!

The first morning of the trip was a somewhat early departure.  When leaving on a trip from an island – ferry schedules are all important.  The plan was to catch the 8:30 ferry out of Nanaimo to the mainland. Our departure time was timed to meet up with other riders from the east coast of the island at The Gnome. The Gnome is actually a gas stop with one distinctive feature – a 40 fibreglass gnome. The business has changed names and themes but the gnome remains. Thus the name. A side note.: at other times it’s called the psycho gnome because it has glowing red eyes that show up at night.

The ride over to the gnome was wet. Wet. Wet. Wet. As usual, I didn’t think it was as bad as it was until we were already riding.

Meeting up with other riders from the east coast of the island we made a run for the ferry.

We boarded the ferry and were on our way. This first day was a destination of Kamloops. Lucky for us we missed all the rain.

We feasted at On the Rocks Pub then hit the sack for a much needed rest after all the fresh air.

A good start to the day