Waniseqa

Waniseqa is the Heiltsuk word for "See you later."  I feel it is appropriate to use here because I don't think that we could ever completely say good-bye to the place and people who have been our home and family for the past 2 1/2 years.  It was a tough week to go back and to wrap up our time as residents of that place.  Every time we would think that we would not see someone again and have a tearful good bye, we would run into them again, and do the process all over again.  So that in and of itself made for a long week, then compound packing and cleaning into that mix made it a very filled week.

But Friday came and Sonja and Ryan were off to Edmonton.  I drove them up to the airport and waited with Sonja for a bit as Ryan is a handful and she was going to be dealing with him for a the next couple days.  I left them around 11:00 as I had a lot of work to do yet to be ready to leave the next morning.  First though I had to do the last few dishes and finish packing everything away before it all went into the car.  I then got everything finally packed away, or so I thought and it was time to load the vehicle.  That job took me the rest of the day.  By 5 o'clock, many different configurations and frustration I finally had everything loaded up, or so I thought.  I went back to the house expecting to be done and found 5 or 10 more things that needed to find a home in the Equinox.  That didn't happen.  Lots of Costco supplies went to our friend Kendra, our dish and laundry soap, garbage bags, our 10lb bag of rice.  There was just no room anymore and I still had to fit the cat and my duffel bag of clothes in there somewhere.  The car was packed from back window to front windshield, floor to ceiling and then the roof rack was full as well.  I finally had everything accounted for and went for a burger for supper.  It was a good last meal - no dishes.  I spent the rest of the night relaxing, watching TV and getting ready for bed.  I was just getting ready to hop into bed when the door bell rang.  We had someone lined up to take our crib, change table and stroller off our hands and they were supposed to pick it up that morning, but they came at 9:30pm.  So I went out to tell them about the stuff and to enjoy it etc.  They rummaged around for 15 minutes doing a couple trips to get all the stuff to their vehicle.  I was just settling down again and could feel that sleep was close when my phone buzzed at 10:30.  It was Sonja.  She wanted to remind me to get all our pictures off the wall.  They were already in the car.  I suddenly wasn't tired again as we talked for a little bit.  So back to the couch to watch some more TV until I was ready again.  That didn't happen until 11:30.  So back to bed.  Again I wasn't able to just fall asleep.  I think I finally got to sleep when our new upstairs neighbour decided he wanted to do jumping jacks at 12:30 and woke me up.  I went back to sleep, but the alarm was set for 1:30 so I didn't sleep long.

Off went the alarm and I was out of bed and packed up the last few items, cat and my stuff.  I got it all packed, did my 10th final sweep, said goodbye to the apartment and dropped off my keys.  I went in the hospital and saw the site coordinator there manning the phones.  Not usually a good sign.  But not my concern really, as I wasn't an employee anymore.  I hear on the VHF that there was an earthquake that happened in Alaska and that the entire west coast was under tsunami warning again.  I didn't think anything of it until I got out of the hospital and checked my phone for the time and saw that there was a text from Jan saying that the ferry was going to be delayed until the warning was over.  Just what I wanted to hear at 2 in the morning, now that I was homeless.  I went down to the ferry terminal to check anyway, and confirmed what Jan told me, so it was up to their house.  They live in the highest part of town so it was a safe place to wait out the warning.  I got there and watched the Junior game that was on.  Canada lost the bronze medal in OT that night.  Just as the game was wrapping up, the warning was called off with no incident.  Back to the ferry.  The good news about the warning was that I was the first one in line to get on the boat.  The boat docked at 4am, when we were supposed to leave.  Fortunately we still managed to leave shortly after 5 and managed to get to Port Hardy on schedule, which was nice, as the trip was already long enough and had many hours ahead of me yet.  The drive and rest of the trip down the island was uneventful and I made good time until I hit Nanaimo.  I had decided to meet up with a friend in Victoria for the night.  The drive from Nanaimo to Victoria seemed to take the longest of the whole drive.  The night was fun.  We went to a Caribbean restaurant for supper and then did a tour of Victoria.  It was a fun night hanging out with Jessica, as we don't know the next time we will see her.

The next morning started early, 5:30 the alarm went off and I got up and got on the road.  I needed to be on the 7 o'clock ferry across to Vancouver.  The sailing was good and I was able to study a bit for the first time of my trip.  I got off the ferry at 8:45 and then off to Alberta.  A quick stop at McDonald's for some breakfast, and back to the road.  The first couple hours was rain filled and then I got high enough for it to turn to snow.  So that slowed me down until Merritt when it finally cleared up again.  It was clear sailing until I hit Sicamous and then the snow came down again.  It snowed and was wet until just before Golden when it finally cleared up and the highway was snow free as well.  Time to make up some lost time.  I finally got home to mom and dad's at 10:45.  Only 13 hours after hitting the mainland.  Off to bed as I had 7 hours of sleep since Friday morning.

The next morning I unpacked the car and came up to Sherwood Park and met up with Sonja and Ryan.  It was nice to see them again, but Ryan wasn't too thrilled with me that day.  Sonja went out dress shopping with her sisters and mom, so it was up to me to watch Ryan, and he hated every minute of it.  He's been much better today and more in sorts today.

So this is the last blog about our life in Bella Bella.  That chapter of our life is now closed and we look forward to our next chapter in Manning.  We look forward to what is in store for us.  The new friends we will meet and the new experiences that await us.  Its been a great 2 1/2 years.  Thanks for everything Bella Bella.