sea 2 sky highway
Headed to Tofino
12/09/08 12:42 Filed in: Travel
I am sitting on a BC Ferries vessel as I write todays bloggerific post. I must say, after almost 2 years of highway construction madness today got under my skin. There was a ferry leaving horseshoe bay at 10”40 am.
I give myself plenty of time to get to the ferry on any normal/average travel day down the sea 2 sky highway.. and suprise, suprise.. I miss the boat by 1 minute. Why you may ask?? wlee, lets see. Here is how my drive went:
- Leave my house, tank is full, breakfast eaten.
- First delay 2 blocks from my house. 5 or 6 minutes waiting for something to be done at the bridge.
- Second delay 15+ minutes waiting for the lights/mess/madness single land nightmare leaving the second bridge downtown ( I was about 20 cars back from the main intersection lights, and they changed more than 8 times before I was through.
- Third delay somewhere near Porteau Cove.. who knows what for this time, turned off my truck and sat.
- Fourth delay near Lions Bay.
- Fifth delay, they decided to change the traffic pattern for ferry traffic, but nobody really knows what is going on, I miss the small white painted sign on the highway, and circle the 3.5km around to only find myself back heading towards Squamish.. and judging from the many cars doing the same in front of me, I was not the only one.
- Finally circle back, now 3.5 km back to the overpass, and another 3.5 back to the ferry terminal, and errrrch... I am stopped at the toll booth. “Sorry, you just missed it!”
- Wait from 10:40 to 1pm for the next boat. wonderfull.
So aside from the complete chaos on the highway, I have more rants about the horrible state of the road, narrow lanes lined with cones that are always fallen over, giant rocks in the driving path, with no escape, steep drops off those narrow lanes, giant “steps” where old pavement meets new, the list goes on and on.
My wife drives a 1998 Jetta to the city and back for work a few times a week on that same highway. In the last 16 months we have replaced 6 tires, and 2 rims. we have had to have 2 alignments, and our complete exhaust system is falling off the car. Last week, there was a giant boulder on the road.... guess what... even at the posted “safe” speed, the impact blew out the sidewall of another tire ( less than 2 months old ). So here we go, for tires 7 and 8. DO YOU THINK THE HIGHWAY PEOPLE OR THE GOVERNMENT CARE?? - NOPE, sorry not our fault.. even though we couldnt even swerve around the damn thing or we would have fallen off a 2 foot ledge on each side.
So, I wonder.. how many others have spent thousands of dollars like us, hard earned, tax paid money to drive that road- in complete turmoil- just so we can have a “safe” wide road to Whistler for the Olympics?? BRUTAL. I think someone should have to pay for all the damage, not the people who drive the road but maybe Vanoc or Ministry of highways. They are wasting enough money on other projects, why not just start buying every commuter new tires, rims, and front ends??
As you can tell, I am frustrated... I cannot wait to NOT be anywhere near the 2010 games.
I wish I was out doing this right now ( this is my friend and fellow shooter, Russell Dalby roopin)
The watermark comes from a Font package I just downloaded.- including “battlestar gallactica”, and “Bladerunner” fonts to name a couple. Its full of sweet 80’s font goodness.
... I’ll try to post a happier “I just went surfing” rant when I get home!
Peace
Jeff
I give myself plenty of time to get to the ferry on any normal/average travel day down the sea 2 sky highway.. and suprise, suprise.. I miss the boat by 1 minute. Why you may ask?? wlee, lets see. Here is how my drive went:
- Leave my house, tank is full, breakfast eaten.
- First delay 2 blocks from my house. 5 or 6 minutes waiting for something to be done at the bridge.
- Second delay 15+ minutes waiting for the lights/mess/madness single land nightmare leaving the second bridge downtown ( I was about 20 cars back from the main intersection lights, and they changed more than 8 times before I was through.
- Third delay somewhere near Porteau Cove.. who knows what for this time, turned off my truck and sat.
- Fourth delay near Lions Bay.
- Fifth delay, they decided to change the traffic pattern for ferry traffic, but nobody really knows what is going on, I miss the small white painted sign on the highway, and circle the 3.5km around to only find myself back heading towards Squamish.. and judging from the many cars doing the same in front of me, I was not the only one.
- Finally circle back, now 3.5 km back to the overpass, and another 3.5 back to the ferry terminal, and errrrch... I am stopped at the toll booth. “Sorry, you just missed it!”
- Wait from 10:40 to 1pm for the next boat. wonderfull.
So aside from the complete chaos on the highway, I have more rants about the horrible state of the road, narrow lanes lined with cones that are always fallen over, giant rocks in the driving path, with no escape, steep drops off those narrow lanes, giant “steps” where old pavement meets new, the list goes on and on.
My wife drives a 1998 Jetta to the city and back for work a few times a week on that same highway. In the last 16 months we have replaced 6 tires, and 2 rims. we have had to have 2 alignments, and our complete exhaust system is falling off the car. Last week, there was a giant boulder on the road.... guess what... even at the posted “safe” speed, the impact blew out the sidewall of another tire ( less than 2 months old ). So here we go, for tires 7 and 8. DO YOU THINK THE HIGHWAY PEOPLE OR THE GOVERNMENT CARE?? - NOPE, sorry not our fault.. even though we couldnt even swerve around the damn thing or we would have fallen off a 2 foot ledge on each side.
So, I wonder.. how many others have spent thousands of dollars like us, hard earned, tax paid money to drive that road- in complete turmoil- just so we can have a “safe” wide road to Whistler for the Olympics?? BRUTAL. I think someone should have to pay for all the damage, not the people who drive the road but maybe Vanoc or Ministry of highways. They are wasting enough money on other projects, why not just start buying every commuter new tires, rims, and front ends??
As you can tell, I am frustrated... I cannot wait to NOT be anywhere near the 2010 games.
I wish I was out doing this right now ( this is my friend and fellow shooter, Russell Dalby roopin)
The watermark comes from a Font package I just downloaded.- including “battlestar gallactica”, and “Bladerunner” fonts to name a couple. Its full of sweet 80’s font goodness.
... I’ll try to post a happier “I just went surfing” rant when I get home!
Peace
Jeff
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