The start of our latest trip had us spending a few days in Gibson’s on the Sunshine Coast where we were delivering one of Nonie’s baby quilts to the newest addition of our extended family of friends having grandchildren. Nonie has quilts scattered around the world including China, Japan, Europe, USA, Iraq as well as three of Canada’s provinces.
From here we were to travel to Port Hardy then on to Comox on Vancouver Island.
From Gibson’s we headed north along Highway 101 also known as the Sunshine Coast Highway. Two and one half hours and a ferry later we reached “the end of the road” and discovered it was a parking lot. The parking lot is located in Lund BC, described by the tourist bureau as a “picturesque seaside village located on the west coast of Canada”.
As Joni Mitchell said "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". Lund besides being the "end of the road" was also home to the 115 year old Lund Hotel which doesn't look a day over 100.
We used the rest of the day to explore Powell River. Next morning, another “end of the road”, a BC Ferry parking lot for our ferry to Comox. The “end of the road” for the next 11 hours. The ferry had been cancelled and they were sailing a replacement up from Vancouver and expected to arrive in the early evening. Photo: BC Ferries
The dictionary definition of the phrase “the end of the road” is as follows “the point beyond which progress or survival cannot continue.” Over the years we have found ourselves facing a number of “the end of the roads”.
The "end of the road” can come in many shapes and sizes. On a weekend cycling trip in Manning Provincial Park we found an “end to the road” with our progress blocked by the dozens of pine beetle infested trees that had had fallen across all the trails.
We reached the “end of the road” on Haida Gwaia. No parking lot here, nothing but beach and the Pacific Ocean as far as the eye could see.
A recent bike trip on Mission Creek Greenway in Kelowna, found us at the “end of the road” with no more forward progress due to a flooded Mission Creek.
On the Big Island of Hawaii we found the “end of the road” was due to a lava field from a recent eruption of the Kilauea volcano complex.
In South America, our “end of the road” was the city of Ushuaia, Argentina, located on the southern most tip of South America. The next stop, the South Pole.
Easter Island is only 16 kilometres wide with its closest neighbour over 2,000 kilometres away. The “end of the road” here is at Anakena Beach, a white coral sand beach guarded by 6 moai statues and 2,000 miles of Pacific Ocean
The Gobi Desert does not really have any roads so here our “end of the road” was anywhere the damn camels decided they had had enough and refused to move any more.
Image: shirtoid.com
