A harrowing drive

When we started out this morning, we thought we might luck out and we'd have a bit of sun for the drive.  At first we did.  The sun was shining, although there were snowflakes as well.  It was beautiful, and I took this shot through the car window.  As we drove into the higher elevations, conditions changed quickly to dense fog, wind, blowing snow, and extremely slippery roads.  There was very little traffic.  A huge transport truck blew by us, then a bus, one of the ones carrying a team from the volleyball provincials.  For most of the way, there was only one lane barely visible.  Then we came around a corner, and two transport trucks were blocking the road and the bus that had passed us was behind one of them.   Something had happened with a car ahead of one of the trucks and both trucks had to stop.  We sat and waited to see what was going to happen, then saw the car drive away.  The bus driver got out and went to scout out the road, and thought he could squeeze by the truck on the outside lane.  He came within a couple of inches of hitting the back of the truck with his rear end, and had to come to a stop.  Of course the truck driver wanted to put his chains on so he could get moving on the slippery road but couldn't do anything with the bus in the way.  After much maneuvering, the bus squeezed by.   We'd been waiting for nearly an hour and were the third car to get by the truck, but we started to spin out just as we got by it.  G managed to get control and we continued on.  I have to admit that I was panicky, even though we've driven in conditions like this before, worse conditions too.  It was a huge accident waiting to happen, with many cars lined up behind us waiting for the road to be cleared, and hopefully all of them had managed to stop without hitting anyone in front of them.  We didn't hear of any accidents, so everyone must have been okay.   We drove in terrible conditions for another few miles, then suddenly blue sky and clear roads appeared.  I was so relieved and so thankful for G's experience and caution.
We'd hoped to make the 1:00 ferry to Swartz Bay but that wasn't going to happen, so we stopped briefly at our daughter's for hugs (badly needed) and a breather, then continued on to make the 3:00 ferry.  There are huge road signs that display current conditions at the ferry terminal, and when we saw that the 3:00, 5:00 and 6:00 ferries were already full and the 7:00 filling up fast, we couldn't believe it.  If we make the 7:00, it has to be on time for us to make the connection to Salt Spring.  We continued to a ticket booth at terminal to see what was happening, and it turned out that many sailings had been cancelled because of high winds making it impossible for the ferries to land at Tsawwassen.  At this point, the ticket agent didn't know if the ferries were going to start sailing or not, so we decided to make a reservation on the 9:35 direct ferry to Long Harbour on Salt Spring, and I was able to do that at the customer service desk in the foot passenger area after the ticket agent opened the gate to allow us out of the main line-up area.  I was on hold for almost 3/4 of an hour waiting to get an agent, because the lines were inundated with people trying to make reservations. We then went into the town of Tsawwassen, had something to eat, and headed back to the terminal.  We were directed to a line up different from the one that we're always put in for the Long Harbour ferry,  and there was only one truck ahead of us because we were so early.  I wanted to make sure we were in the right lane, so I asked the young man in the truck if he was going to Salt Spring.  No - he was going to Nanaimo!  Luckily a ferry worker walked by and I asked her about the lane, and the young man was in the wrong lane!  He was from Oregon and would have been very surprised to end up on Salt Spring at close to 11:30 instead of at the terminal in Nanaimo.  He was directed to the correct lane and hopefully made the next sailing to Nanaimo.  Inside the terminal was a madhouse, with many people having been stranded there for hours.  I felt sorry for the people with small children.  We sat for hours.  We usually walk around outside when we have to wait, but the wind was bitterly cold.   Our ferry was on time, the trip over went okay, and we finally got home just before midnight.  A very long nearly 18 hour day.  I've never been so happy to get home, and we had to get home because G had two appointments in Duncan the next day that he'd been waiting for and didn't want to miss. 
I'll never go on a trip over the Coquihalla or the Okanagan Connector in the winter again.  Like I mentioned before, we've both driven thousands of miles in winter conditions, often with kids from teams that we were coaching.  I'm really glad I wasn't driving this time and I'm glad that we don't have to drive  regularly in those conditions any more.  G rated these conditions 8/10 for treacherous compared to what we've driven in.  I gave it a 10. 
It was worth it to see Kalyn play and to have time with our daughter though.