Ucluelet – Fun’s Over

 

End of the vacation.

We departed Ucluelet around 10:00am, hoping to make the 12:30 ferry (again?).  But this was a Wednesday, so we were certain there wouldn’t be a huge amount of traffic.  (They called this “foreshadowing” in my writer’s workshop.)

So once again it was a pleasant trip in the Crossfire.  Now the Crossfire has a nifty little feature that indicates if one of the tires is getting low on pressure.  This is helpful because the Crossfire doesn’t have a spare tire, so any pre-indication that you might be getting a flat can be quite helpful. (More foreshadowing.)

So we are burnin’ along on the windy roads headed back to the ferry when Andrew notices the low pressure warning light activated in the dash.  Now, Andrew has come to disregard this light because whenever it is cold out, this light activates.  Whatever – the outside air temp indicates 5 degrees celcius and that’s usually cold enough to falsely activate the low pressure warning.  Mental note: “check the tires at the next stop.”

75 kilometres later we arrive at the ferry terminal.  Pay the fee, get in line.  20 minutes to wait before the next ferry, which we have already been told we are confirmed on.  20 minutes later, the line starts to move as cars begin to load onto the ferry.  Dude in the car next to us says, “hey buddy, I know those are low profile tires, but that sure don’t look right…”

Andrew quickly checks the rear passenger tire to find, indeed, it is COMPLETELY flat.  In fact, it has probably been flat for the last 75 kms.  So we drive the 300 metres or so on our flat tire to get onto the ferry, and once aboard Andrew assessed the situation.  He pulled out the electric pump, which was buried under all the luggage, cooler, etc and pumped up the tire (instead of a spare, this vehicle comes with a 12 volt tire pump and “leak-stop” goo, along with 24-hour roadside assistance).  After pumping up the tire, the hissing was quite prevalent, so we had to come up with a plan.  This tire was not holding any air beyond 30 psi and everybody knows the “leak-stop” goo is useless.

Well, not being the types to let a tragedy interfere with our vacation, we enjoyed a lunch lovingly prepared by the BC Ferries crew, and sat in the lounge enjoying the view during the crossing.  We decided that the only thing to do would be to pump up that tire, get ourselves off the ferry and get to a tire shop to effect repairs.

So the ferry arrives and we return to our Crossfire and there is a long line of vehicles behind us.  We are in one of those little alleys on the ferry that only holds one lane of vehicles, so everyone behind us is totally dependant on us being able to move – they couldn’t pull out and go around us.  And we have a completely flat tire.  So we hook up the little pump, get it going and Andrew is standing outside the car, little pump whizzing away while we watch vehicles rolling off the ferry. 

 The Crossfire is idling…. the people in the cars behind us are looking nervous…the tire pressure is building up… people in cars are talking and pointing at us….Andrew’s driver’s door is open….the people are looking edgy….the pump is whizzing…and we get the green light!

Andrew disconnects the pump!  Tosses it to Steven in the passenger seat!  Andrew runs and jumps in the car.  And we’re OFF!

We got off the ferry with no drama or delay.  In fact we drove all the way to North Vancouver and found a tire shop that removed the tire and found the rock, which we suspect was from the driveway of our cozy little cabin.  The hole was so big that the tire could not be repaired.  That meant a brand new tire had to be purchased, and I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to buy a 255X35R19 low profile Touring Sport Continental 19 inch tire, but they are quite rare.  In fact we had to wait a full day before one could be shipped in to North Vancouver.

All I can say is, it was a damn lucky thing we made it on to the ferry or we would have been spending the night in Nanaimo waiting for a new tire to arrive.  That’s the end of our vacation trip.  And if you’re wondering how we got home from North Vancouver while our car spent the night in the tire shop?  The nice man at the tire shop gave us a ride home.  Mostly because he had dollar signs rolling in his eyes when he saw how much money he was going to make from a 255X35R 19 inch tire.