Rrrrrrroadtrip!

Saturday we will set off for a week's vacation -- no ferries, no airports, no borders to cross, just a whole lot of Island exploring.

While there were a number of reasons we chose to do this trip this year, I feel really good about keeping our tourism dollars on the Island. Many of the places we will be visiting are mill-towns that are gradually losing their mills. News stories are full of woes from the tourism industry in BC, finding it difficult to attract American tourists (usually the region's mainstay) in the current climate of economic uncertainty and with the hassles of crossing even our "friendly" border.

At any rate, we are going to be spending a fair bit of cash on food, gas, and lodging over the next week. Our route will take us up to the top of Vancouver Island, staying in Parksville, Courtenay, Campbell River, and Port McNeill but also visiting Comox, Port Alice, Port Hardy, Nanaimo, and anywhere else we choose to stop the van.

We are taking the EEE and should have some opportunities for web-access along the way, so I will likely blog en route or at least upload photos to Flickr.