C&N RD3 cars

[Gwizz]

We took a fun vacation in BC. We stayed in Victoria. I wanted to ride the RD3 car from Victoria half way down the island. that was about a 100 mile route, one way. Then I found out that a round trip ticket for 2 of us was going to be about $285.00. That was tourist prices I guess. So we changed our mind and went for a ride that paralleled the RD3 route. I never was able to catch the RD3 car. We didn't want a speeding ticket.

There was a steam railroad near the end of the RD3's route, that ran to a steam powered saw mill. The steam loco was resting that day, but I was told If I came back tomorrow, it was going to be used in a movie. We had already driven almost 120 miles one way. So we settled for just seeing the Saw Mill. The mill was not in operation but I was allowed to crawl under it and take pictures of the 25 foot Steam engine and go places where normally I would not be allow to go. I took a lot of pictures until I realized my data card was full. I did get a few pictures of the mill and my wife took a few.

I found some rails going under the road that the logging trucks used at the pond's log dump. The spar pole was still being used with a steam donkey for power. This is a historical site, so there were a lot of old equipment on site much of it in running order. The Steam RR connects to abandoned C&N trackage still in place but not in very good shape.

The next day, back in Victoria I planned to take some pictures of the RD3 car crossing the bridge at the Victoria station. We were staying about a mile away across the bay, so these were going to be telephoto shots from the top of our building. While waiting for the Rail car I took a picture of a sea plane making a circle to get out of way of a large ferry after a small boat blocked the plane from taking off. Got my picture of the Rail car crossing the bridge. Then I got a bonus. The bridge started up blocking the rail car from crossing back from the station for the night. The auto bridge also went up and a large tug boat pulling an huge empty barge went under the bridge followed by a small tug keeping the barge in the middle of the channel. The small tug went back and helped another Tug pull another large barge this one loaded with gravel under the bridges. a couple of days before a large rain storm closed the only road to the west coast at the center of the island. I'll assume the empty barge was to collect the cars of the tourists isolated there and the gravel was to be used to fix the landslides over the access road.

The last two bonuses:
1. Going home the ferry had to slow and wait for a pod of about 12 killer whales as they passed across our route. Got a few pictures.
2. About a mile from port, we programed the our little navigation lady to route us home. She said, she "-- was programing our route home". When finished she said "continue on the road" and then gave the mileage to our destination as 192 miles. This was about 100 miles too far. A a few moments later she said "caution, there is a ferry on your route". As we drove off the ferry laughing, she changed the destination mileage to 96 miles. Then she was very quiet for a long time.
During that last mile on the ferry, I wonder where she had programed us to go?

PS: one last comment: I had complained about being bumped from a good room to an undesirable room. I was told I had been bumped by an elitist who showed up without a reservation. If true, I knew I didn't like these elitists. But, I was given a better room for my stay.