We parted ways with Colette this morning. She went back to her home in Port Hardy and we headed south.

Our goal was Tofino, but probably not until tomorrow. No need to drive too far at once!

When I stepped out of the camper this morning, I was sure I almost stood on a fresh puppy poo. But it was a slug! Sheesh they are enormous out here!

We stopped in Campbell River at the Canadian Tire and No Frills for a couple things, but otherwise we were just driving and looking at the trees and forestry operations up in the mountains. Crazy steep up there!

Then we were on a parkway, which skipped the towns, but that also meant no nice place to stop. It was after 2pm before we pulled into a little dirty gravel parking lot at the corner of an intersection to make a sandwich.

We hoped to stop at Cathedral Grove but every parking spot was taken. It was a Friday afternoon zoo! Knowing we are returning on this same highway we decided to try again on the way back through in a couple days.

Then we tried to find a campsite.

But every single campground was full!

I guess it is a Friday afternoon in July!

We just didn’t plan this vacation like that – to be able to reserve every stop in advance.

But we finally found a rest area without a sign prohibiting overnight stays, about 30km before the turn off to Ucluelet.

There is a trail down to the river here.

We parked beside a picnic table and cooked outside.

Jeff cooked halibut, potatoes, and greens beans.

When we were in Port Hardy, I picked up a box of old John Wayne DVDs for the camper from the Red Apple Store. We have a tv but no easy way to stream it from our phones, so we wanted to try a DVD.

So that’s what we are doing at 7pm on a Friday. Watching movies that almost 100 years old. I haven’t even found John Wayne in this one yet! They are from the 30’s. Maybe he’s just young?

Tomorrow- Ucluelet, Tofino, Long Beach. Knowing how much we don’t mix with crowds and traffic, back to this rest area tomorrow night? Haha. We’ll see. (Hopefully a nice spot near the water? Like all these 25,000 cars zooming by are looking for too?)

Good night!