Back to Victoria.

It's a grey afternoon at the Ferry terminal in Vancouver and cooler than it was in Vernon at 8:00am.  The Okanagan is having a heat wave that I don't mind missing.  The temperature has been in the high thirties for days and the forecast is for more. It might have forced even me to turn on the air.  I only wish that I weren't pulling out because I have to.  Mom is in the hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism on Friday. Bill and I are both heading her way because one doctor seems to think it could be fatal, but another is impressed with her fighting spirit and how alert she is.  She even explained to the latter how her grandson, after teaching in Korea for five years, was soon going to come back to Canada with his wife and two daughters.  So little Shirley Liddle is ending her life as she lived it, a battling biscuit to the finish line. 

It's the same spirit that won her many a race , argument and bridge game. 

I haven't brought my bike this time because it is my fervent hope that I will be able to return to Vernon to pick up Jay, May and the girls on July 6 and in the meantime do what I can to help mom. I don't need any more biking for a while. I biked in the heat on Thursday and Friday last week.  A group of us drove to Penticton to bike around Skaha Lake, spend the night in Penticton and bike up to a tunnel near Naramata on Friday. Four of us shared one hotel suite, so it was cheap and Priscilla and I got to share a double bed again as we did in 2011 on my first bike trip with the VOC.