H*ll's Half Acre...

You see this field here? This is what is known as h*ll's half acre, and yesterday I spent two days hours there.  The day started out pleasantly enough.  My friend Leslie and I met at the RiverRock Train Station and drove out to Ladner for the Ladner Village Market.  We had lunch at a lovely little pub by the marina.  It was a gorgeous day, not too hot, filtered sunlight...  We stopped after lunch and had an ice cream cone and strolled through the market.  I bought a couple of books for Marigold about a little girl her age who lived in Marigold's home town in the 1800s.  I thought she might enjoy it.

The market was hot and crowded, so Leslie and I took a drive over to the other side of the marina, and sat in the cool shade and chatted for a while.  There is something so very peaceful about a marina, and the sound of the water lapping against the hulls.  When it was time for me to come home, Leslie drove me over to the Ladner bus exchange so I could catch the bus back to the RiverRock train station, and make my way back to Vancouver.  At the Ladner exchange, Leslie checked which bus I should catch, and at which Bay.  No. 601 at bay 5. Okay.

I got on the No. 601, and after about twenty minutes of watching farm land rolling by, I began to realize we were not heading towards Vancouver. Apparently there are two No. 601 buses and I had caught the wrong one. The passengers and the bus driver were very helpful. They suggested I get off the bus, cross over to the other side of the road, and catch the No. 601 going in the opposite direction. That bus, they said, would take me to my train destination. Okay, thanks. I got off the bus in a remote, unfamiliar part of the country, crossed the road and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... for almost 45 minutes, my eyes peeled on the horizon looking for a bus, any bus. I was hot, I was thirsty and I was lost ~~ I had no idea where I was. Finally a familiar-looking bus with the No. 601 pulled up at my stop. It was the same bus from which I had disembarked across the road 45 minutes earlier, with the same bus driver.

"Hi...! You should have just stayed on this bus."

"Are you freakin' kidding me?"

I still wasn't convinced this bus would actually get me back to civilization. For just an instant, I had a small frisson of fear that I had stepped into an episode of The Twilight Zone, and I was doomed forever to ride the No. 601 throughout the never-ending bucolic countryside. I wasn't sure I was even in British Columbia anymore. It could have been anywhere.  But all's well that ends well. I'm home, back in the city, and I have lots of photos of horses and cows and barns...

And incidentally, the No. 601 bus that gets you back to the city is at Bay 2.  That No. 601 at Bay 5? It goes to h*ll's half acre ... and beyond. And believe me, you don't really want to know what's out there.