Just a little lost?

Jackie with two of Martha's babies

Tikka and his mom at Martha's

Happy Jackie exploring the new wifi device

OK, I knew there would be times like this but Whew! Last night was a goodie. Not.  Martha led me to the Kingston ferry from her home in Poulsbo. That was so thoughtful of her. We had a great time taking care of errands both of us needed to attend to. A visit to the Verizon store set me up with a special month of avoiding their terrible roaming charges in Canada which I had been warned of. Martha was so impressed with the help I received that she ended up converting over from ATT to Verizon and saved a bundle. It's all relative. I, who you know have been having trouble with the hot and cold aspects of internet connecting, ended up buying a little gizmo that I will pay a monthly fee for and it gives me access at any time. It worked well for about an hour and then came up with a low battery indicator.  Those things seem to always happen just when you need the service most.

So I started the trip from Kingston to Camano Island where Lolli is, with great confidence in the Google map directions to be supplemented by Siri and her "ever so soothing voice." I didn't get any further than Edmonds before my access faded out ( due to low battery) and I was suddenly on my own. I made one wrong turn onto  5 after landing, but quickly realized I was going south instead of north. I pulled off on an exit and climbed up a hill until there was a lighted but vacated gas station at which I could regroup and try to look at maps and my frozen IPad map with blue line directions. Finally got out of there only to choose one of the wrong 5 alternates which led me down to another ferry and a dead end. Back up the hill, into a convenience store to get directions to the right 5 and on my way again. That one had me filled with doubts as I drove past the huge Boeing factory or whatever, but I followed the man's directions and finally did get on 5 north. Then watched for the two visible town off ramps to verify my latest choices and finally did come to a Stanwood/Camano  Island exit. What a relief when something finally goes right.

Only thing is, without the map working and not having a detailed map (or any map) of the island, I soon was faced with a dozen more choices. You might figure that it's getting late by now and I had hoped to reach Lolli's by 8:00. So after the first  tour of the length of the island and it was after 11:00 I wasn't ready to give up yet and I frequently stopped and looked at the still picture of the map showing the basic geography of the island. Since I'm a hiker that should have sufficed. But it didn't. After realizing that I'd passed some of the same places two or three times and had done the length again and crisscrossed even more times, I began to give up on finding her at night. So, I drove into the huge State Park and tried to find a sensible resting spot on one of those narrow, pitch dark lanes. I ventured into an area that was obviously not for camping but then couldn't find my way out of it. When I finally did, I found myself way up high in a totally desolated place where there wasn't a car in sight. This story goes on much longer than I'll inflict on you but I did finally find a reasonably shaped site up high with several other filled sites nearby. Like I said, the whole place was very dark, very isolated feeling, (which one usually seeks) and put me way out of my comfort zone.  When I woke up, I explored my location and realized it was completely surrounded with gorgeous, ripe blackberries! How's that for finding the bright side of the page? I finally went to bed just before 3:oo and woke at about 8:30.  Called Lolli and she promised to meet me at the store I had driven past so many times last night and which is only a couple of minutes from her wonderful water front cabin. I was so close many times but without a map I would never have found it. Sooooooooo, the old "all's well that ends well" does happily describe that little adventure.

In the morning, as I searched for an exit sign, I could see that the camping sites were all lovely and inviting. A whole different feeling from what I had experience that night. Helped that I was somewhat rested and not tired and disoriented. I'm thinking of going for a swim this afternoon. The water and scenery look so much like Shoal Bay up around Lopez Island. This north country has a very definite feel to it. I can really see why it means so much to Lolli.

I'll cross the border tomorrow and unfortunately I'll have to forego a trip up into Vancouver Island to see Elaine and Christine. I'll be back. I'm really sorry about that but I have some time to make up after this love affair with Washington state and the Olympic Peninsula. Cape Breton calls.