Chilliwack, Canada - Polarsteps

Many, many thanks to my cousin Kitty for saying yes to us when we hit our limit camping in coastal rainforest again. We had an amazing riding day across the Sumas Prairie: the sun came out as soon as we left Golden Ears Park, we got to spend most of the day on quiet secondary roads that parallel the highways (always such a gift), and 91km of flat, open land flew by fairly easily under our wheels. Some notes on where we're at/where we go from here: -Attending my mom's wedding back on the island on Monday; we're still public transiting distance from the ferries. -Continuing east from Chilliwack on Wednesday. I don't have an eye specialist appointment yet, and it's clear that despite needing one as soon as possible, "as soon as possible" might be a while from now given wait times in the medical system. We can't wait around Metro Vancouver any longer, so I'm hoping that when it's time I'll be able to figure out a way back from wherever we are. In the absence of the Greyhound (RIP, I loved them four cross-country trips' worth) I'm putting my hopes on Mountain Man Mike's Bus Service (for real), which follows our route along the highway 3 corridor, or failing that, a rideshare. -Shingles are pretty much healed; I'm rested up and ready to be biking again. -The handle 'derailed' is left over from our first bike trip down the American Pacific coast; it was a pun on the derailleur of a bicycle/derailing our regular lives to live on the road for a while. We learned in the process of that trip that this way of travelling also invites moments of derailment, and also that those can often be where things get good, or at least interesting. We're clearly pretty derailed-- over three weeks in, we've barely left the coast-- and it's unlucky that it happened so early on, but also in this cold, wet, late spring it may be just as well; the snow line is unseasonably low on the mountains east of here, and there are still some sub-zero temperatures on the road ahead. In having to wait, we've hopefully avoided some of the harder conditions we would have hit if we'd gone straight through. -Odometer check: 667 km, actually; we simultaneously haven't made it very far, and also have made it pretty far. -Sara