Ride on, Highway Cat !!: TIME TO KILLLLL !!

Day 6. Sequim - Port Angeles - Victoria BC.
Dist. 28 k to "Black Ball" Ferry, then 10 k of aimless "riding" in Victoria. (basically a day off)
Sat July 21, 2012

Well, after finishing my 10th coffee and seeing Bradley Wiggins win the TIME TRIAL on the 2nd last stage of this years Grand Tour (1 hour & 4 min./ 44 km), I was out the door. (Bradley Wiggins was the winner of the 2012 Tour De France) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Wiggins
Anyway, I got to Port Angeles with a boatload of TIME TO KILL. I knew that I was leaving too early, but I dreaded the prospect of having some sort of bizarre mishap and then missing my ferry. Nothing much to do in the immediate vicinity, but I managed to dial - in a local coffee shop (Like I need more Coffee) Sat there longer than I was comfortable with, so I headed to the "Black Ball" ferry terminal. I met a group of older cyclists that were headed to the next B&B. Nice folks. They were impressed with Shirley and were bombarding me with all sorts of questions like I'm a world traveller or something. I told them that the best touring bike was actually a CCM. If you had a CCM circa 1980 with a cotter pinned crank arm, you knew that you had something really special. (5 lb. hammer not included) Ha Ha... HWC bit me for that one. Actually, one guy was asking me if a particular noise emanating from his bike was a concern. After a quick gander, I told him that he should be more concerned with his front tire. (which had retarded amounts of clear cut). Gotta wonder how some people make it this far in life. Anyway...
This ferry (M.V. Coho, 1959) http://www.cohoferry.com/main/ is an interesting boat. I'm more accustomed to the large BC Ferries vessels. I found it particularly interesting that she had to turn around before docking seeing as she has only the one loading door. Also, the boat is relatively small, thus rolling to waves. Wow. Nice to see that were bike racks available on the outside deck. (BC Ferries couldn't be bothered to spend a dime on proper bike facilities)
Once I arrived in Victoria, I went to the Tourist Info Ce. I discovered that Goldstream Provincial park was full for camping (no surprise). I checked on the Marriotte Hotel too (I have a $100.00 credit as a gift from Kerry Marshall my friend) Booked solid. So I ended up riding around aimlessly without a plan. It was so retardedly busy that I couldn't imagine finding any accommodation.
After riding up and down Douglas Street, I finally found a motel that would refer me to a Hotel back in the city centre (probably 1 km from the ferry terminal where I started out) Anyway, I'm angry and hot from the insane traffic and will take anything. Turns out that this "Hidden Gem" is extremely beautiful and not sky high priced, all the while nestled behind the Victoria Museum. Pleasantly surprised !
http://www.helmsinn.com/
We settled in just fine...