Rainy Road Trip to Tofino

We are in Tofino, and it is raining.

The trip here was longer and more complicated than it needed to be. We left with the car packed far too tightly, partly because we had loaded up on groceries in Vernon before we really needed to. The drive was snowy in places, slow in others, and made even more frustrating by highway construction and my own poor timing. I had a meeting in Vancouver and was late for it, which set the tone for the rest of the day. Since leaving Calgary, we had been trying to make up lost time, and by then I was already wishing we had simply waited out the rest of Tuesday and started fresh at a calmer pace.

That late meeting caused a chain reaction. By the time it was over, we were racing against the clock to reach the ferry. It became one of those stressful, right-at-the-wire dashes where every red light feels personal and every slow car feels like a disaster. We were trying to catch the five o’clock sailing, and just as we pulled up to the booth, I reached down for my wallet. It was not there.

At first I assumed it had slipped under a seat or been buried under the layers of travel chaos surrounding us. The car was full of suitcases, shoes, toys, groceries, and all the loose odds and ends that collect during a long family road trip. But the more we looked, the more obvious it became that the wallet was gone.

There are two possible explanations. Someone may have lifted it while Mike took the boys for a walk during my meeting. Or, more likely, I left it on the roof of the car after our stop in Hope, where we had gone looking for a small old-school bakery that sells big squares of puff pastry filled with pineapple and cream. I also bought a strawberry-rhubarb pie for $4.79, which felt like a good idea at the time. If anyone in Hope happens to come across a bright blue wallet, it may be somewhere on the road between Dutchie’s bakery, Tim Horton’s, and the highway.

Needless to say, the lost wallet sent our already high stress levels even higher. While waiting in the ferry lineup, we emptied the car as much as we could, pulling carefully arranged luggage, shoes, toys, and groceries out onto the pavement. At the same time, we were trying to keep the boy and the dog from wandering off. We searched under seats, between bags, inside pockets, and around every place it could reasonably have fallen. Nothing.

Inside that brand-new wallet were all the things that suddenly matter most when they disappear: cash, credit cards, business cards, receipts, notes, gift cards, and what felt like a thousand membership cards. I had only just bought the wallet at Uppercase, and I had loaded up on cash before we left, which made the loss sting even more. My already tired brain did not handle it well.

The ferry ride to Vancouver Island was not a happy one. Instead of settling in and enjoying the crossing, I sat there trying to remember which credit cards needed to be cancelled and what else might have been tucked into the wallet. We went through the car again, even though we already knew we had searched it properly. For dinner, we ate Cheezies. They did not make anything better.

Of course, it could have been worse. It always can. We were safe, the car was intact, and we still made it to where we were going. But losing a wallet in the middle of a long road trip to Tofino is the kind of small disaster that drains every last bit of patience from the day. It is inconvenient, expensive, and exhausting, especially when you are already running late and travelling with children, a dog, and a vehicle packed to the roof.

This morning, before we rushed out again, Sue fed us brown rice pudding. It was warm, simple, and exactly the kind of food that helps steady a person after a miserable travel day. I will probably make another pot while we are here in Tofino, something to dip into for breakfast, elevenses, and snacks while the rain comes down outside.

So here we are: in Tofino, in the rain, a little worn out and short one bright blue wallet. The road here was messy, stressful, and not at all the smooth coastal escape I had imagined. Still, there is something about finally arriving that helps soften the edges. The ocean is nearby, the weather is doing what Tofino weather does, and there is at least the promise of rice pudding, quiet mornings, and a chance to start again.