September 19, 2023 Day 5 Victoria Canada 27.2 miles
Today is the opening day for the tour. We started with a welcome breakfast of potatoes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and toast. The kitchen staff had trouble keeping food out. I know they ran out of eggs and bacon. Maybe they need more staff too. Eventually everyone had plenty to eat.
We decided to go to the farm today. The owner has several Model As and the engine like Rob just installed in the woodie. He actually had three of them. One running, one opened up so you could see inside and one still in the box. They own about 12 acres where they raise produce and flowers for sale. He has shops in several outbuildings. Lots for the guys to see and discuss. He also has parts for sale. Rob bought a wheel to replace our cracked one. He had barbecued hot dogs available for lunch.
At breakfast we heard of another garden that was supposed to be very lovely so we decided to go there. The gardens are located in Hatley Park which is located in the Royal Roads University. On the same grounds is a castle built in 1910 which now houses administrative staff for the university. We found the entrance and a large billboard which stated a bear had been seen in the area so the gardens were closed. So disappointing. We drove around some just to look. The forested area has some very large trees. We did see the outside of the castle from the front and rear. Most impressive. The castle is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide.
By now it was getting to be late afternoon so we opted to return to the hotel with a stop at Costco for gas. That is when things got interesting. The Costco gas pumps only accept Mastercard. We only have Visa. The attendant told us a gas station was just down the hill. Another question was would the gas pumps accept a Costco gift card. Supposedly yes. So we headed for the store. A lady at the membership counter confirmed the gas attendant’s comments. She did say that the registers would accept Visa debit cards. We looked for frozen breakfast items but they only had a box of 72 Eggos. The bakery however had raspberry white chocolate mini cakes and apple pastries. We opted for those. Now to the register. Turns out they don’t accept Visa debit cards. Luckily they would accept a check and Connie had a check blank. They will convert your bill to US dollars. When we got outside the weather had changed to a light rainfall. So much for gas. Hot dogs here are $1.50 Canadian which makes them about $1.12 US. It started to rain when we left Costco so we rolled the windows down for the night.
Spoffords Travel 