Ralph is fine, the Generals are fine.

Surfside RV Resort, Parksville BC (2 stars)

Lee observes that he has not been out on a highway at 4 am for a long time. But, he needs to catch the 5:15 am ferry at Duke Point. So, Lez comes along, drops him off and drives back home. All this and a ferry underway into the Salish Sea before 6 am!

Lee hooks up with Ralph at the hotel he is staying at in Richmond. It's heard to believe, but Ralph had a hip replacement just yesterday and there he is. He's pretty sore as the anesthetic is still working off. We take our time, he checks out of the hotel, we put the wheelchair in the back of his truck and off we go to the ferry terminal.

Ralph moves around slightly in the passenger seat trying to find a less painful position but all goes well and by 2 pm he is in his own bed at mom's place.

Ok, take a nap and then it's off to the rink to watch the Generals, who lead the best of seven 3-1. Looks good early as the Gens take a 4-0 lead. But, the desperate Campbell River Storm storm back (pun intended) and tie the game with two minutes left. Oh boy, this feels like a mirror image of the game in Campbell River. Sure enough, still tied going into the 5th period when JT scores and the Generals win the game and series. Lee thought the roof might come off the rink when they scored (in front of a standing-room-only, wrapped around the rink to the side-with-no-seats-crowd of 1,254 fans). Pretty exciting.

This was a very different day for us, as I dropped Lee off at the Duke Point ferry at 5 am so he could go to the mainland and meet up with my brother and come back to Parksville.

I reset my alarm so I could meet Chris at Bradley's for coffee at 10. After catching up on each others' worlds I headed to mom's to wait for Lee and Ralph.

Back at the Schooner, we caught up on sleep with a wee snooze and then "suited up" for another Generals hockey game win. Suited up for me is a Generals ritual, as I proudly wear defenseman Brady van Herk's gifted autographed jersey. We sit among the van Herk family members and enjoy hockey banter, a cookie brought by Dante Paziuk's mother for everyone in the group, and we all cheer the team on loudly.

And we won!