Vancouver Airport

I'm too tired to think of a clever title. It has just gone 4pm and our flight doesn't leave till 8.30. We were booked on the 2.30 flight but then a tanker overturned at a point on the highway that required a 12 hour drive to go around it. Only in Canada! In Siberia they would simply have demolished someone's fence and made a path around the mess and maybe given the owner salvage rights to the acid.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/








24 hours ago, we were filled with the delights of a touring holiday amongst the grandeur of British Columbia and Alberta. Then decisions, postponements and a world of additional charges. Hope insurance covers it:(









Here are some of the photos from last night. Tammy was great and im sure we made the right decision not to add 800ks to our journey today! As it is, we rose at 5am and joined some of the other bewildered in the Inn for a coffee and the news. Highway had opened at 2am so it was smooth sailing when we finally passed the few signs left of the accident. Will try to add the link.

Arrived only an hour or so late but were charged another day's car rental and missed our flight - we had already re-booked but the total cost of these two tickets to seattle is almost $1000. I will be complaining to Jetset about that, otherwise they have been very helpful. Mind you, we managed NOT to stay at two booked hotels in a row, after the Alabama hotel incident.









Touring Stats
Canada is BIG! We managed 3000 kilometres in just over a week. Felt like half of them today. We took two wrong turns on the way to the airport. One was the GPS guide's fault - took us to a minor "International" airport off the main drag. The other was fatigue - I forgot the directions in the 30 seconds it took to miss the exit.

Here are some photos. Thanks for free wifi YVR!



























- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.

Highway 5 reopens after overturned tanker near Clearwater causes hazardous leak

Highway 5 has reopened after a spill of a corrosive and hazardous chemical from an overturned tanker unit closed the road just north of Clearwater in both directions Sunday afternoon.

Shortly before noon on Sunday, a minivan crashed into a tractor-trailer unit, causing the tractor to overturn and the tanker unit to rupture. Clearwater RCMP, fire department and ambulances arrived at the scene 10 kilometres north of Clearwater at around 11:45 a.m., according to a RCMP press statement.

Investigators on the scene have determined that the leaked material contains hydrochloric acid and phosphoric acid, and is corrosive and hazardous. They have set up a perimeter to keep people at least 150 metres from the spill scene.

Clearwater Mayor John Harwood said late Sunday afternoon that the leakage of the corrosive liquid was coming from a pressure-release unit that has now closed off.

"The liquid just got into the ditches in the highway, and didn't go into the river," he said. "It also hasn't gotten into the Kinder-Morgan pipelines."

The pipelines run along the road from Alberta to the B.C. coast; the spill scene is approximately 250 metres from the river.

Harwood said the highway closure is expected to last another six to 24 hours while the liquid is being transferred from the overturned vehicle to another truck now on scene. He said the tractor-trailer unit won't be moved until all the chemicals have been safely transferred. It remains lying on its side across both lanes of the highway.

The Provincial Emergency Program and the Ministry of Environment are attending the scene to assess the spill.

The police are advising motorists to check for updates on the highway conditions at drivebc.ca.

Location:Grant McConachie Way,Richmond,Canada