I was on vacation this last week and went fishing off the northern reaches of Vancouver Island. There was a lot of boat travel involved, including the very large ferry boat to get to the island.

In the adventures of a ferry line, there are all sorts of people. I happened to be in line behind the biggest idiot on the boat. Let me set the scene…

We arrived at the ferry an hour before the appointed sailing time. There were already nine or so cars in the line (including said idiot directly in front of me). We killed time in the shops and grabbed some coffee and then with about 25 minutes before sailing time we headed back to our vehicle so we were ready for the loading announcement (typically they load the boat 15 minutes before sailing). The idiot in front of me had the back of his vehicle open and the bikes that were on the back of the vehicle were propped up next to the vehicle.

The first announcement to return to your vehicles came and people began loading back into their cars. Idiot? Well, he just stood there looking at his phone.

The second announcement to return to your vehicles came and, again, idiot just stood there fumbling around with his phone. Now people’s cars were starting and people were prepared to board the boat.

Cars in the line ahead are now moving and beginning to load onto the boat. Idiot, looks up, sees that cars are moving and finally begins to move. He closes the back of his vehicle, no urgency involved, then proceeds to load the first bike back onto the rack on the back of his car. The cars in the front of the line are now gone and he is holding up the entire line…and now he can’t figure out how to secure the bike. So he fumbles around trying to make it happen. He wife now jumps out of the car, puts here coffee on the top of the car, and tries to help him – only it appears she is just getting in the way rather than helping.

We sit. We can’t move. We can’t go around and neither can the cars behind us, because when you line up at the ferry line you park close enough the to car in front of you that you can’t escape. We sit some more.

Finally, the guy decides that he can’t take any more time (now at 5 minutes since the car in front of him moved) and he just throws the second bike onto the rack and jumps into the car. He wife jumps in and closes here door, only to jump back out and grab her coffee off the top of the car. They are finally moving…

Good grief…the two loading messages 10 minutes before loading were apparently not enough to get this idiot moving.

All I could do was shake my head and wonder how stupid people survive so long.

#smh