Over the Border Again!

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After many wonderful days, we were woken this morning by the sound of rain on the roof of the cabin - not good when it is 120 yards to the bathroom! Thankfully, by the time we had packed the truck and were ready to go the sun was actually shining… Of course, this was nearly noon as we spent some time in the club-house (the only source of internet) catching up on the blog updates, answering e-mail, booking tickets and checking the weather!! Our plan for the day - head towards Canada via the nearest Wal-Mart.

Statistics

Starting Destination: Concrete, Washington
Ending Destination: Delta, British Columbia
Ending Destination GPS: N: 49° 06.571’ W: 123° 03.331’ Elev: 10’
Miles Driven: 115.6
Most Interesting Sign: All Fish Bait Wireless (left)

Running Errands

We continued west along Highway 20, getting gradually closer and closer to civilization… After taking the back roads for nearly a week it was kind of culture shock to be back in “traffic!” Plus, we actually took the Interstate - Interstate 5… At this point we were approaching 5,500 miles and we needed to get the tires rotated and the oil changed - so we looked for the nearest Wal-Mart… Unfortunately, we selected one of the “busy” times so it would be 1 ½ hours before the truck would be done—so we splurged, ate lunch at the McDonalds inside the store and Maria worked on the blog update… Back on the road again we thought we had better take care of everything - so we stopped at a grocery store and stocked up on that other essential… food! By this time we had taken care of the trucks, our stomachs - now all we needed to know was where we were going… After several previous attempts we were still missing a detailed map of Washington State. Along the highway was a reference to a visitor information center - we followed the signs into Ferndale, past the sign referenced above and an old rotating railway bridge. In the past the whole center section of the bridge would have rotated 90° to allow vessels that were too tall to fit under the bridge deck travel past the bridge. At the visitors' center we scored several maps of Washington State, several maps of the Vancouver area and a ferry schedule. Now we were set - next stop Canada!!

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Canada, here we Come - Again!

The traffic thinned out significantly the closer we got to Canada - until we got to the border crossing, where there was quite a line up! During the 30 - 45 minute wait we had plenty of time to examine our surroundings…
The actual border area is surrounded by a “Peace Park,” complete with peace arch, peach dove, plenty of flowers, minutely manicured grass and of course the border marker!
We had read about, but not actually seen the border marker on our two previous border crossings; also one of our loyal blog readers had actually sent us an article about them from his local paper - so we were keen to see one for ourselves… Admittedly they were nothing special - and we actually saw three of them!! Eventually we made it to the front of the line and passed through we had relatively little hassle - no questions about alcohol, but yes - the obligatory questions about guns… This time the immigration agents were more subtle - asking whether Carl owned any guns and if so, where were they and did he usually travel with one… We must have answered the questions correctly as they let us through!! However, our one remaining questions was not answered - it looked like the border was in the middle of a city street that someone could just drive across… We thought that we shouldn’t push our luck by investigating so we just moved on through… Our destination was Tsawwassen, where all the ferries for Vancouver Island depart - the only problem being we got stuck in a traffic jam, both for the ferries and the tunnel… By this time it was nearly 6pm and we wanted to actually see where we were going - so we decided to wait and take a ferry in the morning. However, we did want to investigate the process so we drove out to the ferry terminal, parked the truck, paid for 1 hour of parking, walked into the terminal - only to find out in about 25 seconds that the only way you could book for future crossings was either online or by phone… So all told we used about 5 minutes of our parking time allotment!! After finding somewhere to stay, making dinner and working on the blog we debated about whether or not we would “book” or just “wing it” for taking the ferry… In the end it didn’t matter as we couldn’t book anyway - all the reservable spaces were booked for every ferry until 5pm, and we didn’t want to wait that long! So in the end - we would wing it!!

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Travel Blog Updates…

Thanks to everyone who has e-mailed us with concern about the regularity with which the travel blog gets updated. Contrary to popular belief we have not been “Eaten by Bears,” incarcerated by the “Department of Homeland Security Police,” “Fallen off the Face of the Earth” or “Left for Australia without telling anyone!” The regularity of our updates depends on… Whether or not we can find internet service, the quality of the service and most importantly just how tired we are of an evening… For those of us used to exercising the brain more than the brawn in the great outdoors - sometimes sitting in the car for long periods of time can just be too exhausting!! Seriously, we appreciate everyone’s concerns and hope you are all well too…

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Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: 38
Today’s Question: Another number question... How many monuments and reference points are used to designate the border between the US and Canada?

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Comments

[Eddie Wilson]

Peach Dove
"The actual border area is surrounded by a “Peace Park,” complete with peace arch, peach dove, plenty of flowers, minutely manicured grass and of course the border marker!" Mmmm! Peach Dove is my favorite! Especially with fresh Dove, not the canned kind!

[The Odyssey]

Peach Dove
It was just the color of the flowers reflecting in the metal of the dove - couldn't you tell?!... P.s. Thanks for the correction!