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Published: September 21st 2012
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Olympic Penninsula
On the road to the border Week 2...
Ok, things start to get better now...
We actually get out of Olympia, WA and head for the border. Drove up the beautiful Olympic penninsula and caught the last ferry over to Vancouver island. We pulled into Victoria around 11:00pm tired from the long day, yet excited to finally arrive in Canada...AC's first time! We got in the long line to drive through customs and the lady in the booth took one look at Eugene and said "You better pull off to the side and wait for the next customs agent to assist you." Thanks for the nice Welcome! We pulled aside, mostly annoyed that it was so late and we were to be further delayed from exploring the city. Eventually an agent came and asked AC a whole bunch of questions, then asked us to step out...and remove the dogs. I had to drag all the dogs out and go sit at the picnic table while the agent pulled AC aside and began questioning him intensely...I told him to shave that sketchy looking beard before we crossed the border😉 The agent mostly tried to "trick" Charles into telling her where the drugs were, because "we're going
Delish!
Enjoyed our first awesome Canadian oyster meal! to find them and it's going to make it easier on you if you just tell us now!". Their search, alas, came up empty and they disappointingly let us enter into Canada sans bust. We drove through Victoria now just looking for a place to park and sleep, but couldn't really find a place we felt comfortable parking, so just drove north to find a little campground. As we pulled up some dude closed the gate just as we got there...I was beginning to feel that Canada just didn't want us there😞 He said they were closed and to keep on driving...so we did...and found the next one about 15 more minutes north. We pulled in but no one was in the office and there was no late check in that we saw, so we pulled into the next empty parking lot and breathed a sigh of relief. There was plenty of room for the dogs to run around and we found a little bench to sit on and started to enjoy the beautiful night sky out of the city. In about 5 minutes a man walked up to us and mumbled, "Have you seen my buddy John?" "Ummm...no, we
Sunset
On the ferry to the mainland haven't seen anybody"...."How about Bob, have you seen him?" "Nope." "Well...he's not doing his job as security" he stated and ambled away. Great...finally settled and now we're going to be kicked out. We ran into the camper and debated just turning out all the lights and being super quiet, when we heard the dreaded knock on the door. Our first rousting! Also ended up being the first night we paid for on the road. The security guard ended up being super friendly and understanding and just led us back to the campground to a nice little private spot and wished us a good night....awww, there's the polite Canadians I know about😊
The next morning we headed north on the island to Fanny Bay, home of the world-famous oysters. It ended up being more of an area of houses with one bar rather than a town, after driving past about 4 times, we finally found the "FBI", "Fanny Bay Inn"....the only place in town that sold the oysters in the restaurant. We had a great time as Charles talked up the bartender who comped us several amazing oysters and we tried raw, baked and with several different sauces. Of course,
First sight of the Rockies
Can you find the face? What do you think... Che or Jesus? they weren't quite as good as our local "Grassy bar oysters", www.facebook.com/GrassyBarOysterCompany but that's impossible, so we enjoyed them anyway... As we were all talking...well I was mostly eating as they talked the "oyster talk", Charles casually mentioned we were looking for a place to park our rig for the night. The bartender who ended up being the owner said, "oh, just stay where you are, that would be totally fine!" Sweet As! Ok, so we spent quite a bit on the oysters, but a safe free night without the risk of being rousted, we'll take it!
The next morning, we headed for the west side of the island to visit Chelsea and her new 12 day old baby, Ayla. We had a great visit and her mom made us a great salmon dinner while we oohed and awwed over the tiny baby. (ok, so I oohed and awwed, AC mostly sat on the other side of the room and surveyed it from afar)
Headed for the east side of the island and to mainland! We caught the last ferry and enjoyed the sunset and found a mall parking lot to park for the night...not my fave spot,
Athabasa falls
Icefield Parkway but safe and unbothered. Met my A. Irene for some fresh muffins and coffee, visited downtown Vancouver and did a quick hike through Lynn Valley Canyon, then headed to another relative's house for the night. We drove to Abbotsford to visit Joyce and her family out in the mtns and eventually found the house after traveling a sketchy gravel road we weren't quite sure Eugene could travel. They welcomed us and herded us into their vehicle where we went to the boat launch for a lovely evening on "their private island" with their family. Wildlife sightings include...a dinasour size sturgeon beached on the land, several ospreys and a bald eagle. We woke up and enjoyed a great breakfast with them and kept heading east.
More like straight up...up the famous Coquihalla, crazy steep grade driving maybe 40 miles an hr...to Jasper! Jasper was beautiful and we took the icefields parkway drive down through the rockies stopping for all the touristy things including beautiful waterfalls, the Athabasca glacier, mtn goats and even saw a couple black bears on the side of the highway! We stopped at Christie's for night where we were treated to an awesome home-made pizza in the
CeeCee
The Dog of the Glacier evening and attacked by the wild Ozzie in the morning when we attempted to shower in her house. (Ozzie is her cat...Charles still has some of her claw stuck in his feet) 😉 That's when I got to be the hero with my built-on armour of legs and herded the cat into the room so we could shower and make breakfast in peace! Don't worry we let him out before we left...as I quickly opened the door and ran down the stairs...
After Cochrane we had a night in Moose Jaw, then stopped in the friendly town of Alexander to visit Hedy and Jared. We visited for a few hours, were entertained by her rabbit "Q-tip" (Q-T for short) and she loaded us up with amazingly huge veggies from her garden before we hit the road for my parent's house.
We made it to Manitoba! Will Charles get along with my family? Will Eugene break down again? Is there anything to do in Manitoba? All these questions and more will be answered in "Road Trip...part 3"!
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