Sittin' on Ready

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We had a good drive from Grants Pass to Portland, stayed two nights in a nice park and made our way through the Cascades and downtown Seattle to land here in Bellingham, WA. As you can see from the pictures we had severe clear weather and it allowed us to navigate from mountain peak to mountain peak as we cruised along Interstate 5. It's hard to get good pictures from the window of the truck but Michelle is getting better at it as we go along. I think there will be more opportunities as we make our way north. The Bellingham stop was always planned to be a resupply for Canada but Michelle had the great idea to shop in Oregon since they have no sales tax and Washington soaks you for anywhere from 8-10% depending on the county. So we saved a bit by filling the truck with canned goods, cereal, cookies, chips and assorted road snacks before we left Portland and made Washington pay for their exorbitant tax policies. I don't think they care but it made us feel better. Since we didn't have to shop the plan changed to take a long bike ride on Friday but I woke up with one of those bad stiff back things that can just ruin a day. It turned into a good rest day for both of us, something we probably needed anyway. Today we jumped in the truck and headed toward Mt. Baker to get some better close up pictures. The thing is the closer you get to the mountain the more of the mountain is behind the smaller hills and trees. There never was that "good" shot that we were hoping for. As it got cool and cloudy we made our way back toward the coast and found a nice road cut right out of the edge of the hills that fall into the bay. Glad there were guard rails as this was kind of a hairy road with boulders on the up side and 100 ft. drop-offs on the down side. Michelle didn't see much of it, she had her eyes closed most of the time. So now here we sit 26 miles from Canada. After 115 days on the road, 19 different RV campgrounds, 7,420 highway and in-and-around miles (not including about 1800 more on the motorcycle), we are finally ready to start our trip to Alaska. Everything up until now has been directed toward getting us to Bellingham and we have made it. We are stocked up, full tank of gas, tires and air are checked, oil and fluids are topped off and we think the truck and fifth wheel are in pretty good shape so tomorrow morning we leave early for the Canadian boarder. Why then, if we have done everything right so far, am I as nervous a cat? Maybe it's the fact that we are now heading into uncharted waters for the first time since January 20th, or that we are so close now that we can see the Alaska state line in our minds eye, or maybe its just that if something should happen after getting this far it would be heartbreaking. But we are bundling our nerves, crossing our fingers and off we go. If you don't hear from us for a few days, don't worry. Not exactly sure how well the WIFI will work in the campgrounds we have selected but if it is all good we will post a quick note so you can track our progress. I just hope I can get some sleep tonight........

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