Quesnel, BC - Stopped at Customs

You know the old poem about driving in Texas:

        The sun has riz,

        The sun has set,

        And, I am still

        In Texas yet.

Well, substitute BC for Texas and you’ve got today, tomorrow and the next tomorrow and the next tomorrow. Will we ever get out of BC? Luckily it is pretty easy driving and the views are scrumptuous everywhere we look. And, boy, do they do rest areas right. Not fancy but functional. Lots of them, some small, some large, some with picnic tables and all with litter cans (who, btw, picks all these up? It would take a week to do them all going north along a highway and then another week coming back south - only to head north the third week and south the 4th week.) some with bathrooms. But, there a lot of them. Some states in America are closing them. You’ll drive along, look on map for the little rest area symbol, get ready to pull into it and, whoops, big orange cans blocking your way and this sign: ‘NEXT REST AREA 61 MILES.’ But, I can’t wait that long. What do you tell your kids?

We had done most of our closing tasks yesterday so didn’t have much to do when we got up at 6:00. Breakfast, and a few chores and we were off by 8:00. Gas Buddy found us the cheapest diesel in town and we were off, towards the Sumas, WA border crossing. We thought it might be faster than the one in Blaine which was closer. We got there, waited in line with our passports, ID’s, car registrations and insurance paperwork. After 2 other cars we got to the window and the border guard asked us:

        Any weapons?

        No.

        Any pets?

        No.

        Any beer or wine or hard liquor?

        No.

        Any fresh fruits?

        No.

        Anything like peaches, nectarines, apples?

        No.

        Any potatoes?

        No.

        Where is your home?

        This RV is our home but we South Dakota is our official address.

        Do you own any property there?

        No.

        Where do you need to return to?

        Nowhere. We live in our RV. We are full-time RV’ers.

        But, where’s your home?

        South Dakota.

        OK, park in lane 4 over there and give them this yellow form that I’ve filled in for you.
We did and went inside. There we went through the same round of questions. Then we got this one.

        How do your consider South Dakota home?

        Well, we have our drivers licenses from there, we vote there, we pay taxes there.

        Oh, do you pay taxes on a home there?

        No, we pay vehicle registration fees there and taxes if we buy a new RV.

We were told to sit down and the young woman went to speak with a man at another counter. Hmmm. Then the man came to us and told us he wanted to look in the RV. We gave him the keys and he was gone for about 10 minutes but it seemed like an eternity. He came back, gave us the keys and told us we could go.

The only thing that really seemed to cause problems was the fact that we lived in our RV. I’m surprised since I can’t believe that no full-time RV’ers have been through their lines before.

Oh, crap, I forgot our homemade kahlua. Oops.

But we had passed, we were off. Free, free, free. Whew.

The first part of the drive was a bit hectic. Lots of cars on the main East/West road through BC, until a town called Hope where we peeled off to a two-lane road heading north while the rest kept on the freeway. We certainly got the best views since our road took us through the Fraser Canyon with its steep cliffs, its careening around the curves and the rushing river below.

There’s a tram that takes 25 people at a time from one side of the river to a cliff high on the other side. Then there’s a strenuous hike down to a suspension bridge that you an walk over the river. Then there’s the history of the building of the bridges and the railroad tracks and the highway through the canyon. How can we ever pass all that up? Not easily but our goal is to get to Alaska this summer. Next summer in BC.

Farmland with mountains. This Iowa girl is trying to wrap her head around this. We’re definitely not in Iowa anymore.

7 tunnels along this stretch of the road. Curved tunnels too.

Bikes are supposed to wait til the tunnel is clear and then make a run for it. Scary proposition.

The road was smooth, there were lots of 4-lane sections after the canyon, there were lots of turn-offs, there were lots of rest areas and we really enjoyed the journey. So much so that we didn’t stop until about 7:30. 384 miles later. I had planned a spot to rest overnight but as we kept driving, I kept planning another spot further down the road. Finally it was time and we found a nice off-the-road rest area where we could stay overnight. You can see we were not the only ones here. I always like safety in numbers.