dare2go

Seattle to Canada


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We left the museum after 3 enjoyable hours and went directly for the tyre rotation. We had to take the camper off the truck to have this done, because they didn't have a lift strong enough to lift the vehicle intact. This was only the second time we had performed this manoeuvre since originally picking up the camper. Getting it off is easy - jack it up on the remote controlled jacks and drive the truck out. Getting it back on is a little more difficult, as you have to reverse the truck into exactly the right position to drop the camper back on. I must say that after a little backwards and forwards driving, Juergen placed the truck in exactly the right position - much better than last time!
As we hadn't managed to secure a campsite at the State Park for that night, we drove south to a town called Puyallup and checked into an RV Park. It was another of those soulless places with a rather grand name (Majestic Mobile Manor), but we had a site in the tent area and were right next to a very nice group of three young Austrians, who were taking a very quick road trip around the United States. I couldn't keep up the pace they were travelling at. By the time they finish they will have visited 26 states in 46 days! We also got our laundry done again - and that was urgent. The downside was that the inevitable busy train-line, although some distance away, still disturbed our sleep once the loud music from a very nearby party stopped at 12.10!!!
On Sunday we drove north to Seattle to have a look at that city. We only drove into the downtown area to the Pike Place Market, walked around there for a couple of hours and ate some really good Gelato at Bottega Italiana on First Ave. We were not over excited by Seattle, but don't want to give a real opinion, since we were only in one part of it for such a short time.
From there we drove further north in search of a quiet campground for the night. We found it at the Bay View State Park, just west from Burlington. It was a very quiet campground with lots of trees, directly over the road from the beach. We met our neighbours, who were a pleasant couple from British Colombia. They gave us lots of information about Canada and specifically the ferry system along the coast. We had thought to drive into Canada on Monday, but they also told us we could take no fruit or vegetables with us across the border. We had to spend one more night in the US to use up our supply.
On Monday we went into Bellingham to check for mail and were very relieved to at last have our vehicle title and insurance papers in our hands. We then drove to Birch Bay State Park to spend our last night in the US for a little while and to eat up all our veggies!!! We were less than 15 miles from the border and crossed it relatively early (for us) on Tuesday. No one even asked about fruit and vegetables... The immigration officer wanted to know how long we were staying in Canada and didn't like my 'I don't know' answer. I tried to explain our plans, but he just seemed to want a date. I said no later than the end of October - he then said you have six months, so we must be out by late January. Why couldn't he have said that in the first place instead of asking us a whole lot of questions we don't have answers to? Save me from bureaucrats! And 'Welcome to Canada'...