10/27/12

Day 13: Canada bound


October 27
Bellingham, WA, USA to Cache Creek, BC, Canada: 197 miles

Before leaving the good ol USA, we had to run a few errands... exchanging currency at the bank, picking up a few groceries at Walmart to save some money, filling up the tank, and grabbing lunch at Wendy's. I know, so American right?

Everything went smoothly at the Canadian border. I was anxious for nothing! With The Milepost as our guide through Canada, off we went. We immediately turned our phones on airplane-mode because AT&T charges through the roof internationally. We will really miss being in touch with our friends and family over the next few days. Right across the border were many American-like stores and restaurants, and we grabbed a DELISH frozen lemonade from Tim Horton's (thanks to Elisabeth's recommendation!) before continuing our Canadian journey. 

We drove the West Access Route through British Columbia. The scenery changed so much as we drove: gorgeous autumn leaves with rain & fog... to snow-covered Rockies once again... to dry and rolling hills near Cache Creek. The West Access Route is also the Gold Rush Trail.

Everything is so spread out here! We drove a hundred miles without seeing anything, then would see a sign for an upcoming town. Turns out that town is on the main highway and consists of a gas station, hotel, and one restaurant. It's sort of a mix between the isolation of SD and the scenery of MT/WY.

Our destination tonight was Cache Creek BC. The weather was great (well, high 30s/low 40s) so we decided to camp. We set up our little tent at the Brookside Campsite, an RV park. The owner came to greet us, and we were expecting to pay the rate of $20 to camp for the night, but he surprised us by saying, "If you want to camp out in a tent in this weather, go for it. I'm not going to charge you." Haha! The owners were so friendly and the campsite was very well maintained, and even decorated festive and cute for autumn. We loved it! Sam set up the Kelty Noah overhead tarp, even with a 0% chance of rain. Good thing my husband is a smarty and is always prepared, because it ended up raining all night.

I felt so cozy in our camp. Sam grilled hotdogs on the camp grill as night began to fall, and the dogs enjoyed a little extra running space being tied to a tree. After dinner, we all four snuggled up together inside the tent. Those puppies really add extra warmth but WOW their breath smells terrible in a small enclosed space! Sam and I reminisced about our dating days almost seven years ago. (never would I imagine that we would be camping in a tent in Canada seven years later;) It was sweet and memorable, just lying there together in the tent in the middle of nowhere. As we were talking, lost in the past, it began to rain. We fell asleep to the sound of light raindrops hitting the tarp, mixed in with sporadic puppy farts of course ;). One of my favorite memories.

In the morning, I woke up to a text from Amanda asking if we were okay. A 7.7 earthquake had hit the western coast of Canada and the effects were felt as far as Kamloops BC which was sort of near us. So it maybe wasn't the best night to be sleeping on the earth...

Onward!

5 comments:

  1. That picture of the tunnel is one of my favorites from your trip, and I love the "crazy camping Americans" story. I still can't believe you did that! I have chills hearing how romantic your night was! Have I mentioned that I love you two?! :) And I'm so glad you guys weren't involved in that earthquake!

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    1. Thank you! Haha, I know, well we thought 20 bucks was a better deal than spending $100+ at a hotel... then it was free! Totally worth it. Thanks for checking on us that day! :D

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  2. Did you two enjoy Bellingham? Brandon's best friend has lived there for about a year and a half now and we hope to visit there soon!

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    1. Oooh that would be fun! We didn't spend too much time in Bellingham (we didn't get to do anything local or anything). One of the things I remember though is that they have a plastic bag-ban. So there we were unknowingly shopping at Walmart and had to carry all of our stuff out bagless. Haha! Oh and I do remember that prices were higher than (groceries, gas, etc). You could hit up Canada though, since it's super super close. Sorry I'm not more help! :-\

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    2. *higher than anywhere else we had encountered in the US

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