Day 50

We left Hope at 8:59 and started our trek to the U.S. border. We drove through a thick forest that was surrounded by huge mountains and peaks sprinkled with snow. As we descended, the landscape flattened out and we were back in farmland (real farmland, not the one on Facebook).

I was the navigator and my first error was that I missed the turnoff for the border crossing. All was not lost, though; there was another one a little farther down the road. Unfortunately, that route was not well marked. Thankfully, Jan and Jerry each have a good sense of direction and we made it to the border crossing at Alderbrook BC. The town wasn’t even on our map! It wasn’t too bad, I only added about 30 minutes and 12 miles to the trip.

We were surprised to find a long line waiting to cross at such an obscure town. The lanes were very narrow and our trailer barely squeezed through. The agent was quite congenial, asked a few questions, and we were on our way. We drove a few miles down the road to pull off and wait for Jerry & Nancy. We waited and waited – we were starting to get worried. It turned out they were asked about fruit and vegetables, an agent checked their refrigerator and they had to give up a tomato and the apricots they bought from the smelly couple. They would not be good smugglers. As far as our fruit goes – they didn’t ask and we didn’t tell. We said our goodbyes to Jerry and Nancy – they’re going to visit his uncle and we’re going to visit Ken, Shirley (former sister-in-law) and our nephews.

My next faux pas as navigator was when I had Jan get off on the wrong exit for the Port Townsend ferry. We ended up on a road that didn’t have any signs that would indicate a name or number so we had no idea where we were. We got out the computer, fired up the Street Atlas and Jan was able to determine where we needed to go. Next big trip we’re getting a GPS. We finally made it to the ferry dock, got in line and ate lunch while we waited. The ferry ride was wonderful – much better than having to drive through the awful traffic. We got to Kitsap State Park without anymore mishaps then went to Ken & Shirley’s for dinner.