Up to Canada

Pushed along again by rain, left Bozeman, MT and began to head towards British Columbia, Canada.  Most of the drive was uneventful but covered some really beautiful areas of the country that I've never seen before.  Crossing into Idaho from Montana is just a dense rolling forest with trees so thick I think you could wander in 5 feet and not know which direction you came in.  

Also saw some pretty funny things on the road.  My favorite was the plane bodies on a flatbed train car.  The drive through Idaho was one long climb followed by another plunge down from the Rockies to Spokane, WA.  After Spokane, the Columbia Plateau covers the middle of Washington and I was treated to one of the best sunsets of the trip.  Pulled off at a rest area and just stood in 
the grass watching the sun go down.

Kept driving into the night were I stopped at rest area along highway 90 adjacent to a large wind farm.  I could see the flashing beacons of light from the turbines for miles before I reached them.  Settled in, read a few pages of my book and slept soundly.  

Woke up the next morning hoping to see some of Seattle and spend a little time in the city.  As soon as I rolled in, immediately overwhelmed by the amount of traffic and people.  I am just not a city guy.  Stopped at REI to pick up a few last minute Alaska items and then got out of the city pretty quickly.  Plan on spending some more time on my way back through after Alaska but I just wanted to get out of the traffic this time around.

Crossing the border was really stressful.  I got a guy with jet black hair slicked back to a sheen and a set jaw.  Wrap around Oakley sunglasses and bullet proof vest completed the outfit.  As soon as I rolled up, the interrogation began.  Every answer to each of his questions only seemed to cause issues. and would result in the playback of my story with errors inserted, as if her were trying to trip me up.  Didn't like my explanation for coming into the country, didn't like my camping gear, and didn't seem to like me either.  Was fully prepared after 10 minutes of on edge question answering to be turned away and told to head back to Washington.  Then, he handed me back my passport, waved me through, and I was good to go.  The whole time, this man's poker face didn't break for a second.    

Cruising over the border, pulled off to check out my map only to discover that about 10 pages from my road atlas were missing, coincidentally the exact 10 pages I wanted to look at.  Thanks Rand McNally.  Just decided to follow signs to Vancouver and figure it out from there.  

Made it to Vancouver right at rush hour which was a disaster.  Horns honking, cars bumper to bumper, and me sitting there already more than a little stressed from my border interrogation.  Not a good combination.  Inched my way through the city and then headed up the Sea to Sky highway towards Whistler and my first real bed and shower in almost two weeks.

Never get tired of the drive along the fjords and dense forests up to Whistler.  Still one of my favorite drives. Arrived at Whistler Creekside, promptly got out of my car, headed to the shower and stood under the water for a while before sleeping like a rock for about 10 hours.  Welcome to Canada.