First Day in Canada

After a late night in Bellingham, Rick and I awoke to the sound of his cell phone alarm. Today was our first official day on the road to Anchorage. The border crossing was only an hour away. What is it like visiting a different country? Today would be the first taste of life in Canada.

After eating breakfast at Best Western Lakeway Inn, we set for the U.S.-Canadian boarder. Rick had decided to cross at  Sumas, a farming community. We passed through the Dutch-themed town of Linden, stopping at a post office to mail some papers to work. As we approached the border patrol gate, I snapped pics of the custom's building, gate, and booth. The rain was coming down and the pics had to be taken between wiper passes of the Camry's windshield.

We pulled out our passports and gave them to the border gate. He asked questions about where we were going, why did we have Oregon license plates but live in Alaska, did we plan to leave anything in Canada? Rick handled this interrogation easily and supplied the officer enough information to make an appropriate decision about our desire to pass through his country. Once he was satisfied, the man's face brightened, and he wished us a good day. We thanked him and reciprocated the good wishes.

I was giddy with excitement as we passed through the Abbotsford gate. This was my first trip out of the U.S. Road signs along the highway instruct drivers about laws relating to passing lanes, driving responsibly, and who to contact if a person is driving suspiciously. Distance indicator signs distances in metric and we began to calculate the distance to our evening resting place: Williams Lake, British Columbia.

We followed Canadian Highway 1 as it merged with Highway 97. The terrain is very similar to some areas along the Washington and Oregon sections of Highway 97: high desert and lodge pole pine forests. Deep canyons carved out by rivers were accented by fall colors of burgundy and yellow. After finishing reading 'Fifty Miles Until Tomorrow' by Wiliiam Hensley, I took a nap.

Our lunch destination was Cache Creek, B.C., a city of more than 2,000 persons. The Bear's Claw Lodge serves great burgers and salads for lunch. The hotel lobby contains artifacts from the community's gold rush days. A stuffed grizzly bear held a "Please Don't Touch Me" sign and the lodge had beautiful wooden beams in a log cabin style. The rain had turned to a sprinkle. I snapped a couple photos of the building's exterior and lobby before lunch was served.

After a yummy lunch, we continued down Highway 97 for the last 70 miles of today's trek. While reviewing some maps in The Milepost, the definitive book on travel along through Canada on the Alaska Highway and in the 49th state. This travel guide measures distances from place to place in a complex manner that is very accurate. To make it easier to chart our progress, I bookmarked the recent map page with a Canada fold out map and another bookmark on the page containing the running edit for the area.

Williams Lake.

By late afternoon, our Camry rolled into today's destination. Williams Lake has a population of more than 10,000. It is the largest city we've driven through since before crossing the border. There is a nice downtown area, four automobile dealerships, a Safeway, Save-On market, and a theater group. After driving around for awhile, we located the Coast Fraser Inn. This hotel offers comfortable rooms with comfortable beds, a flat panel tv, and plenty of sitting room.

Exploring downtown lead to a visit to Open Book. This bookstore has a great selection of magazines and newspapers. After locating a couple of books on childcare, we walked to a sports bar for dinner. The Oliver Street Bar offers tasty dishes made from locally grown meats and vegetables. There are several large flat panel tvs hanging from the walls playing Monday Night Football. The game between Dallas and New York was in the first quarter.

The young woman seated who seated us, recited the beverage list. After asking the hostess to repeat the different beers, we made our selection. A similar thing happened when our server told us about the menu items. We realized that we were having trouble understanding them because we have an accent and then laughed about being foreigners.

Once we made this adjustment, we had a conversation about our travels. She would like to visit the Oregon Coast with her husband and three month old soon but her daughter doesn't travel well yet. Perhaps when their daughter became a teenager, they could leave her at home with friends and make the trip with her husband alone.

Written on our bill was 'Have a safe trip, Victoria.' We paid the ticket, amazed at how reasonably priced was this delicious meal. After stopping at the Safeway for breakfast snacks, we returned to the hotel. Rick comfortably watched the remainder of the Monday night game, and I caught up on emails before writting this post.

Tomorrow we will drive to Fort St. John, a city 440 miles from Williams Lake. Mapquest indicates the trip will take a little more than eight hours. We will drive through Dawson Creek, the official beginning marker of the Alaska Highway. The remainder of this evening will be spent relaxing and enjoying the rest of the Canadian evening together.