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Crossing the continental divide is somewhat anti-climatical.  This side of the mountains is little different.  The few things that stick out in my memory are the clear cuts, and the water.   The clear-cuts are big ugly bald spots that remind me oddly of the aftermath of head surgery.  The water is similar to the muddy color of our streams back east, whereas the water between Lake Louise and Calgary was a Very light, almost iridescent blue.   I roll into Vernon around 3.  The camper is not yet here!  Turns out they shipped the shell down to Oregon to be assembled!  Surprise # 2? I have to go to Blaine, Washington to import the camper to the US. This means altering my travel plans somewhat.  The service department wires the truck and installs the tie down bar for the camper.  Brad Clark generously offers to put me up in a motel. Friday August 27, 1999 Roll into the dealership around 10.  The camper is at the factory in Armstrong where they are installing the fantastic fan and a/c.  Around 11 the camper arrives!  I think it looks great! As I write this they are making the changes necessary to make the camper US legal (additional marker lights, etc.)   Also, Bigfoot didn't install the "fantastic fan," so that has to be done.  Then I need to load up the big pile of stuff from the back of the truck (bikes, clothing, sheets, comforters, pillows, sleeping bags, kitchen utensils, dog cage) and get out of here!  The rack I brought isn't going to work, so the bicycles may have to go inside. I'm rushing to finish this so I can e-mail this first installment off to everyone before heading south.  I'm having trouble getting Juno's software to use my calling card - and I'm not sure when I'll get long distance access again.  The importer doesn't usually work on Saturday and my appointment is at 10 am tomorrow.  Blaine is some 300 miles away, so I have to log some miles tonight. END PART 1                                 BEGIN PART 2

Saturday August 28, 1999 Spent the night in a rest area in the mountains on highway 5 between Merritt and Hope.  Getting both bikes inside is tough enough, climbing over them to get to bed is a real drag!  Tomorrow I will have to figure out a better arrangement!  I make the border around 8 am and work my way through the red tape of importing the camper.  I also strap one of the bikes to the ladder using toe straps and ratcheting straps.  Not easy holding the bike 6 feet in the air and making the straps fast at the same time, but makes the camper much more user friendly. From Blaine I drive toward Bellingham stopping at a Walmart and buy dog food and socks.  My next stop is Home Depot where I buy some hooks to hang to bikes on.  After some struggle I decide the hooks are too much trouble, so next I get a 2 foot long piece of copper pipe which I clamp to the ladder with a Fern-co fitting.  Much better!  Now hanging and strapping down are 2 separate steps instead of one.  I hang both bikes.  What a DIFFERENCE!  I spend the next few hours unpacking and organizing. Next on my agenda, since I'm in the states, is fuel.  I'm seeing $1.40 per gallon, so I feel like I've hit the lottery when I find a station advertising $1.29.  Far cry from $1.04 of Indiana, but much better than $.55 per liter (Cndn) on the continental divide.  By mid-afternoon I'm ready to head back to Canada.  There is a big line at the border.  I must have caught a shift-change, the fast lane becomes the slow lane, and the guy pulls every other car over, including me.  BOOM!  The cherry 60's Mustang next to me, protesting the long wait, blows a hose, and sprays coolant all over.  Later I find out that this is where all the guards with tight sphincters are sent.  I've averaged 3 trips to Canada per year and never seen anything like it.  An hour and a half later I'm on my way to Vancouver. In Vancouver I park on 99 near 16th street, crack a beer, and fire up AAA map-n-go to get my bearings.  Outside I notice someone admiring my Gary Fischer Mountain bike.  We strike up a conversation.  Turns out he is a Podiatrist, and he grew up in NYC.  At some point in the conversation he offers to give me a brief tour of downtown.  First he has to drop his wife, who is grocery shopping around the corner, off at home. Vancouver is a really beautiful city.  Lots of tourists and young people.  My new friend (Gary) shows me where the action is and we find a great place to park on Anderson Street.  He gives me his card and offers to show where to mountain bike on Sunday.  I sense meeting a fellow New Yorker has made him homesick. The truck JUST fits under the overhang at the parking garage.  The attendant, who leaves at midnight, is uncomfortable about the bicycles.  I cover them with a tarp and he seems relieved.  Beautiful cities are a Mecca for drug users and homeless as well as tourists and apparently crime is a problem. There are a number of nightclubs, all with huge lines.  I have sushi and walk around some, enjoying the "sights."  It's a Saturday in a cosmopolitan city, and the "girls" are dressed to kill  (I know it's not PC, but the ones that attract my attention look about 20).  Around 12 I walk Hunter, then call it a night. Sunday August 29, 1999, Vancouver. Somehow it seems odd to be showering in a parking garage in the center of the city.   I walk the dog then have breakfast at "the legendary White Spot" restaurant.  After breakfast I call Gary and he offers to show me some good hiking.  It is raining, so mountain biking is out.  On the way there we go through an area he refers to as "?more bohemian."  I make a mental note -  looks like a good place to spend my second night in Vancouver. We hike Spanish Banks Park on the UBC peninsula. A beautiful area to hike with views of the city and much needed exercise for the dog.  After our hike Gary shows me the UBC endowment lands around the peninsula.  Amazing to have this much parkland in the middle of a city.

Parked on Anderson St, Vancouver "feed me or walk me!" My bed - taken over by a wild beast To see fullsize picture on any of these pages, left click the picture then click "view image." Bikes mounted (Nanaimo Ferry)

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