The Beautiful Columbia River & crossing into Canada May 6 & 7

On Friday May 6 we hit the road just after 9 a.m. It was a brisk 14 degrees celsius and with the wind that seemed to never stop, it felt quite a bit cooler.  I know, I know…14 isn’t “brisk” for early May…but when we’d just spent the last 6 months in 30+ degree weather, it felt “brisk” to us.  On this morning, our destination was to get just outside of Portland, Oregon.  

The first part of the morning we were still headed roughly north westerly on I84 with miles of beautiful green rolling hills on either side of the valley the highway ran through.  For some reason, I have no pictures of this stretch.  Maybe because it was still quite windy and somewhat stressful of a drive.

Around lunchtime we had crossed into Oregon and stopped for lunch at Deadman Pass Rest Area.  It was here that it first smelled like home again.  The pine trees, the humidity, my allergies kicking in (lol) and we even had a short downpour!  It was the first time we’d seen rain, real rain, since we left Nanaimo!  HeyZeus and Heffay got out for a quick exploration of the area, we took advantage of a free onsite RV dump station and hit the road once again.  For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures here either.  Don’t worry though, I make up for it later in the day!   I did grab a screenshot of the aerial view of this rest stop from Google Maps though. *Click on any picture to see larger

We left this stop and the rain followed us on and off.  The roads also got a bit more hairy as we navigated down 6% grades in the rain and at times amongst the clouds as our eardrums popped.  There were even stretches of sun showers like we’re so used to in BC.  Sun just a beamin’ while it’s pouring down rain.  I can’t believe I took no pictures of this stretch…so odd!

By mid afternoon I84 started to head more westerly running alongside the magnificent Columbia River.  The scenery is breathtaking and so is the relentless WIND!  It is a corridor known for it’s wind and is lined with many wind farms to harness it’s energy. 

Wind farms on the horizon

Stunning geography

By 4 p.m. and after another time zone change taking us into the Pacific time zone, we arrived at our spot for the night - Memaloose Rest Stop.  Of all the rest stops, this one had to be the most stunning!!!  The couple google map satellite views don’t do it justice.  Thankfully, I DID pull my camera out for this spot.  It was hard to pick which of the myriad of pictures I took here to share!

Here are some of the views looking across the Columbia River.  It was like looking at a painting.  And the dark clouds lingering in the distance, threatening a storm only made it more magical!

HeyZeus was in heaven, again!  We had a good hour long walk exploring the area and taking pictures.  So long that Dan started to get worried about us.  Funny part was, we didn’t even walk that far a distance, we just took our time and explored every nook and cranny and every amazing camera angle.

If you click on this next picture to enlarge it, you might be able to see the train running alongside the river on the other side of the bank.

W o w

So much to see and smell!

Now that’s a place for a picnic!

A double rainbow!

If you click on the picture below and look closely you can see the train tunnel cut into the rock.  So amazing! I swear I just walked around in awe saying “wow” over and over! 

Stunning!  
You can see the train a little better in this shot.

Black Creek Rest Area, Idaho to Memaloose Rest Area, Oregon

Total miles driven - 364 miles - another long day of driving!

Total cost of fuel - $135 US (25 gal) approx $175 Cdn

And, here we are, at the end of our journey.  We began our final trek on Saturday May 7, leaving just before 8 a.m. at a cool 11 degrees celsius.  Our goal was to get as close to the border as possible, or even to the border.  On our trip down we stayed overnight at the Silver Reef Casino a short 20 minute drive from the border crossing.  We knew it would be a long day, but depending on how we were feeling we left our options open to either stop one more night or cross.  We knew driving through Portland, Tacoma and Seattle would be stressful with all the traffic and multiple lanes, so even though the GPS estimated our arrival at the crossing in the early afternoon, we’d know for sure if we’d cross this day only once we were closer.

Once we got through the bumper to bumper stop and go traffic that felt continual from Portland through Tacoma and through Seattle we made the decision to keep on going.  We arrived at the Pacific Highway Port of Entry and joined the long line up at 3:30 where we proceeded to sit and idle for 1 hour and 45 minutes!  It was NUTS how long it was taking.  Although we thought we’d have lots of time to get the last ferry to Nanaimo, on that day the last ferry running was 5:45 p.m. so we knew we had another night to spend, but this one would be in Canada.  

Eventually we made our way to the extremely tight booth - the mirrors of the RV were literally within inches of touching the concrete booths on either side, even though we were in an RV lane - yikes!  And of course, who isn’t nervous at a border crossing.  Sitting for almost two hours in line didn’t help.  Of course, we had nothing to be nervous about…other than we spent WAY over our $800 per person allotment.  And, I wasn’t sure how much information they would need on what we spent, how much etc and then how much duty and taxes we’d have to pay…or how that would even work.  

Well, all that worry was for nothing.  As we got to the booth it was clear the agent had had a long day.  He sat with arms crossed, a not so friendly face and deadpan asked how long we had been gone, where we travelled and if we had any drugs, alcohol, tobacco and then if we had anything to declare.  We told him we had spent a few thousand over our allotment, which also included the $1000 tow bar we had to replace in Arizona but that we had read may be exempt because it was an emergency fix.  To this he simply asked how much over did we spend and what kinds of things did we buy.  I itemized a few things and I’d say within no more than 2 minutes of conversation he waved us through.  We had to ask him to confirm, we were good to go?  Yep.  Wow, how amazing was that!? Not at all what we expected.  Definitely a pleasant surprise. 

Our final destination for the night was 35 minutes away, to a Walmart parking lot.  This location allows one overnight stay in their lot for free and is located in the Tsawwassen Commons shopping complex, a short 6 minute drive from the BC Ferries Tsawwassen terminal.  Super convenient!  The next morning, on Mother’s day May 8th, we boarded the 10:15 a.m. ferry headed for home. 

We’d spend the next few months freezing our butts off with unseasonably low temperatures, dreary and grey wet days.  Definitely a hard transition after what we had experienced the last six months.  As I write this final post now on August 2, we finally just got a stretch of heat but almost too hot with 30+ degree weather - some days as high as 40 with the humidex.  That’s one thing you can count on here…the weather will always change, sometimes quite drastically.  Two days ago 9 p.m. the humidex was still reading 40 celsius.  And tomorrow?  Calling for a high of 19 with rain.  Ah, island life! 

Memaloose Rest Area, Oregon to Walmart, Delta BC

Total miles driven - 373 miles - the longest day of driving yet!

Total cost of fuel - $217 US (38 gal) approx $280 Cdn

Total cost ferry - $405.60 Cdn

Total miles driven in the RV Nov 7 until we got home on May 8 =  5757 miles

This was the most amazing adventure of my lifetime so far.

  It turned out to be as phenomenal as we had imagined.. 

 For sure a time we will never forget!

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!