Day 77 Vancouver to Lynden Washington USA
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
84
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Lynden,
Washington,
United States
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
to LA being an international flight, she had to be at the airport 3 hours before boarding, this related to being at the airport at 9:30am then fly at 12:30 to wait 5 hours for the connection to Sydney leaving at 11:30pm on Wednesday and arriving on Friday morning early am.
The trip to the airport was interesting in itself, because yesterday we had noticed signs to the airport along the same road we took to the ferry terminal, having found that a reasonable run we decided this is going to be a breeze. We ran into a dispute with Mandy nearly immediately, she wanted to take us along what appeared to be a heavy traffic route and against the way we had noticed yesterday. We opted to over ride Mandy and head our way, oh dear we had a few more "run ins" with Mandy and followed our own way, then found the airport signs and began to follow them, Mandy came back into play and we realized we had added a few (about 25 kms) to our journey, we justified that in our heads as to being preferable to the heavy traffic. Just to negotiate our way through a lot of construction and short turns into the departure section of the International airport created a few "tense moments" but we found the correct point, we hope Marian understood that our hasty goodbyes were not because we were glad to see her go, but simply the relief to get her there on time and the drop off zone was a limited time allocation.
Hopefully Marian when you get to read this (as we know you will) you will add your comments and feelings as to summarize your section of the Journey. The three travellers left enjoyed having you on board and we now have to relearn the three step jig instead of the four step square dance, around the Castle again! We certainly crammed as much as we could in the period you were with us, and we are sure you will keep up with us as we continue along our journey.
Well we decided to allow Mandy to direct us all the way home, oh boy here we go again! A completely new route and along some interesting sections of roads as well as having at one stage three speeding, siren wailing police cars go past us, how exciting is that?
Never mind she did manage to get us home where we dropped Earnie off to prepare the Castle for the move and Karon and Rick returned the hire car.
This all achieved and we rolled out of the park at 11:30am, we called Bali (remember Bali we meet in Skagway? She had driven the Top of The world highway by herself in the Caravan of Travellers) to ask if the cup of tea we booked with her was still available. Bali was happy to hear from us and only had arrived home on Monday night (this is a Wednesday here), so set Mandy to Bali's house and away we go, Mandy took us to a turn that didn't quite make it for us, Karon re-communicated with her and we turned up at Bali's front gate.
It was great to catch up after our trip and her trip, to exchange a few notes and stories, Bali insisted we have lunch (her gas was not working so we couldn't have the cup of tea promised (mmm maybe a raincheck on that one Bali?) so we pile into her car and head for a quick tour of Chilliwack and to a wonderful restaurant for a lunch. We thank Bali so much for the nice meal she insisted on paying for.
We were then driven back a different route to have a quick run through the town centre, Bali having lived here since around 1970, was very knowledgeable about the area and the district, informing us of the local produce as well as about the locations used to film some movies.
We arrived back at her home and were then ushered out to the back garden where the travellers had another experience of picking fresh raspberries to fill a couple of containers to take on our way with us.
A few more words and a quick hug we were on our way, Thankyou Bali for welcoming us into your home and your life, we look forward to seeing your work published as well as you must write some novels to wrap up some of the stories you have shared with us. See you in OZ! (Australia for the uninitiated )
Reset Mandy to take us back to the KOA we stayed at previously at Lynden, and across the border into the USA.
The wait at the border was about 25 minutes, the questions satisfactorily answered and we rolled back to our RV park we were impressed with last time.
Load up the washing machines and sit and relax for a while and as you can see "Catch up with the Blog."
We apologise for having a blank few days, but as Marian will attest too we are sure, is it has been full on for a few hectic days, coupled with the ever present IT challenges we face, it really hasn't been possible to update each night.
We will attempt to rectify that over the next period of our travels and again we take this opportunity to thank our loyal followers.
No plans for the next few days except tomorrow the Castle is booked in for a much needed service after the big trip up through Canada, Alaska, (including the Top of the World highway!) And the Canadian Rockies back to here. We are proud of ourselves and our Castle and agree it deserves some TLC after that effort, ( it and ourselves have travelled 10,200 miles or 17,238 kilometres since being here)it might also have something to do with the fact that Karon enjoyed having her hair done here and would like to do that "girl thing" again with some one she knows!
Tonight we will look at the map and choose the next direction, but we sort of figured you can see by the travel map, we have exhausted most of the roads on the West Coast of USA and Canada, guess we will aim East now. MMM wonder if there is a song about that?
