Everything seems so far away.
And some things seem like we never left.
When we left Portland, the weather was shite. We spent the last morning and the night previous packing and hauling away the things we didn't need anymore, and we were drenched the whole time.
The weather in Juneau was perfect, of course. Sunny and 80.
But the hideous downpours stayed with us the entire time we drove to Prince Rupert. Everyday there was at least one stretch of road where we couldn't see anything through the windshield wipers, and my tires weren't actually touching pavement.
I suppose the weather since we got here hasn't been that bad, but it hasn't been what I would call perfect. That's fine by me, since I get worried if I go without rain for more than about 36 hours.
But I do appreciate the sun more here than I do in Portland. It is nice to see.
Anyways, we pulled out of Portland at about 1 pm, which was just in time to hit three hours of the Seattle rush hour traffic, which is my favorite in the world.
(I still love living in a town where there is literally no such thing as traffic, and I think I always will.)
We were incredibly stressed out and frazzled and sleep-deprived, and our goal was to make the border crossing, just in case there were problems. Cause there is nothing better than a couple of crazy americans and their cats, trying to enter Canada.
Somewhere around Seattle, Ernie got a phone call from a woman who had seen his housing wanted ad on craigslist, and wanted us to rent her house. This was very promising news, since we would be there in 4 days, and we had no leads on housing. And we did end up renting her house.
We slogged our way through the Seattle traffic, and made it through the border with no problems, as long as we promised not to let our cats go in the Canadian wilderness. A friend of mine promised me that Canadians are not scary, and that turned out to be true. Even their traffic signs are polite. "Please don't kill the construction workers", etc.
WARNING: In Canada, Mountain Dew contains no caffeine!!
That's a little too nice for me.
We took two days to drive through Canada, which was by far the farthest I had ever driven in my life (in one stretch). That seemed to be a decent pace, especially considering that we were originally going to do the whole 1200 miles in two days, which would have been brutal. After the first day we were more comfortable. It was too late to turn back (as we had left everything behind), and it seemed the vehicles and the boats were going to make it. The drive through the Fraser Canyon and forests of Southern BC was pretty, but it got a little monotonous and flat and dry farther north.
And boy did the cats love it!!!! Now they always want to go for a ride in the car!
Or not.
I would do it again, but preferably not by myself, and not carrying everything I own.
When we got to Prince Rupert, we knew the only thing left to do was get on the ferry. We ate some bad chinese food, then got a hotel room to hang out in until we had to be at the boat at 5 am. It stormed like mad all night. After a long wait through the line and the Canadian customs (again), we finally made it on the boat. We covered up the cats, and went upstairs for the 27ish hour run to Juneau.
On the ferry we hung out, ate crappy food, and slept at random intervals. I love boats, and can't get enough of looking at the ocean. On the other hand, you are trapped on a ferry, and have no responsibilities, so it is a great time to catch up on all the sleep you've missed. Sometimes we slept in the bar (to get away from the screaming kids going to Ketchikan), sometimes on the couches, and sometimes in the chairs, but it really didn't matter. Unfortunately I slept through my favorite part, the Wrangell Narrows, but it was dark and I wouldn't have seen anything anyway.
The next morning, we pulled into the ferry terminal in Auke Bay, and got off the boat.
We were in Juneau.
Of course, we didn't have a clue what we were going to do next.
1 comment:
no caffeine in mt. dew?! what is this, mormon country?
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