Crossing Canada

Beautiful BC Mountains

We finally left Edmonton and drove to Hinton, Alberta which is a small quaint town. We stayed at a nice RV Park which had full hook ups including cable TV. It was very expensive, the cost was about $6.50 American. Although Hinton was a small town they had a "Wally World". From there we drove to Jasper National Park but due to the season, they were full so we had to move on. Our next stop was Kamloops, BC which has some beautiful mountains. This is one of Canada's most popular sky resort areas. We met some residents of BC and they told us about a real high mountain pass we had to cross on our way to WA. They said the truckers would stop at the rest stop and figure out what gear they could use to go down the steep grade. They had me somewhat concerned since I had never been over that road before. But I figured, "what the heck"if the truckers could do it I could too. We pulled into the rest stop and the scenery around there was unbelievable. There were beautiful mountains on both sides of the road. I pulled out of the rest stop and there was a sign "Use low gear 8% down grade". I put the PAC brake on and we went down the steep grade at about 45 mph. Piece of cake.

Highway to Kamloops, BC

We crossed the U.S. Border at Sumas, WA and then we ran into trouble. Since this was "Post 9-11" they had steel pipes in the lot and there was not a lot of room for a 40 foot motor home with a "Toad" to maneuver. There was a sign for trucks and also one for cars and RVs. To be on the safe side I took the one for cars and RVs. I had to come in and then make a tight turn to the right and then back to the left after just a short distance. I didn't make it. I hit one of the pipes with the rear awning arm and scratched the side of the coach. To make things worse, after I got to the check point the official there was a real pain in the neck. He didn't want to accept my drivers license and retired military ID card. The official said the retired Navy ID card was no good. He said "everyone knows half of the Navy is from the Philippines". I told him I had some damage to my coach because of the dumb barriers and if he was going to do something to me, do it or let me go. He gave me back my ID and said go on you've had enough problems. I'll never cross the border at that point again.

We found a real nice camp ground in Sumas and spent about a week there surveying the damage and getting it fixed so that we could travel with it. We met some real nice RVers from BC who come down every time they have a "long weekend". They invited us down to their camp fires each night and the ladies took off to do some shopping during the day. We got their names and addresses so we could keep in touch.