The (newest) great migration: Day 1

Day 1 total: 10 hours on the road

Our first day en route was split into two sections: the time we left and the time after we slept and kept driving. Our main goal was to get through Seattle before morning traffic hit. If we missed that window, we could potentially be sitting at a stand-still for hours trying to move the hulking vehicle and its tow through bumper to bumper morning commuters.

We left Portland at 1:00AM, freshly showered, the final touches put on the house, and the keys left in the mailbox. It was bittersweet as the truck revved its engine, and we pulled away from the curb. We stowed a sleeping Asher in the car since we would be traveling at night and there wasn't a lot of room for her to stretch out in the truck cab.

We finally made it through Seattle, after getting flagged to go through the weigh station, which was weird and apparently unnecessary based on the UHaul information packet. Our energy flagged finally, the high of pulling away from home for completely knew living territory for us worn away. We pulled into a rest area in Marysville and stared at a family reunion of some kind, which would not have been so unusual had it not been 4:30AM and the party in full swing...at the rest area. There were people everywhere, old, young, and people were bringing food out from their cars, and children were running around like it was an afternoon picnic...at four o'clock in the freaking morning. I stared and finally, still staring, asked Scott, "Are you seeing this weird party?"  He answered, and sounded much relieved, that he was, in fact, also seeing the party. I think, given our state of exhaustion, we wondered if we were individually hallucinating.  This would be the first moment of many of "What are we seeing?"

Once we established that the party was not solely our own visions--though we did agree that perhaps we were having a shared hallucination--Scott grabbed one of the hammocks my father sent to us as a "YOU'RE MOVING TO ALASKA!" gift (thanks, Dad!) and stretched it between two trees in the green space not too far from the truck. I opted to stretch out across the seats of the UHaul cab, partly because I'm a weenie and partly because I was too lazy to mess with a hammock, which for the 17' truck is right about my length if I tuck my legs a bit. And so we slept for several hours.

Once on the road again, we hauled to the US/Canadian border and crossed at Abbottsford-Huntingdon, which had a significantly shorter line than the border crossing to the west. It took at least 1.5 hours to wait, cross through, passports at the ready, answer the questions, and continue on our way. It was one of those "there is absolutely nothing we can do but sit here moments" and so we sat and waited.

Yep, that's the line. The border cross is up there somewhere.

The border! Technically, we're across the border but not yet in Canada.

Once in Canada, Asher hung out with us. She was very suspicious of the loud truck.

Cruisin' through town...very slowly.

The forests are incredibly dense and so green in southern BC. When you cross the border, there is a clear cut in the forest--the no-touch zone--separating the US from Canada (or perhaps Canada from the US).  We had a number of conversations about how difficult it must have been to explore these territories.

Distance is measure in kilometers and gasoline in liters.

The province changes topography quite a bit, and we lost the vast green and shifted to the yellows and taupes of the shrubby low hills.

I have no idea what these are, but they were incredible.

We had decided before we left Portland that we wouldn't drive through the night. There are just too many variables, including animals, and too few towns.  Our first stop was to be Cache Creek. When we stopped at Brookside Campsite, we allowed enough time to set up camp and make dinner. Scott asked the guy helping us if there was a good pub in town, to which we were told, "Well, there's a pub in town." We decided to just stick with what we had in the cooler. 

The wifi was spotty, and we had to go almost to the main office to get reception, but the campgrounds were nice, clean, and everyone was quite friendly. We talked with people on their way down from Alaska. We did get a bit nervous when some kind of youth group pulled up in white vans and set up across the creek from us. A group of the boys took off for the heated swimming pool, roughhousing, posturing and peacocking--oh so cool.  From our spot and the way the fencing cut, though, they looked quite naked. Ah, the juxtaposition of how we look versus what we think we look like, especially as teenagers.

Getting dinner ready.

We realized that cooking the burritos might be a bit more difficult than we originally thought. The burritos didn't fit our camping pots and pans.  I rooted through the camp bag and came up with aluminum roasting pans. With a bit of water in the bottom pan and another pan on top, held in place by a rock, we finagled a makeshift cooker. 

 Waiting...

And so, we concluded our first full day of travel. Even Asher was done and ready for bed. Despite what she wanted, though, she slept in the truck, not in the tent with us.