Day 6: Puyallup, WA, to Williams Lake, BC

598 milies
8:40 AM to 7:30 PM

I-5, WA 9, Trans Canada Hwy (1), Carabou Hwy (97)

Thank you, Lord, list: (We'll get to it below)

We didn't get off quite as early as we would have liked this morning due to a hot breakfast and good-byes to family. It's a holiday so easy to get around Seattle and up into the mountains beyond. About half an hour short of the border we stopped for gas since we anticipated higher prices in Canada. "Why don't you get out the car papers and passports so we are ready," Steve suggested as we stopped.

The first passport Mom pulled out of the glove compartment was mine. That was fine; she could see a second passport in there. But when she opened it, the picture was not of her, but of her husband who died fourteen years ago. Not valid for entry to Canada! In the old pre-9/11 days you didn't need a passport to go from the US to Canada if you were born in one or the other. Now you do.

While he pumped gas, Steve came up with a plan, and we headed back toward Seattle. We called Patty who drove with daughter Janna an hour north to meet us coming south. Mom got ahold of a friend in Cambridge with a key to her apartment who can go in and get her correct passport and overnight it tomorrow (since today is a holiday). She has found a plane reservation to Fairbanks and will meet us there Saturday morning. She's missing the next few days of driving, but will not miss Denali, the ferry to Valdez or the Jasper/Banff area of Alberta on the way home.

Steve just wants everyone to understand that he was not the one to lose his passport ... this time. He has rather a reputation--a reputation that goes right up to ten days ago when he left his wallet (with passport) on the top of the car when driving out of a fast food place. It didn't fall off until the entrance ramp to the expressway where someone found it, figured out his cell phone and called. We waited at the Grantsburg exit until they came by on their way to Duluth. As usual, his guardian angel working overtime.

So Mom has a few extra days in Puyallup.

I snapped this in Washington just south of the border thinking to joke and take another just north of the border and laugh about how "different" Canada was from the US, except the other side of the border really was different.

First there was Abbotsford, home to some of our old friends from Mozambique days, but we have no idea if any of them are still there. Beyond Abbotsford it stopped raining for a bit and fabulous mountains appeared much like the ones we came through in the Snowqualmie area of Washington. To tell the truth, there might be mountains in this picture too, but they are hidden by clouds.

Mom missed some spectacular waterfalls, dropping off awesome cliffs, steep slopes and lush green trees. We saw snowy peaks much closer than we did in Washington.  Before I found anywhere to take a picture the skies opened up, so you will just have to imagine the beauty.

She also missed a black bear--just after the moose crossing sign that made me scan the sparse woodland. A black tailed deer as well. (Note: If I do not see a moose in the wild this will not count as a real trip to Alaska and we will have to do it again.)

Eventually we must have passed over to the eastern side of the mountains because I suddenly realized that the trees were not so thick, the grass was much more sparse, and the land looked a lot like eastern Montana. It also stopped raining. So we did stop and get out for a picture looking back at what we had come through.

Thank you, Lord, list:
That the error was noticed before we got to the border
That it was a holiday and Patty was free to come and get Mom
Janna's love for her grandma that made her want to come along
That Steve came up with an alternate plan so quickly
That everyone has been good humored and able to laugh about the situation
Water falls in every crevice of the mountain
The color green
Safe driving in the rain
That it didn't rain the whole time
A new tire
That the substitute hotel Expedia found for tonight after the fire in the original was an hour closer than if we had gone where we had originally planned. (After a 2 1/2 hour detour back to Seattle, that was very welcome!)

Afghan update: After four rows of border, I did the first pattern row. It didn't come out right. I found my error way back in the first section of pattern (made about the time we discovered Mom had the wrong passport.) Do you have any idea how hard it is to rip out nubby yarn?!?! Especially the knit two together bits (6 of them each pattern, not 3!) Rainy mountains are also not conducive to knitting. By the end of the day I had ripped out that row, redone the pattern row, found 2 dropped stitches, corrected them, and knit one plain row. To the Thank you, Lord, list I can add, Thank you, Lord, that there is no deadline on finishing this project. No one is expecting it to be done by the end of the trip!