Memories of entering British Columbia, Canada

Tramp 1 and I are in a motel in Portland for the weekend. He surprised me with a spur of the moment trip to attend the Yard, Garden and Patio show. I have wanted to go for the past 15+ years and when we lived just 35 miles away we never made it then. Now we live much farther away and finally we are going!

We are sitting in our room watching the Olympic pre-show. They just showed the Peace Arch near the Washington-Canada border. Boy, did that bring back memories. We have made numerous trips through the years into British Columbia. Sometimes we were going camping or vacationing on Vancouver Island, sometimes we were going to Vancouver for business or leisure. But we sure do remember a few times that it was difficult to cross that border...

Our first trip was with a camper on a small Toyota truck. We took a ferry from Washington by way of the San Juan Islands to Victoria. We were so excited! It was the year the Trailblazers were in the NBA finals and we had a DC TV we bought to watch the game before leaving the campground on Whidbey Island. We were feeling very festive when we pulled off the ferry and took our place in line to clear Customs. Being a total tourist, while we waited I got out of our truck to take a photo. Not a good idea... Not allowed... When we got to the main gate, they questioned us and had us pull aside. They made us get out of our truck and three Customs agents boarded our mini camper on our import truck to search for bad things. We could even hear them looking in our porta potty! They confiscated some stone fruit and we ate it standing by the fence. They also took my pepper spray that I so honestly admitted to having. But they missed the other fruit in the freezer, somehow... Believe me, I learned to hide that pepper spray well - since we were going up island and very remote and people were being killed by cougars and wolves were easily sighted along with bears, we felt it a necessity.

The next time we headed to Vancouver Island, we crossed at the I-5 Blaine crossing, just past the Peace Arch. Same truck and camper, but this time they questioned us about having guns. We did not have guns... But none the less they interrogated us and threatened us with a felony charge if we were hiding weapons. They finally let us pass... Does a flannel shirt and a beard mean guns? Was this early profiling methods?

Another time, crossing at the truck area (we shifted to what we feel is an easier crossing area with a great duty free shop) they pulled us aside, made us leave our vehicle and they took it to a special check area and went through it. And one time at that same crossing, they confiscated a lemon that we bought in the U.S., took to Canada and didn't use and were returning back to the U.S. with. And this was in the middle of the night... Go figure!

After that we crossed again at Blaine a few times in a rental car to go to Costco. On our return they asked what we bought. I said sauerkraut and licorice cigars. That sure got some looks!

And on our last crossing, post 9/11 and in a rental vehicle, they did not even ask us for any ID but merely waved us on through. I sure hope they are doing a better job at checking folks for the Olympics...

We hope to go back this year. This time it will be with a 12 year old Ford F-350 Crew Cab and a pop top Palomino camper with the camper door held shut with a bungee cord. Two older people a bit different than that carefree young couple in that Toyota. (The Toyota that broke down on the island where they had to wait for parts to be shipped from the mainland and Tramp 1 did his own repair work and that also blew a tire on an active logging mainline where the log trucks are so large that they carry 110,000 pounds of logs - Canadian gravel is sharp two inch rock!) But hopefully not that much different... And hopefully they will still find the wild parts of the island that they were always seeking.