Right, we left Vancouver at just before 8am this morning and made it to the Peace Arch border by about 8:45am. There was no queue at all and so we got straight in to speak to some one about re-importing Carolyn's car into the States.
We had done are homework and the fact that is was already an American car that we had exported to Canada it was extremely easy to get the car sorted. 30-45 mins later we were back on the road with all the necessary paperwork.
The overall trip from Vancouver to Boston will be about 3100 miles and change, so we wanted to get a good first day under our seat belts (couldn't resist). We had intended to try to get to Helena the capital city of Montana. After getting away from Border crossing in such good time we adjusted our goal to Bozeman which is a further 90+ miles on.
We travelled down to Seattle before getting on to the I-90 which appears to be the North's version of the South's I-10. It appears we pretty much follow it straight across the country. We travelled straight across Washington State into Idaho and through into Montana (No relation to Hannah). So today we achieved 2 Countries, 1 Province, 3 States and an imported car. Good enough for today.
The whole journey today has been full of spectacular views of mountains, lakes and snow. I must admit I seem to have got the better end of the gear stick (I'll stop soon) today as all my driving was in the light and fairly straight forward. Carolyn has had steep inclines and declines and rain, ice and darkness.
After my summer road trip from Houston to Vancouver I was nervous about attempting another cross country jaunt but I have to say, without a huge U-Haul trailer swaying behind you, it is a much more enjoyable experience.
Tomorrow is an early start with what I hope will be a run in the hotel's gym before heading off to South Dakota. The main target for tomorrow is to get to Mt. Rushmore to see the sculptured faces of 4 United States presidents into the rock face. We should get there early in the afternoon and then after a quick look around a a couple of photos we will try and make it across a bit more of the state.
We crossed over our first time line from Pacific time to Mountain Time. After having been caught out on this in the summer I was prepared and expecting it this time. The main problem is that heading east we lose an hour pretty much every day. We should hit the Mountain / Central Time line tomorrow and we will see when we get into Eastern time.
Carolyn's car for those that have seen it, is not the biggest of cars and having loaded her luggage and mine, plus our skis, boots etc. into the back it has left little room for us. It is going to be a cosy week with bags at our feet and balanced behind our heads.
More to follow tomorrow...
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