Chapter 2: North by Northwest

~After a mad dash from Middlebury to Wild Horse Plains, MT in 31 hours, now begins a slightly more relaxed travel plan. A day off on Sunday and a good, long sleep Sunday night was very welcomed. Jon and Dan own a wonderful little bakery/restaurant/deli called The Butcher's Nook. Closed for the 4^th of July but they generously opened for all the guests at their place and provided us with hash, sausage, pancakes, eggs, gravy, and bacon. A big thanks to Dan's mom Lydia and sister Miriam for rustling up all that grub.

With everyone satisfied we left Plains at 1:30 headed towards Kalispell to pick up some final supplies.

~Shopping done we fired up the RV at 3:30 to head out.

Nathan decided to check for one more thing in Walmart so we shut her down during the wait and to our dismay, there was no response when trying to restart. Dan and Jon began checking fuses, parts and making several phone calls. Upon his return, Nate started to help out as well. Meanwhile, Dwylin's phone is practically useless and he needed to get to a Verizon store for a new one. The only working transportation was the two bikes strapped to the back of the RV. One was loosened from its rack and Dwylin pedaled off in search of a new wireless connection. He returned 30 minutes later disappointed they had already closed for the day. Meanwhile, back under the RV, a loose wire to the starter was found and refastened. The RV now has connection even if Dwylin's cell does not.

~Another delay but not major enough to deter us from our final destination. We finally left Kalispell at 6 PM headed for Eureka and a final fill-up of fuel before crossing the border in Roosville. Supper was made on the road; bread, ham, cheese, tomato, avocado, cucumber. Simple yet effective. Our horror stories of long waits and thorough vehicle searches to cross the border ended up being a couple questions, never leaving the RV and taking about five minutes. The biggest concern from our border control seemed to be when Dan absentmindedly shoved a cookie in his mouth and tried to answer a question. “You just had to have lunch while crossing the border eh?” was her next question, but it was the priceless answer that Dan gave to her question, that got me. “I know right” replied Dan with a mouth full of cookie, as he laughed away. Once we left the checkpoint Jon asked, “Hey, where is my cookie at!?”

~So here we are now, parked at a rest stop about 20 miles south of Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia. We head to bed with our starter issues behind us, anticipation of new adventures before us and the gentle patter of rain on the roof.

OFFICIAL GRADE for this segment:

Solid B