vacation.... part 4our (the final installment)

the long drive home..... 3 months late.

short version: got in the car, drove. went through customs. drove. stopped overnight. drove more. got home, so i stopped driving.

full version:
day 10en: we spent the morning at pike place market, a fabulous market. if you've never been, and have the chance, i highly recommend it. at then end of it all, we bought a bag of hot, fresh roasted, salted cashew and hit the road toward home.

we picked up the i5 and drove down to the 250, from the 250 to the 252, and then onward until we met up with the 2. (if you have no clue what the hell i'm talking about, that's fine - because neither do i. damn highways proliferate like a pot of wet noodles flung across the floor. you'll have to grab a map and figure it out.) at last, after hours and hours and hours of driving (at least an hour) we came to beautiful downtown wenatchee, where we threw ourselves upon the mercy of the local super 8 motel.

thankfully they accept visa. problem solved. however it turned out we were somewhere in washington... damn. guess i didn't drive far enough. oh well. there's always tomorrow.

what's there to do in wenatchee? well.... here's what they have to say about the beautiful city of wenatchee: "wenatchee is world famous for our apples but it has so much else to offer.... one of the most digitally connected places in the country..."

after a night of sleep, it was another day.

day 11even: holy shit - the highway never ends. just keeps rolling. kilometre upon kilom... sorry, miles upon miles of blacktop. i keep forgetting the kilometres of blacktop are still across the border. Kept on driving that number 2 highway....

eventually we came to the border. rolled up, passports at the ready - it's always been easier to cross with passports, even before they became mandatory. roll up to the custom's officer and...

where you headed? home.
how long you been down in the states? about 4 days.
anything to declare? 32 tins of altoid ginger mints.
pardon? 32 tins of altoid ginger mints.

keep in mind, this whole time, i've had my hand sticking out the window of the car, waving our passports at this guy. he studiously ignored them. it didn't seem to matter how hard i waved them - he couldn't have cared less.

have a nice drive home. please drive on.

still waving the passports... he won't take them. fer fuck sakes buddy - after the cost and hassle of getting these damn things - look at them. thankfully, my inside voice stayed inside where it belonged, and i slowly accelerated forward. still waving the passports of course.

welcome to osoyoos, home of canada's only desert. that's right... just across the river, by one of canada's warmest lakes year round, is canada's only desert. things of interest: model t truck, fully restored coming back from a car show down in wenatchee (almost ironic) and a sculpture apparently demonstrating the dangers of drowning in our desert region.

as nice as the weather looks, the owners were
bundled up in full winter gear, as the truck has the
original heating system - none.

Back in the car and onto the number 3 highway eastbound. we stopped in beautiful downtown castlegar, where we had an incredible view from our room's window.
and yes, it was fun. staff stopped to watch, as laying fully flat on my back i picked up enough speed and momentum to shoot 25 feet out into the pool and make a hell of a splash. i did it until my not too healed, previously dislocated shoulder started to complain. (then i did it a couple more times to teach it who was boss.)

morning dawned to find us seeking yet another complimentary continental breakfast. although this one was a nice surprise - as they had waffle machines, hard boiled eggs, and a couple other additions to the spread that were a welcome change.

we took off as early as possible to get home at a decent hour, and headed up the 93/95 through radium and invemere to meet up with the trans-canada highway (no 1). one of the fun things about this area was the continental divide - the point where water stop flowing to the west, and starts flowing to the east.


and an area that had previously been devastated by forest fire, and was beginning to grow back. stopping to read the information was quite sobering - as i had mistaken how recent the fire was. by a lot.



and finally to home. where much to my dismay, i finally discovered the cause of the shredded engine belt that we had discovered shortly out of seattle. someone at the factory that had refurbished my nice shiny alternator i put in mere days before leaving, had put the wrong pulley on. thankfully the guy at the parts area just shook his head and handed me a new belt and alternator. warranty - you are a good thing.

note how the belt doesn't actually fit when
seated properly on the side. the car had been serviced
by mechanics who replaced the water pump after i changed
out the alternator.... since the belt has to come off
you think they might have noticed.

of course, at this point - arriving home - i decided i needed a vacation to recover from my vacation.