July 9 Th
Crossing the border to USA
We left Vancouver early, since we had descided to cross the border
to USA and expected some delays and massive paperwork.
In one of the parks in Vancouver we stopped to take pictures of
the noumerous Totem Poles.
Since they were quite coulerfull, we will share a few of the with
you.
Jens promised that he would make a similar one when we get home,
to avoid bringing one in the car !!!
We arrived at the border crossing just aroun noon.
Notice the long line of cars waiting to pass the border.
When we finally arrived at customs, we brought all the nescessary
papers to the responsible officer in charge.
Getting the visa was easy and we went to customs to declare our
car.
The looked at the Carnet and one of the younger customs guys said:
"What the hell is a carnet ?"
Fortunatly one of the more experienced guys remembered that he
had dealt with a similar document some years earlier and started scroutiny
of the documents.
After a few minutes we got the required stamps and signatures.
They didn't even want to see the car, not to forget the content.
We could have brought gun's, ammo and drugs to supply a whole army
!.
Strange, this is the second time our carnet has pursuaded the customs
to look the other way.
We have come to the conclusion that they don't really dare to challenge
the document because they really don't know how to handle it. Our luck.
After customs, we headed to department of agriculture.
Our last experience with these guys was in Halifax, having dirt
on the LandCruiser.
The asked if we were bringing any fruit og vegetables into the
country.
Well, we did have a few items in our cooler.
When Bettina mentioned that we had a green pepper, they imidiatly
woke up to action.
Two inspectors went to study the green pepper and after some scroutiny
it recieved the approval stamp for importation.
American efficiency, not interested in our real valuable import
items, but a green pepper !!!!
Her it is for you to check out.
We headed into USA and started thinking in Miles and Gallons.
Jens was disapointed to discover that a gallon of Diesel was US$
1.70.
Things have really gone down hill over here !!
Last time Jens was here, a gallon of gasoline was around US$ 1.
We agreed to head for Portland Oregon, where Bettinas sister and
husband lives.
They had promised to take good care of us with luxury bedroom and
pool.
After 1 month on the roads and different campsites, this sounded
like a luxury resort in Bettinas ears
No time to waste !!!.
We stopped at Mount Saint Helen which errupted some years ago and
devastated large forrest areas.
One could still see how the trees had been broken of just above
the surface when the vulcano errupted.
The landscape looks like somthing from the Moon, since nothing
is growing on the lava.
We arrived in Portland around 11 PM and was well recieved by Camilla
and Johan.
A really long day.