1st Day On The Road....

It was a good day for a drive; with some sporadic and hard rainfalls.  Overall, ours was a good travel day.

Easton came by (with his mom) to say "bon voyage".

 Yesterday, while working on completing our packing and set up with the 5th wheel, Easton and Ginette dropped by.  First things first, Easton took my hand and led me to my upstairs office to screen some of those wonderful cartoons he loves to watch online.  After that, he was good to let me continue with some of my chores.  But we had to have lunch first.

While on the road, we will miss our little fella (his parents too) ....but with telephone, Skype and our new iPad (with FaceTime ability) we will keep in touch.

Loading the Nomad.

After Easton left back for his home, I set up the ramps, loaded and then secured the motorcycle for the long journey to the US southwest. It was perfect weather for loading.  NO RAIN!

Early morning sun at the border crossing, trying to peak through the ominous clouds.  Rain drops on the windshield create the effect seen in the photo.

Bright and early this morning (Thursday) we did our final checks, started the truck and, by 7:20 am,  headed for the Aldergrove border crossing.  It opens its gates at 8:00 am, but we found ourselves behind eight to 10 transport trucks. By the time we got through the crossing, it was 8:30 am.  Our crossing guards were good guys and we were welcomed into the US of A without delay or intervention.

Waiting our turn to enter the US

Traffic through the city of Bellingham, WA, was better than expected.  It did rain quite hard though.

Rolling south on I-5 on our way to Seattle.

The best part to leaving early is arriving after the crazy rush hour Seattle affords its patient drivers.  For the uninitiated, Seattle can be one heck of a challenge to get through.  By the time we were rolling through, traffic sailed, unimpeded. 

Downtown Seattle was socked in by low lying clouds.  Some major editing with Picassa managed to make a blah photo look not too bad.

Four hours after leaving home, we chose to stop at an I-5 rest stop for lunch and to check our rig, tires and the motorcycle.  All was well with that.  Uneventful is a nice word when RVing anywhere.

Cruising towards Portland, Oregon.

We continued on I-5 from Seattle and a few hours later, we had skirted the famous Mt St. Helens, had driven through Vancouver, Washington, - yes the other Vancouver city -  and crossed the mighty Columbia River into Portland, Oregon.

Approaching Portland.

One view of downtown Portland....

We were in need of fuel and the huge Pilot Fuel stop, near St. Paul, Oregon, (the name sake of my home town in Alberta), was the perfect spot for a fill up.  We did have a little wait for the high volume of transport trucks that were occupying the pumps.

With  fuel on board, we drove the five minutes to our first overnight spot at Hee Hee Ilahee RV resort in Salem, Oregon.  We like this place for our first overnight.  Why?  Upon arriving, we drive into the long pull through sites, unhitch, open up the slides, set the heaters up and then we drive off to work through our large shopping list.  We provision our rig once we get to northern Oregon.

Driving into the RV resort in Salem, Oregon.

Following our shopping spree, Jeanette and I chose to head to an Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  Neither one of us felt up to preparing our own dinner.  Outback did not disappoint.  The food was very, very good.

Back at our site, I installed the new water filter we had purchased, talked to another  British Columbian who is overnighting here,  then we settled in for the night.

Tomorrow will be a shorter driving day.  We will plan to make our way to our second overnight stop; the lovely Seven Feathers RV Resort in southern Oregon.  That five star RV park is a treat to visit.  We'll report from there.

Ah, yes.....it's great to be back on the road again.....!

Till then, thanks for dropping in.