July 14-15

We are sitting in Doc's Cafe in Missoula, Montana. Home to the University of Montana, and Hannah Montana, I believe. It strikes us as a sweet little town, although we did see a woman being held to the ground and handcuffed by police as soon as we got out of the car, so who knows what lurks beneath its innocent appearance..So how did we get here?

We left Gabriola Island yesterday morning, and made our way by ferry to Nanaimo, and then drove on to Victoria. Here we waited for the next ferry to Seattle, and prepared ourselves for the US Border crossing, and the interrogation that was surely to come. We were, however, pleasantly surprised by the security guy's big smile and chatty manner, and lack of query into our intentions with his country. But then we realized what they were playing at - classic good cop, bad cop. For as soon as we disembarked the ferry at Port Angeles, the bad cop was waiting, and did an excellent job of intimidating us, just as anticipated. But we made it through with no drama. The main thing that we noticed about Port Angeles were a few signs about "Twilight". And then I realized (much to Greg's dismay) that this was the Port Angeles from the Twilight novel/movie! The place where Bella went in search of a book about vampires; where Edward rescued Bella from almost certain peril?! Amazing. Well, not so amazing actually. Perhaps for a brief moment, but that passed quickly. However, I have to point out here too that Greg, for all his teasing of me, was somewhat excited at getting the Seattle ferry, the same ferry you see in Grey's Anatomy. Seattle is a cool city. There were lots of Bastille Day celebrations going on, so lots of happy people out on the streets celebrating, and lots of live music. A good time to arrive. We'd been driving for about 10 hours at this point, and feeling tired, especially me, even though I have done zero driving. Highways scare me at the best of times, and here they come BIG; and packed with huge trucks; plus the whole driving on the opposite side of the road. Greg has banned me from it; and I will not contest.

We passed through several skunk filled areas - the smell is overpowering - yuck - they always look so cute in cartoons. We picked the least dodgy rest spot and finally at about 12am.

6987km to go