Driving And Drinking RV Style

Oh no, it's that damn Canadian again. No, please, don't click me away. Give me a chance. Hey, have you ever wondered what it might be like to travel the countryside with an old beaver? Well, today's your chance. And no, it's not a Canadian thing. It's our old beaver motorhome. We're going to start off in Bend, Oregon, and we're going to end up in Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It's a beautiful trip. In between, we'll stop off at a couple of harvest hosts. We'll go across the Hood Canal, which you can see in the background. We'll take a ferry from Port Angeles in Washington State across to Victoria on the Canadian side. We'll have a blast. Come on, hop aboard. Oh, good. I'm glad you stayed. Okay. Now, for those of you who've been with us for a while, you'll know that our trip began in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, on the Sea of Cortez, south of Tucson. But for those of you who may be joining us for the very first time, a little bit of a recap. Once we left San Carlos, we headed north across the USA-Mexico border at Nogales, Arizona, where we were thoroughly checked over by both man and machine. And once across the border, we headed towards the Coachella Valley, the Palm Springs area, and headed north there up through the Yucca Valley, where we had our infamous road race with the onion truck. Once we left the Yucca Valley, we headed towards the Sierra Nevada mountain range and our favorite highway, Highway 395. We traveled along the base of the mountains through our favorite towns of Lone Pine, Bishop, and Gardnerville. After traveling through some pretty wide open, desolate roads, as we climbed further north, we eventually made it into Bend, Oregon. And this is where our last leg of the trip begins today in Bend, Oregon, as we leave for Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. So buckle up, let's hit the road. Well, our trip begins as we pull away from the Expo Center RV park on the county fairgrounds near Redmond, which is a town outside of Bend, about 20-30 minutes outside of Bend. This large RV park is set up primarily for people attending the exhibition grounds, horse events, county fairs, that type of thing. It's really well laid out, very clean and quiet, lots of pull-through sites with easy big rig access, full services. I think the 30 amp sites were $38 and the 50 amp sites were $42. It's ideal as a base camp if you're visiting the Bend, Redmond area, and for us it was just perfect because we wanted to pull in, hook up services, and leave the next day and have air conditioning ability throughout the night because it was really, really hot at this time of year. This exhibition RV park is located really close to the Redmond airport, which is the main airport for this surrounding area. So if you're picking up somebody or dropping them off, it's ideal. We navigated a few side streets and within moments of leaving the park, we were on the main road out of town and into wide open Oregon countryside. Okay, let's pull over here for a moment because I want to talk to you about something. What do you notice offhand about what you're seeing on this road? Okay, time's up. It's related to pulling over when you have traffic behind you. Now we've been traveling along this heavily forested road for some time and I noticed that we had about six cars that were behind us that I was holding up and I'm always sensitive to that fact that I pull over at the first chance I get, to the point where I do it too often. Michaela often gets upset with me because I practically put us into a river or a tree trying to get off the road so others aren't held up. So this is what I did. The Mount Hood national sign, I pulled over and just like every other time, nobody thanks you. Now I know that may not seem like a big deal and it doesn't matter whether it's in Canada, USA or Mexico, nobody thanks you. Maybe once in a while you might get one or two waves or something a year, but it really ticks me off. I know Canadians are kind of regarded as being nice, too nice sometimes. We're not nice. I'm not nice. Well, there's nice Canadians, but you know, please don't stereotype us that way. Okay, I'm kind of nice and I'm kind of sensitive to the fact that people don't say thank you. I give it. But you know, it's really, it's really not nice that people can't be bothered to say thank you. So I'm trying to figure out why. It's either, number one, they are so peed off with RVers that they're just glad you're off the highway. They're not about to wave thank you for something that you shouldn't even be doing in their minds. Or number two, they noticed, but they don't really care. They're carrying on. Or number three, they didn't even notice, didn't even register that you did something nice. But it gets to the point where I don't even feel like pulling over anymore. All it would take is a wave out the window, a finger out of the window. I don't even care what the finger is meaning, just some kind of a sign. You know, it would be just nice to be acknowledged, wouldn't it? So let me know what you do. Do you pull over often or not enough? Please help me out here. Thank you. Okay, let's carry on on this highway. Yes, we screwed up our arrival, but it wasn't long before we were squared away at the back of the building. And wow, look at these fabulous dump tanks. Okay, let's go inside. Okay, how cool is this? Where else can you get free accommodation, live next door to a distillery, and get specialized service where the hardest part of your day is deciding which spirit you like the best? We love Harvest Hosts. We ended up spending about twice what we would have spent for an RV park, but this was more fun. And this is in the spirit of Harvest Hosts. And I get it, a distillery is not the appropriate Harvest Hosts to stop at if you're traveling with your kids, or if you're an alcoholic. On the other hand, perhaps if Harvest Hosts had a group rate for alcoholics, I wonder. Okay, on that note, our kids are all grown. So come on, let's go find another distillery. After being placed by a beautiful pond on the sandstone property, Jason invited us in for a one-on-one lesson on distilling spirits. And no, come on, we're not hardcore drinkers. We're just happy Canadians who enjoy a cool G&T gin and tonic at the end of the day. Well, in this case, whiskey, bourbon, vodka, and anything else that came out of the vats. We had a great time. After a very peaceful sleep, we said goodbye to our Harvest Hosts and enjoyed the drive through the countryside back to the Interstate 5 heading north to Canada. Shortly after leaving, we do what we always do, pulled over to make sure that Lola, our tow car, was okay. And these rest stops along the Interstate 5 are perfect places to do this. This is one pro about driving the Interstate 5. There are many rest stops. They're large, they're comfortable, they're safe. Really good places to stop, even if only for just a few moments. We've got lots of time this morning as we head north on the I-5, so I thought it would be a good time to show you where we are. We're looking at a map largely of western Washington state. Seattle is right here. Canada to the north above this white line. Vancouver is right about here. And Victoria on Vancouver Island, which is our ultimate destination, is right here on the tip of Vancouver Island. Japan, well, that's about 8,000 kilometers, say 5,000 miles to the west, but we're not going there today, so we won't worry about that. So this morning, we've left the Sandstone Distillery, as you know because you're with us, right about here. And so far, we've come out onto the I-5 through the countryside, and we're now heading north along the Interstate 5. And as we get to Olympia, we're going to branch a little bit to the west. I'm going to follow this route, and we're going to carry along the waterway, inland waterway, and we're going to loop around to a place called Poulsbo. It's beautiful. And we're going to stay a couple of nights there because we want to visit with dear friends. When we leave Poulsbo, and this will be in this video as well, we'll back out of here, and we'll carry along the waterway, which is a straight along to Fuqua, and we'll get to Port Angeles. And from Port Angeles, we'll board a USA Ferry to Victoria. And that will be the end of our trip. So for today, we just want to get from this X to this X without mishap. So buckle up, enjoy the trip, and we'll catch up with you in a few hours. Good morning, fellow travelers. I'm really glad you stuck with me. Thank you. Okay, let's carry on today. And I thought the map might help us put our trip into perspective. Let's look at a few locations to pinpoint our location again. This is Seattle. And today, as you know, we're in Poulsbo, which is right here. And our trip today is going to take us north of Poulsbo along this orange line, kind of a country style road. And we're going to follow a little waterway along here past a historic site called Port Gamble. And you can see just a purple area right here. That's the Hood Canal. We'll cross over the Hood Canal. And we'll follow this track along the straight along to We're only going as far as Sequim, which is right here. We're staying overnight in Sequim. Not very far. But before we leave this area, I just want to pinpoint a few things for you, because I think it's really interesting. Bremerton, which is right here, has a huge naval presence. For those of you who live in the USA, you should be proud of this. It's a very large naval operation with surface ships in this area, aircraft carriers and the like, some decommissioned. And then just a little bit to the west in Bangor, which I think is right around here. Bangor is home to a submarine base. And when the submarines are headed out to the open Pacific, this is a track they would follow. They would follow this waterway along the Kitsap Peninsula, which is to the right. The Olympic Peninsula is to the left. The Kitsap Peninsula is to the right. They would follow this track. And as they come up to the Hood Canal Bridge, the bridge would open for them. And they would traverse this area and out into the open Pacific. So that's the track they would make. If it was a surface ship coming from Bremerton, they would just come out this way on the outskirts of Seattle, and they would join them on this track. And then they would carry along this way out into the open Pacific, being careful to stay on the USA side of the Canada-USA border, because Victoria, which is right here, is home to the Pacific Fleet for Canadian naval operations. And if you crossed over the line, we would send our ships out to chase you away. Yeah, but you're bigger and more powerful, so I think we would probably retreat. Okay, so back to our map. So for today, we're going from Poulsbo to Squim. It's a beautiful day. The sun is out. So sit back, buckle up, and we'll talk with you in a few hours once we get to Squim. Good morning. I hope you don't mind me riding along with you on the right-hand side of your screen. I thought it would be a good way to not disturb the driver on the way to the Port Angeles Ferry. Oh, wait a minute. I'm the driver. How does that work? Well, as we pull away from the Seven Cedars Casino and RV lot, you can see how pristine it is, how well looked after it is. It was a wonderful place to stay. And I promised you a few tips about bringing your RV into Canada, and this is one of them. We would recommend that if you're traveling on the Coho Ferry, stay here for the night. It's free. It's close to the ferry. You can relax a little bit. You can go have some food at the restaurant, a meal at the restaurant. You can gamble if you want, or you can just relax. And then for your ferry, the next day, you're rested and you're set to go. It's a great arrangement, so we would really recommend that. Also, we'd recommend, as we've done just now, unhook your tow car. You don't want to take a ferry trip with your tow car hooked onto your rig. It's just too risky. You may be asked to back up as you board the ferry. You just never know. It's not that likely, but it happens. And secondly, you could bottom out with your hitch as you drop down onto the deck of the ferry. You just never know what that transition is going to be like. So just leave your car with your spouse or your partner and drive yourself. So that's what we're doing right now. It's just you and me traveling to the ferry. Only 20 miles, a little over 20 miles to the ferry. It's not far. Give yourself maybe 20-30 minutes. And we just drive through the downtown area of Port Angeles. Not a whole lot to see there. It's just a business district. And then we'll find ourselves right here in front of the ferry terminal where you can just pull over. You can see the right-hand lane is designated for ferry traffic. Just pull your rig along there. And if you're uncertain about things, just leave it and walk to the check-in booth and talk with them before you try to get into the lineup at the booth. So let's do that right now. And we'll check in with you again as we get into the ferry. I wouldn't believe a word that woman said. How are you? Just fine. Okay, we're through. So while we're waiting to board the ferry, a few more tips about bringing your RV into Canada. As you can see, we weren't checked at all. So you're not going to be checked at the border until you get to Canada because that's where the border is. Even, well, mind you, the border is in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca that you'll cross. But you won't be examined, if at all, until you get to the Canadian side. So don't worry about that on the U.S. side. Secondly, this ship is a really cool ship. It's old. It's 64 years old. It's owned by the Black Ball Ferry line. And that's a privately owned USA company. It's not part of the Washington State Ferry Fleet. And these guys maintain the ship immaculately. It's a great old ship. So you're perfectly safe. It's a little tight because it's an older ship. You'll see once we're inside that they really jam you in like sardines. And we'll talk a little bit more about that when we get into it. But well, just on the side, please, when you're bringing an RV on, watch and listen to what the guys who are boarding you say to you. Don't second guess them. It's one time where you have to give control of your RV over to them. Because apart from watching your mirrors a little bit, watch them. Otherwise, you'll get into trouble like I did. We were heading south and I was concerned I was going to hit a post when I was asked to back up. And you can see that the chief officer who was loading us kind of ticked off at me. I don't blame him. So just be careful about that. The other thing to take note of is that this ferry cost you, in our case, for a 30 foot motorhome, a small tow car, it was around $250 US one way. And that included a reservation fee, which we would recommend. The trip takes about 90 minutes, an hour and a half. It's really two hours point to point. It's only 22 miles. I mean, you can throw a stone that far, but it takes a while. We'll soon be on the Victoria side. So let's just get aboard the ferry. Enjoy the trip. And we'll see you on the other side. Oh, sorry, I'm back again. I forgot a few things. Important. Fill up with fuel before you leave the USA side because gas in Canada, sorry guys, I know you complain about your fuel prices. We've been paying $6 plus a gallon for years. So the high fuel prices in the US are nothing new to us. The exchange rate kind of kills us. But being from the US, if you're coming to Canada, you're going to gain because of the exchange rate. So that kind of offsets our high price of fuel. Fill up in Port Angeles, you'll save dollars that way. Secondly, don't load up with food or booze. Canada has the most, well British Columbia, has the most antiquated liquor laws in the civilized world. I mean, it's crazy. And you're taxed to the ilk for liquor. So you may say, well, we're going to load up on the USA side if we have to pay that much in Victoria. Please don't because they'll take it away from you. There's a limit on how much liquor you can bring in. So make sure you're aware of what that is. And as for food, there's a lot of food that you can't bring in. So it's better just to leave your fridge kind of empty. Come across and have some fun. And okay, that's it for now. See you aboard. It's just hitting me that we're now back on Canadian soil. You're finally getting rid of us in the USA, but we'll be back. And folks, this is a season finale for our first season traveling with you in Monty. We've been away for 10 months, leaving Victoria last year, traveling to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, through the USA and back again. I hope if you're interested that you go back and look at the 10 previous videos that make up season one. They're attached to this site as a playlist. And please, if you think we're worth it, we'd love it if you would subscribe to our channel, hit the notification bell, and give us a like. Or if you don't want to give us a like, that's okay too. Even just a comment to tell us what we're doing well and not so well.