The Sea to Sky Highway between Whistler and Vancouver is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives anywhere. Unfortunately, it was raining this morning and foggy, so it was a bit like my Icefields Parkway drive of a couple of days ago, but with even worse brakes.
So I get into Vancouver about ten in the morning and start googling for car repair places, but none the chains I know were in operation in Canada and the few auto repair places I found weren't open on Saturday, so I decided to head to the border.
The border crossing took at least an hour, all the time my brakes and wheels are seizing up everytime I move forward the twenty feet as another car gets through. I just know its going to completely lock up right there in the middle of a sea of a thousand cars -but it didn't.
The border agent was nice and asked to inspect my car, which was stuffed to the gills with camping stuff. I warned him that if he opened a door, stuff might fall out, but he did anyway and sure enough a big bag of dirty clothes spilled out right there on the international demarcation line. At that point, he decided he'd done enough inspection and he let me pass on through back to the home of the free, the brave, and reasonably priced nachos -thank goodness.
A short trip to Bellingham, Washington and a stop to a Sears (fine American brand) Auto Service, several hundred dollars and several hours, and my brakes are back in working order.
Due to the automotive delays, I didn't make it into Portland as planned and instead spent the night camping near Mount Rainier, which lived up to its name, since it rained nearly the entire time I was there. Can't you see it (left) through all those clouds? I'm sure its beautiful.Anyway, the campsite said that someone would come around to collect the fee, but they must not like the rain (strange that they work there) and never came around, so I got another free night's sleep - money that will go to pay for the new brakes.
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