On the road again

After collecting Maggie we were back on the road. First stop, strangely enough was to head north. Not ideal camping weather but we needed to collect some belongings we had left in Canada and even more strange was the desire to again sleep in the tent! We camped in a small campground by the beach a few hours drive north of Seattle, but the tourist attraction for us was not the beautiful scenery, but the nearby shopping centre. Our first stop was Cabellas, an enormous camping, fishing, hunting and sports store. We entered without need nor desire to purchase, but merely to look around and temporarily escape the cooler climate of the outdoors. There was a massive selection of the obvious tents, hiking gear, fishing lines and all things camo. Then there was the somewhat foreign hunting section, complete with duck whistles, and large model deer. Further down we got to knives (not just your standard Swiss Army style, but killer machetes as well), the archery section with menacing crossbows and then came the clincher. The busiest section of all, overflowing with men, women and children we found ourselves smack in the middle of the gun section. I grew up in a country that, after one horrific mass shooting, has incredibly tight gun laws and having spent a vast amount of my adult life living in a country where policeman don’t even carry guns, the very sight of a gun sends a wave of uneasiness. Now, I have no problem with people hunting with guns when used in an appropriate manner, but there was something deeply unnerving about the sight of a pimple faced teenager holding a machine gun. I’m not sure if that is better or worse than the young mum holding her small child as her husband purchases her a gun telling her that she now needs to to defend herself and their child (against who we wondered? Other people with guns I suspect). The guns for sale came in all shapes and sizes and I am no expert in the field, but the range extended far beyond duck and deer hunting. Whilst there are clearly laws and restrictions in place when it comes to buying guns, my mind was working overtime to try and process how easily accessible they are. Couple that with the scores of mass shootings in America and the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck, my arms prickling with goosebumps and my stomach doing somersaults, I knew it was time to leave.
We sought safety and convention next door in Walmart to do some groceries. Having stocked up on food supplies I headed to the pharmacy section to find some tampons. Hayden, not that interested in coming with me went off to explore. I found what I was looking for and rounded the corner to see Hayden walking towards me. He steeled my around the corner and one aisle over you wouldn’t believe what we were faced with. Yep. Guns. And just in case you wanted to feel utter feminine whilst hunting, feel free to arm yourself with the pink rifle on offer.
Guns aside we returned to our campsite and rekindled our relationship with camp cooking, fires and sleeping in a tent.
We eventually made our way back up to Canada and made ourselves at home at Ryan and Joel’s place. Whilst in Vancouver we visited Rocky Mountain Parts (the company that made our suspension system as well as our overdrive and door tops). Our suspension had not been sitting that well, but we were given a few extra springs to fit to see if that would solve the problem as well as a new lock for the window as one of ours was broken. We then went to the home of the overdrove (the business is now divided in two, one person takes sole charge of the overdrives and the other is responsible for the rest). We were kindly met at Ray’s amazing home and were given some sound advice on the type of oil to run through the gear box and transfer box as well as the kind offer of a workspace to complete all this work. We were also allowed into the secret world under the house that is the epicentre of the Rocky Mountain Romerdrive.
Aside from working on Maggie, we spent some time being couch sloths due to the rainy weather and Joel’s Netflix account, watching ‘Making A Murderer’ in a couple of days.
Come Monday we had the need to move again (that and Joel’s mum was arriving and we needed to vacate the spare bed). We bid our farewells to the boys and Claire and left Vancouver for the final time and headed stateside.
Our border crossing was an interesting one. The lady at the gate checked over our passports, did a lap around the car and asked about our plans in the United States. She then posed the question of ‘how much money do you have?’ I interpreted this as how much money we had access to, and in order to prove that we could sustain ourselves and would not be looking for work I told how much was in the bank account. She filled out some paperwork and sent us to secondary inspection. We drove around the corner, parked the car and went inside to join the queue. About half an hour later it was our turn at the desk. It then transpired that the reason for our secondary inspection was nothing to do with the vehicle, but due to the fact that we were carrying a large amount of cash. I quickly explained that the amount of money was in the bank and that the question had been misinterpreted and that I had, in fact, only twenty bucks in my purse! Either way he asked a few more questions and we had to admit that we had some Cuban cigars (we didn’t mention that we had been allowed to bring them into the US previously). Because of this he needed to inspect the car to find them so we handed him the car keys (you are not allowed to accompany the officers, they have the right to fully search your vehicle without you). We took a seat on the bench and waited no longer than ten minutes for the officer to return and ask for help as to how you actually get into the back of the vehicle. Whilst the rest of the staff teased him for not being able to search a car we escorted him out and Hayden opened the back and took the cigars out of his bag and handed them over. We asked if he needed us to pull anything else out and he very quickly shook his head with a ‘no way’ comment, it was clear that it was a far too time consuming job! Once again, we were welcomed stateside.