Good evening and welcome to day 1 of the continuation of a journey of a lifetime, at this moment I am in a small RV Park in Elma, which is a small town just past Olympia on the way to the 101 coastal highway. I have just finished dinner, a beef stew that I got from the Granary and froze and now heated up, it was delicious and now listening to the Vancouver Canucks hockey game on the computer, life is not bad.

Last night my poker buddies, although I can hardly call them buddies, stole 20 dollars from me oblivious to the fact that I am retired and in desperate need of ferry money! I stayed last night in Ramona and it was cold but I did sleep well till 4.30am. As I was awake I decided to drive to the ferry terminal to see if I could get on the 5.15am ferry, even though I had a reservation for the 7.40am ferry. At the tollbooth I was told I probably would not make it so I drove into the correct lane and the trucks and motor homes were already boarded and I was in a line with 7 big motor homes in front of me. I turned the engine off and was prepared to spend a couple of hours waiting when one of the ferry terminal workers came and told me they had room for one small vehicle and as the other motor homes in front of me were too big, I was on. What good fortune and as you can see from the photo there is no more room after me. I have had such good fortune with the Ferries for over three years now and what a perfect start for me.

As I approached the Peace Arch border crossing the radio was stating waits of over one hour already but as I was smart last year I had my Nexus card, which is a card that is applied for and given by the two Border agencies after a lengthy background check, but it expediates the crossing times. There was no traffic in the Nexus lane at all. I took a shot of the Arch as I was driving by and you can see all the traffic. I showed my card drove to the booth and the US Immigration Officer just asked me where I was going and I told him Mexico and he wished me a safe trip. It took maybe 10 seconds and I was on my way.

The drive down the Interstate was a good one and the weather was bright and sunny. Just outside of Mount Vernon at the bridge on the opposite side of the Interstate there was a terrible multi car pile up. It looked like as many as 30 vehicles all backed into one another and the traffic on that side was backed up for miles, I sure hope the injuries were not too serious.

I stopped at the dealership where I purchased Ramona and had a small cosmetic problem attended to and then on my way. At about 5.30pm I pulled into this RV Park and now settled for the evening. I joined a club called Passport of America camping club, annual membership 45 dollars and they are affiliated with hundreds of RV parks all over the USA and a few in Mexico and they offer half price rates. For this site I paid 13 dollars and for that I get peace, quiet, security, electrical hook up, sewer and water and cable TV if I wanted, hot showers, so a great deal.

The photo of down town Seattle was taken from the highway, I know this is not wise but I am very careful, this photo is special to me because after 911 this was the first big city that I drove through that year on my way to Mexico and it was only after driving through and seeing the enormity of the buildings did I get a better idea of the awful destruction on that day.

The other photos are taken of the ferry terminals and the lovely sunrise. So my first day was a great success and I enjoyed it all. One thing I will bear in mind is that in the future, if possible, I want to be off the road and settled before dark. So now it is a cup of tea and some banana bread (thank you Annie) and watch a movie.

Sorry about the long post but I just get carried away and I really enjoy this. I have had many people tell me that they travel with me through this so I hope you enjoyed the first day as well, take care…