This retirement stuff can be quite pleasant. This morning started cloudy and we thought that going exploring into the mountains was, therefore, right out. We settled in for some leisurely showering and our morning spine straighteners of coffee and Irish Cream. However, we soon became bored. Peggy started researching rhubarb pie prep and and I was wiggling around so we decided to take a nice drive due east to the town of Lynden, where there is a fancy Safeway grocery store.
Our intent was to acquire some corn starch and white death flour for the crust but Peggy foolishly allowed me to actually go into the store with her. The result was we ended up with two shopping bags full of stuff, plus a half case of Deschutes Black Butte Porter. Plainly, Peggy doing any shopping is more efficient and less costly when she is not burdened with my feckless assistance.
Leaving the super Safeway and passing by some weird Russian ORVs called Sherps (see pix), we headed due north for a few miles and soon found ourselves trapped in the striped lanes approaching the Canadian border. We turned around, an event surely recorded by many DHS CCTV cameras, because it was not our intent to enter Canada, at least not today. Instead, we turned west on a skinny road called H Street. H Street runs parallel to the border and the view out our right side was Canada. On our left we only spotted one Border Patrolman, dozing in his big Ford SUV.
After a few miles of dead-straight border frontage road, we drove into the gorgeous town of Blaine. It is located right up in the NW corner of Washington. Any further north and you are in Canada and any further west and you’re in the Pacific. We kept driving until we hit the bay which, for some reason, they call Drayton Harbor. Right close to the end of the road we came across a small food trailer called Alaska Wild Fish & Chips Co. We put in our orders for F&C and found some seats at a wood picnic table already occupied by a guy named Ray Cadman.
We asked Ray if he lived around Blaine and he said, “Only for the last 83 years.” He went on to explain that he moved to Blaine when he was three and had been there since except when he was in the Navy during the Korean War. We quizzed him on the food we were waiting for and he indicated he had driven a long way to get fish at this place. He had it right – our fish and chips soon arrived and it was excellent. The food was great but the conversation we had with Ray was extremely interesting. He told us several great stories about hanging out in the border area. One personal tidbit involved him accidentally hauling a trailer containing a small amount of cow manure residue into Canada when he went there to buy gas during the gas rationing in the U.S. during the 70’s. On the way back, he was stopped by Customs for attempting to smuggle Canadian cow shit into the U.S. and was harangued for about 30 minutes before being allowed to enter without having to sacrifice his plainly valuable and dangerous load.
Our dining ended up taking about an hour and a half but it was great getting to hobnob with a savvy local about this area. He warned us not to be fooled by the current, balmy weather. He remembers some winters with snow drifts as high as the streetlights and below-zero temperatures. I think we’ll keep on living in the southern half of the country in winter and up north in the summer. We’re too old and clever for that snow stuff.
On our five mile drive toward our current RV park, we cruised along the edge of Semiahmoo Bay. We could plainly see Surrey, B.C., on the other side. It looked very busy and crowded.
You can see the weird overpriced Russki ORV if you click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/b1Zsd94FKWABAWtr7