Back in the United States, Washington

​It rained all night, and yes, the window at my bedside leaked, making my mattress, sleeping bag, and comforter wet. Yet another reminder that I’m camping. So I loosened things up and hoped that they could dry throughout the course of the day. Even though I had my awning out, to deflect the rain, I have no idea how the rain got in. It was still raining when I left and carefully navigated the mountain roads through this area as a headed towards the border. I really like the area as it was not only forested, some sparsely spread out pine trees, but plenty of deciduous trees. Among these, prairie fields, along a beautiful rocky river. There were signs of sheep nearby. There were several towns that I passed, and I felt that they were quite charming, however, plenty of properties looked like they were dump sites, and in some cases, quite shocking, sadly, filled with junk. I was very close to the border as I approached apple orchards and vineyards. Plenty of vineyard wine-tasting rooms that left me tempted to stop, along with many farm stands. Beautiful farm stands with hanging flowers and fruit, begging to be purchased. I swear it was like a Las Vegas strip of farm markets. I was aching to stop, but I couldn’t. I know I can’t take them over the border, so I had to continue on. I approached the border at Nighthawk Road west of Osoyoos. As far as I know, there was no name for this border crossing. There was nobody around. It was literally as remote as if I were in a third world country, or at the “top of the world” crossing in the Yukon. I stopped at the red light with no one else in front of me, or behind me which seemed like forever until finally, the light turned green, as two men came out waiting for me. There’s really no reason for me to be nervous about this, since I have nothing to hide, and I planned well eating my tomato turkey sandwich with an apple for dessert as an early lunch just 30 minutes prior. The only thing I had left were a few carrot sticks. I was asked every question in the book here. Do you have cannabis, do you have alcohol, do you have more than $10,000 in cash, did you bring back antlers, skins, bones, and what souvenirs did you take back from Canada or Alaska? What was your purpose in Alaska? Who is traveling with you? What type of occupation do you have? Are you alone or traveling with a pet? Do you have produce or fresh meat? They had me open up my slider and the second guy went in and looked into my fridge. Even though I had nothing to hide I still felt like it was an interrogation. They asked me what the spikes were to Jo Jo's coyote vest. I couldn't help it, and almost laughed over that one. No, it's my demonic goth outfit for Jo Jo. I am grateful and happy to be in the United States! I aimed for a camp spot, a couple of hours out towards Spokane. But I did find one slightly short of that called Sherman Pass Camp. It’s in the national forest and I paid the whopping sum of three dollars, half price for my senior America the beautiful national park pass. So far at almost 7 PM, there is nobody else here. It’s already off-season and quite chilly. It’ll probably be a furnace and long pajama night tonight. 



























Comments

  1. freebird26_2September 1, 2023 at 1:32 PM

    Holy crap!! That border crossing interrogation was ridiculous! 😖But the JoJo thing was hilarious! 🤭I wonder if a female guard would've done that?? Me thinks not. Intuition vs testosterone🤔🙄 Welcome back???

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    Replies
    1. SylviaSeptember 2, 2023 at 12:23 PM

      I am pretty sure a female officer would have done things completely differently. These were to assertive men. And here I am an old lady. It’s kind of not funny that I was made to feel as if I was doing something wrong. It’s just the way they posed the questions and the kind of questions that seemed like it had nothing to do with crossing the border! Personally, I think they’re a little derailed when they see an older woman traveling alone in the middle of nowhere. We’re still living back in the Stone Age!

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