2013 Trans Canada, Part 1 - Eh!

Our plan is to take the train to Vancouver, British Columbia and head east to Calgary, Alberta on our bikes then head south to Glacier National Park and daughter Lori's place in Kalispell, Montana. Then we will catch the train in Whitefish to return home.

Tuesday, June 25 - Not an auspicious way to get ready for a tour. Donna crashed in the rain on our way home from the gym.  Fortunately, the elbow ended up being the only really sore spot. Might as well get the one crash per tour over early! We are planning to start our trip tomorrow.

June 26 - It rained last night so the yard and garden were happy as we left for Albany mid-afternoon. We are going to spend the night there as the train leaves fairly early tomorrow morning.

Following the Old Santiam Wagon Road west through Lebanon.

Doug told Donna to take the fork in the road but it looked a little big to fit in her pannier.

June 27 outside the Albany Amtrak station.

Bikes boxed and ready to go!

And we are ready to go too, hopefully to the same place as our bikes. Megan met us for lunch at the Portland station while we were waiting for our train connection to Seattle.

We made it to Seattle on time, however our bikes were still in Portland.

It is not a good idea for big boxes to cross the international border without their companions so this very helpful agent helped us get our tickets changed to the same train containing our bikes. So much for our plan to arrive in Vancouver in daylight. 

Gave us plenty of time to check out the newly renovated station.

We noticed a group of men with Tuskegee Airmen caps so we got nosy, and got their story. This fellow was the organizer of their Arizona group's tour to Vancouver in support of new exhibits about the Lost Canadians, Chinese-Canadian WWII veterans. There was one  actual WWII veteran in the group. He is 91 years old and very spry. Doug got to shake his hand and thank him for his service.

There goes the sun......down at 9:30.

Hurray! We are reunited with our bikes and ready to go through customs.....if we can get them through the door.

Almost have them all together with no spare parts.

The good news is that it stopped raining just as we left the station at midnight.

We had stayed at Mickey's Kit Beach B&B in 2008 and knew how to find it in the dark, finally getting to  bed at oh dark thirty.