Friday, June 20^th: When we arrived at the border we immediately went to the US Customs office to sort out my Carnet de Passage for the motorcycle. According to Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) guidelines to terminate the carnet (and thus get our money back), I had to have a US Customs agent confirm that I had indeed re-imported the bike back into the US and have him sign and stamp the last page of the carnet. Well, officials in the US are no different than they are in other countries. On the upside they recognized the carnet immediately. On the downside they didn’t want to listen to what I wanted and went about trying to stamp "in" one of my souches (coupon). This is like treating me like a foreign citizen temporarily importing a vehicle. It took several minutes of me explaining to the agent and his supervisor that what I needed was for them to sign the specific page at the end (which by the way is in English and very clear) that it is now back in the US permanently. Boy, you’d think I was trying to teach them advanced calculus by the way they reacted to me. Well, in the end the agent signed the form in the back AND stamped "out" my souche------go figure! Hopefully the CAA will accept this and release our bond.

Just across the border in Canada is Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. And, here lives world travelers Grant and Susan Johnson. Many of you know them either from their presentations at BMW rallies, encountering them on the road, or from their very popular and useful website www.HorizonsUnlimited.com. We met Grant and Susan 5 years ago at the BMW rally in Missoula, Montana and they were some of the travelers who inspired us to do this trip. Now, we were going to see them again and have lots to share and catch up on! It’s sort of like the story about the Belgian guy we met in Morocco at the beginning of our trip who we couldn’t really communicate with because we didn’t speak a common language. Three years later we bumped into the same guy in Argentina and then spent 3 days together sharing stories and communicating just fine together in Spanish!  Grant and Susan greeted us with open arms (and yummy Nanaimo bars!) and we all stayed up way past our bedtimes (with the help of chocolate and sugar) that night talking.

Sunday, June 22^nd: Caught the BC Ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island. The ferry takes a very scenic passage through many small islands before docking just a short way from downtown Victoria. Several passengers said often seen are pods of Orca whales in these passages. Although the sun was shining, the sky was crystal clear it was not our day to see them.

Living in Victoria are our old friends Cindy and Dan who we met on the road in the Northern Territory of Australia. Together with Anke and Jan from Germany, we all traveled together off and on down through Western Australia to Perth. They were waiting for us with big steaks on the grill and homemade wine! It was great to catch up with them and check out their bikes (Cindy has a new, totally geared out DR 650).

Tues, June 24^th: Chris and Simi came to town the night before for a BBQ with Cindy and Dan's biker friends.  After breakfast this morning with C & S, Chris and I booked ourselves on a whale watching tour.  After a 1-hour, high speed ride in a zodiac-type launch, we found 2 of the 3 pods of Orcas that live in these waters.   The boat was positioned directly in their path and the massive twin engines were cut off.  As we bobbed up and down in the gentle waters, the great creatures swam towards us in groups of 2-3.  The massive dorsal fins sliced towards us, submerging at the last moment below our boat.  The most exciting times were when they breached the water -- jumping straight up out of the water, then falling down on their sides, creating a huge splash!  Of course, getting the timing right and snapping a photo of this was impossible -- a video camera would have been better.  After all 44 mammals passed by, we repositioned the boat further down the channel, as the parade came by for a second pass.  It was an incredible experience! 

Wednesday, June 25^th: We bid farewell to Cindy and Dan, and took the ferry from Nanaimo back to Vancouver -- these island passages are definite eye-candy.  Two hours after riding off the ferry, we arrive at Whistler ski resort.  The resort seems as alive in the summer, as it does in the winter.  As we rested under a tree, we watched dozens of teen-agers walking past, coming off the mountain snowboard camp.