And then there was ...Canada

in a little light rain.

They let us in after quite a bit of questioning - how long are we intending to stay (4 months), do we work, what income do we have, how long have we owned the bus, are we taking it back to the US? etc, etc. When the border guard asked if we had a firearm for personal protection I was tempted to say that I didn't know we needed one - I thought you lot were supposed to be more friendly than the US....

we are now at a campsite in Waterloo (home of RIM) and will be here for just under 5 weeks. We didn't realise until we got talking to some Canadians in Florida that Canada doesn't really open for business for camping until 1st May, and then when we were phoning round the area most campsites are going to be a couple of weeks late in opening because of the amount of cleanup work they have to do after such a bad winter. So, no point trying to tour before places are open, so we got a month's deal here at the only open site in about a 50 mile radius. Blair and Cheryl live in Kitchener about 12 miles away, and want to do some things with us, so we will get some jobs done and use this as a base for visiting Toronto, Niagara falls and other things in the area until the Victoria day holidays on May 19th.

Looking at the Canada maps in detail, once we start touring we may not go over to the east coast and Newfoundland on this visit as it is a long, long way, so we may choose to do that another year when we are up in New England. So, this time we may go as far east as Montreal then turn around and head for the west coast, maybe aiming to be in Calgary for the stampede in early July.

We will still try and get up to Alaska around mid-late august. It closes around mid-September, but hoping that and the Yukon are our best chances to see the northern lights and there is no point doing that at midsummer when it doesn't go dark. Then fall in British Columbia and look to park Badger up for the winter at the end of October and head back to the UK to visit for about a month.

They didn't say how long we are allowed to stay , but as we are leaving the country anyway each time we come back is on its merits and we will have to go through the same questions. But if the bus is already here at least we can argue that if they don't let us back in then they are stuck with it - exactly what they seem to want to avoid.