Sandy and I both got to use our new passports for the first time when we spent a few hours in Canada on Friday. We crossed the border north of Eureka, MT, then turned west through Cranbrook and Creston, British Columbia. Logging country, for sure, with beautiful peaks and lovely, broad, fertile valleys.
After shivering in Yellowstone for the past week, and traveling hundreds of miles further north, we were amazed to find how green and flowering this area is ... ahead of the Mancos Valley, even, although everyone was complaining about how late spring was this year.
The streets of Creston had blooming flower beds and hanging baskets everywhere. Granny's Place served good portions (liver and onions for me) with pleasant service, and I can't remember when I last bought a lunch that included dessert (rhubarb crackle, made with fresh rhubarb) in the price of the lunch! We later found a stand where we could buy fresh asparagus ... heavenly!
We took a small detour to see the fertile fields and the orchards of the FLDS community in the Creston area. They call it Bountiful (Lister on the maps) and it is, indeed, bountiful. Though we respected the "Keep Out" signs, this is not a walled community like the YFZ Ranch in Texas that Warren Jeffs' close followers constructed. When I was last here, in 2006, Winston Blackmore said the Bountiful community was split between those who followed Jeffs ("Warren-ites") and those who were allied with Winston ("Winston-ites?"); can't imagine that it's any different now.
Heading on west, intermittent rain was broken by a beautiful patch of sunlight on a rushing river.
We were let back into the US, after being relieved of oranges we had taken with us into Canada (the fresh asparagus was okay, though, thank goodness!). So, I'm back in the US with a Canadian 10-dollar bill, which I got in change from the asparagus purchase. How to get rid of it? Last time, my local bank wouldn't make the exchange, so I figured I'd better ditch this near the border. Aha! I'll buy coffee in Matarine Falls, WA, (near which Sandy once lived) and get back change I can use. The little old lady in the cafe there was slow physically ... I had to wait while the (weak) coffee finished brewing ... but she was quick mentally: I now have a Canadian 5-dollar bill and a 2-dollar coin!
Anyway, re-entry included experiencing rush-hour traffic in Spokane, which Sandy navigated us through adeptly, and a pleasant evening with my daughter and her family.
Our intent is to slide down I-90 to Livingston and get back into Yellowstone Saturday night, so, if that plan works, we will be out of touch again for some time, probably till the 7th, when we emerge into the sunlight again. tv
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