Back in the USA, Baby!

Back in Vancouver, our new BMW/Ducati riding Brazilian friends that we met when Roel got to “rescue” the Ducati from the wilds surrounding Whistler, hosted us at their lovely home in the city.



Paulo and Cecilia are planning their own adventure and had lots of questions and queries. We spent a lot of time talking about gear and equipment, safety, etc. They thought others in their riding community might be interested to hear our story and so they arranged to have us give a presentation about our travels at their local BMW/Ducati Dealership, which was a blast. We got to reconnect with Susan and Grant from Horizons Unlimited and fielded a ton of awesome questions from those who joined us.



Eager to get back into the US and start our journey South, we headed to the border early the next morning. We would have 10 days to make it to Sonoma in time to begin our (paid) internship at Flowers Winery.

The hectic thing about the US border, or any border I suppose, for a foreigner, is that even if you have a visa, there is never a guarantee that you will be granted access to the country you seek to enter.

We waited in line at the Peace Arch crossing with all of the other cars to get to a little booth, whereupon Roel (and I) were sent to another area to park. And yet to another area inside a building to wait in line. And wait. And wait. To the tune of 3 hours. 3 nail-biting, pit-staining, silent "what-if" asking hours.


Quite possibly the longest, slowest-moving line I have ever stared down.

But alls well that ends well, and with Roel's passport freshly stamped, we were welcomed back into the US.

Cue "Giant Sigh of Relief."