Oh Canada

When we entered Canada, with our camper-shell filled with everything we owned, the border-guard asked if we had any guns. “Yes Sir, we do, but we will have to unload a lot of things before we can show them to you.” He politely directed us to pull over to a little side-stand, where we must fill out papers in triplicate and plug the barrel of each gun and seal them. There were instructions as to how to do this at the stand. It was self-service  at best, and it seemed like they trusted us to do as we were told. We needed to use a hand-held machine that inserted a plastic plug into the barrel and then seal it into a plastic bag with a Canadian stamped metal seal. When we had this strange job completed and the papers filled out, we crossed the road back to customs and another Royal Canadian Mounted Police came to check on the guns. He told us how important this was, because when we left Canada, our guns would be checked again by the RCMP to make sure each one registered was still sealed, and had not been used. Passports weren’t required at that time, but because we were transporting weapons, the paper work noted who were, how many guns we had, and what caliber they were, plus the serial number of each gun. This gave us a legal license in Canada for sixty days. This was all quite exciting to two young people from Montana, and a great way to start a long trip.

With all our stops and starts we didn’t get very far that first day. By the end of the second day, I was tired of seeing the flatland’s of Montana, and the same in Alberta. It seemed the wheat fields would never end. There were always beautiful mountains in the back-ground, but the highway led us through nothing but flat, straight and not so picturesque country.

After traveling about a thousand mile from our home, we finally arrived in Dawson Creek, British Colombia, and mile 0 of the Alcan highway. I don’t recall if Dawson Creek was overly spectacular or not,  I was just so excited to be there it might have looked better in my eyes than in reality. I think I took a dozen pictures of the sign announcing Mile-Post 0 of the Alcan Highway. It was the beginning of a long-planned  adventure, and it was a reality not a dream.