Heading to Bellingham

 

Unbenowest to Ari & me, our route guided us to take the Port Townsend ferry to Bellingham. We were pretty nervous about the idea of taking a ferry with the horses, but it was awesome!

It cost around $80 for the trailer, the senior driver and his passenger. The trailer was the big expense. The driver cost $1.80 and I cost $3.80.

Vehicles are lined up to get on the ferry. Sadly, I was not allowed to leave the vehicle so I was stuck taking pictures from inside the truck.

We were guided onto the ferry and the vehicles are packed close together.

I took this picture inside the ferry looking back at our trailer. We are already at sea at this point, but see how it is open on both ends? We are basically on a barge, but passengers are above us. A little bummed that we weren't allowed out of the truck. I had a cooler in the truck with our lunch and my Surface laptop, so we ate lunch and streamed "Grey's Anatomy" on my laptop during the cruise.

One of our friends had suggested that we take a ferry from Washington to Alaska to avoid the Canadian rules regarding COVID-19. If we had known it would be this easy, we might have done it, but at this point it is too late in the year to make the attempt, plus I have reservations through the rest of the year at various campsites, so our itinerary is set.

This will be our option when we try to do Alaska next year, perhaps.

Washington is a beautiful state. I took this picture on the drive to our destination.

Friends, Eric and Elaine Raines, wanted us to visit during this Big Trip. They told us they had several acres and would be able to put us up with no issues.

Well, our first challenge was getting in their driveway. It's hard to see, but on the left side of the driveway is a culvert with a large drain. Between their large business sign on the left and all their other items on the right, it was a challenge just getting into the driveway.

The next challenge was low hanging cables over the driveway that caught on the roof of the trailer.

We ended up taking out one of their cables. Here's Eric up on their roof trying to fix it. The downed cable didn't affect their electricity or their television, so hopefully it was just an old cable that was no longer in use.

We set up our portable corral in their backyard and the horses settled in nicely. There is a grove of fruit trees and the horses appreciate all the apples.

Elaine says hi to the horses. Elaine is a true animal lover. She rescues cats, has chickens, and feeds the wildlife.

Elaine outdid herself - laying out a HUGE spread of food for us. We felt positively spoiled.

Ari enjoyed this Sangria with dinner. I passed because I am a light-weight and didn't want to fall asleep on our fabulous hosts.

These were part of the desert course and they are really excellent. Elaine says she buys them at Big Lots and they are gluten free, which is nice.

We are in the guest room which is - well - lovely. 

We are here for the next few days to rest up before we start off on the next leg of our trip.