June 4, 2025
Back in the US of A
Tsawassen, BC to Blaine, WA via a route unknown?
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Another leisurely start to the morning with a hotel breakfast of Starbucks coffee and breakfast sandwiches, pastries, cookies, oatmeal and yogurt. Once all 3 of us loaded our devices with exactly the same route, we rolled out.
The first 3/4’s of the ride was along the waterfront on a gravel dyke road. Mudflats and tidal wetlands on one side and farms and vacation homes on the other; this was interesting to ride. Lots of other people thought so as well as we passed many other cyclists and walkers.
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At the far end of the dyke we returned to rural roads that gradually became bigger roads with more and more traffic as we entered Surrey.
Suddenly none of our devices agreed on where to go, despite being loaded with the same route earlier. Jim and I have exactly the same device and even they didn’t agree with each other. We ended up following Jim, who set up the route to begin with. My device was beeping constantly as it recalibrated, cursing Jim for taking it off-route. Amber grew exceedingly frustrated, not quite knowing where we were going.
It didn’t help that Jim’s route took us through downtown Surrey. Lots of traffic, no shoulder or bike lane and a roughly 400 foot hill full of eternally red stoplights. This all reminded me of why I hate urban riding. Even the downhill was stressful because of the traffic and lights.
Eventually we turned and followed the Surrey waterfront until we ran into the highway leading to our border crossing.
As we turned down the on-ramp to the highway, a wasp or bee flew under my glasses and stung me just below my left eye. Screaming f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, I managed to dislodge the vile insect and safely stop.
Jim rode on, unaware, but Amber heard my expletives and came back. OMG, it burned like no tomorrow and began to swell and weep almost immediately.
Eventually I composed myself and rode down the ramp to meet Jim, who had realized something was up and had turned around. He still had ice in his water bottle, so I rubbed some on the sting, and Benadryl in his pannier, so I took a dose. Then we moved on and joined a queue of cars waiting to cross the border, following the signage which appeared to direct bicycles into the car line.
We naturally picked the slowest line; it took 1hour and 40 minutes to reach the front of the line. Several border officers were milling about and saw us in line. Once we were at the front, we were called up one at a time and the border officer asked us why we didn’t just walk through with the pedestrians? Of course we never saw any signage to direct us there, and none of the officers who saw us waiting could be bothered to redirect us. In any case, he let us back in without too much questioning and we rode into Blaine and quickly found our motel.
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By now my eye area was pretty ouchy and swollen, I was hangry and irritated at the Border folks and loopy from the Benadryl and all I wanted to do was take a shower and get some food. So once we unloaded our luggage and started our nightly explosion all over the extra bed, I stripped down and went to turn on the shower, which shot water out sideways all over the bathroom. After shutting off the water, I went to look at the shower head and it fell apart in my hand. I couldn’t fix it and Jim couldn’t fix it so we got a room change. But I had to redress, put everything away again, then lug our stuff to the new room.
Eventually we did make our way to a Mexican restaurant in what appears to be a sleepy little town, at least the part we are seeing.
Blaine was recently featured on the national news as a border town really hurting from the current US-Canada impasse. Per this report, business is down in Blaine by over 50% due to Canadians boycotting anything US. We encountered the anti-US sentiment in BC to some degree; Canadians are rightfully and righteously pissed at the US. But looking at Blaine, with many closed up storefronts and very quiet streets, you can’t help but feel bad for the businesses and the people being affected by events they have little control over. Except for one building owner who had the entire front window of his building plastered with the worst kind of ultra right-wing drivel and propaganda.
Tomorrow we head to Bellingham, a ride of about 35 miles.
Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 130 miles (209 km)
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I waited a fair amount of time in the car line at the Canadian border last year. No one suggested I go to the pedestrian area either. Although they might not have had one way out there. I think that's where we crossed with you? We spent the night in Newport.
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