October 06, 1998.  Tuesday.  No time.

   Day 7.  74,260 miles on the odemeter.  Left Nairn Falls Provincial
Park at 11:15 am.  Used the
pump at the park to get water.  Dang, that water was dirty.  Used it
to brush my teeth.  The temperature was nice.  The guy at the campsite
next to me was wearing shorts.  Imagine, a week ago I was driving 
through heavy snow, and now people dressed like it's summer.  That's so
crazy.
   There was an elderly couple in a Ford Tempo who set up camp late
on the other side of me and they left already.  Generally, I'm always
one of the last people to leave.
   After 6 days, I finally found some signs of civilization.  The city
of Whistler, British Columbia was my first indication that I was no
longer in the middle of nowhere.  In fact Whistler is a wealthy area
with very nice homes.  The roads are biker friendly.  The odd thing
I saw here which I've never seen anywhere else is the large amount of
people hitchhiking.  It seemed like this was the thing to do to get
around.  A lot of young kids were hitch hiking.  Canada must be
extremely safe.  Even saw a young lady get picked up.  This area is
very scenic.
   Just yesterday I saw people living minimally in tiny homes and now
I see probably half million dollar homes.
   The road from Whistler to Vancouver is very nice.  Even nicer than
the drive in south Anchorage.  However, there were lots of twists and
turns at times.
   Headed into Vancouver, British Columbia.  I've heard Vancouver had
the largest Chinatown in Canada, and I wanted to check it out.  After
driving around in North Vancouver, I knew it wasn't there.  Then I
headed into South Vancouver, and still could not find it.  I saw Chinese
restaurants and Oriental people here and there, but no sign of a large
Chinatown.
   Before leaving Vancouver, stopped at Great Pho.  Like all the
Vietnamese restaurants I've ever eaten at before, it had lousy service.
They take the order, bring the food.  And if lucky, the waitress might
come back once.  I didn't even want to leave a $1 tip.  The owner of
the restaurant gave me directions to Seattle.  They should have named
it Great Pho, Terrible Service.  I think it's because Vietnamese
restaurants don't train their people on service.  Only the restaurants
which cater to non-Vietnamese have decent service.
   When I went back out to my truck, that's when I noticed the green
University of Alaska Anchorage was gone from the rooftop box.  Boy,
was I angry.  I thought someone had tore it off, but later, I thought it just
flew off.  That sticker cost 75 cents at the university in Anchorage,
but heck, I can't just buy another one easily.  That Alaska sticker
marked the beginning of this road trip.
   I was still wearing my thermal socks.
   Made it into the United States via Highway 5 to Seattle.  For a few
hours, I was caught up in the traffice of people rushing from one place
to another.  Passed by Bellingham, Washington, the city I would have
stopped at if I had taken the ferry from Haines, Alaska.  Stopped in
Everette to fuel up before heading into Seattle.
   A road sign for gas and restaurants ahead had Golden Grill on it.  In
parenthesis, it had "Lousy Service," which was actually funny
   Spent the evening with some relatives in Seattle.  It was almost one
year ago that I came to Seattle.
   Today was the first time I did not send a postcard.