Day 6: Cache Creek, British Columbia

I drove about 400 miles today, including several stops at stores (trying to find tire chains, with no luck), and crossing the Canadian border. I'm now in a town named Cache Creek, British Columbia.

Cache Creek is a small town of maybe 200 people, south of Prince George. I would have liked to make it farther down the road today, but I was getting really tired, and decided it would be best to pull over.

The motel I'm staying at in Cache Creek is a "Sandman" motel. I remember the Sandman hotel chain from my last visit, but this motel is a little scary looking, and I wouldn't stop here if it didn't have the Sandman name on the front.

If I had taken five minutes and driven around this small town before deciding to stay at this motel, I would have stayed at another motel in a nicer-looking area, but hopefully this will be fine. The thing that scares me in particular is the set of trailer homes that sit directly behind the motel.

I just finished eating dinner at the restaurant located in the front of this hotel. They actually specialize in Greek food, so I ordered some Gyros, and their tiki sauce was excellent. There are a couple of fast-food restaurants here in town, but at this point in the trip I'm definitely ready for something besides fast food, and the nice little Greek salad on the side was very good as well. The people in the motel and restaurant have also been exceptionally nice to me.

I learned from pictures on the wall that part of John Cusack's movie "2012" was filmed here. The movie was actually called "Farewell Atlantis" during filming, so I didn't make the connection until I looked it up on IMDB. That's pretty cool.

As a final note, I've been told that while bears are not a problem here, they have had a problem with cougars(!). I don't remember all the details of the story, but at least one cougar was killed here within the last year, and they said the cougar's body length was longer than the 6'3" man who killed it. That's one big cat!

Crossing the Canadian border

Crossing the border into Canada through Canadian customs was straightforward, though it took about 45 minutes. The first agent asked me many questions, then finally asked me to park over to the side, and step inside. I gave a second agent inside my visa and driver's license, and he did a background check on me, eventually allowing me to pass into Canada.

A man parked next to me wasn't so lucky. It looked like his vehicle was searched, and he was putting it back together. When I asked if I was supposed to go inside, he said, "Yes ... and be prepared, you're going to get reamed."