More on getting to Vancouver

We set out hitchhiking on Sunday, September 7 at 12pm at the 41st St. I-5 northbound entrance. We stood on the east side of the on-ramp, just south of the "Hitchhikers Prohibited" sign. Brendan was wearing sunglasses and held a sign that said "Canada" and used his thumb and I took some notes.

We got 2 waves, 1 "I'm only going a little ways" hand signal (thumb and forefinger spaced about an inch apart), 1 "hang-ten" sign plus a "whoo!", 1 thumbs up, 1 enigmatic shrug, 1 honk+wave, 1 nod, 2 points to the sky, 1 yell of "rock!" and 1 "I'm not going to Canada." The entrance was moderately busy. Over the course of one minute at 12:14pm 7 potential rides passed, and likewise at 12:17 12 potential rides passed. At times there would be bursts of 20 or so potential rides.

At 12:22pm we got picked up by Darryl (names have been changed), driving a 2 door grey Saab. It's amazing the things you can learn about a person in a short car ride. When you don't know someone at all, every detail they tell you seems like such an opening up, almost as if they are trusting you with their lives, and that's the most beautiful thing about hitchhiking to me. Both the people picking up and those doing the hitching are offering a huge amount a trust in one another. I love it.

Anyway, Darryl was laid off last week from his construction work job. He has a couple side jobs but he was worried about money and finding a new job. He never went to college and is following in his father's footsteps by working in construction. He was on his way to his parents' home to pick up his kids. He must have become a dad very young; he only appeared to be in his early 20s. We told him about our plans to write a book about hitchhiking and he seemed excited about our project and that he might be a part of our story. Darryl just took us as far as exit 202 in Marysville.

We'd been waiting probably less than 2 minutes when we got picked up at 12:37pm by a middle-aged couple in a Chrysler going all the way to Vancouver, where they live. They'd been in Seattle visiting their daughter and son-in-law, who both went to UW and graduated about 6 years ago. They are from South Korea and have lived in Vancouver about 10 years.

At approximately 2:05pm we got to the border patrol and, looking at our passports, the officer asked us how we were related to our drivers. We responded that we were hitchhikers and he said "We frown upon hitchhiking in Canada." We said "Really?" and he said yes and asked us if what he saw was all we had with us and we said yes. Then he told us to get out of the car with our stuff and he told our driver "You shouldn't pick up hitchhikers." We got out and the officer told our drivers to go on and us to to go to the office. At the office Brendan asked point-blank if hitchhiking is illegal in Canada and the officer said it certainly was and he was trying to be subtle in front of our drivers. Later we wondered why on earth he was trying to be subtle--if hitchhiking is really illegal in Canada shouldn't Canadians be the first to know? Now I wonder if it's just that he was lying to us because several other resources we've seen have said hitchhiking is not illegal in Canada.

The officer checked out our ticket to Las Vegas and told us we should take the bus to Vancouver. We were so upset at Canada and that officer and that we hadn't had a chance to say goodbye or thank you to our drivers, but we took a little break and ate some sandwiches we'd packed and at least then we weren't hungry. We talked to some folks at the information center about how to catch the nearest bus and get to Vancouver. It's ridiculous, really. One has to cross 4 lanes of freeway and walk along the side of the freeway and cross an on ramp and climb up a hill and over a cement wall and cross another road in order to get to the bus. And this is something pedestrians who cross the border frequently are used to doing!

As we climbed the little wall and the bus stop came to sight we realized the bus was approaching and we were still some distance away, so we ran to catch it. The delightful driver welcomed us aboard and said he would buy our tickets for us. He asked us where we from and said he was from Seattle and told us we had to try Dixie's in Bellevue and tell them he said hello. He told us what other bus to take to get us to Vancouver and then proceeded to converse with us the entire ride. He'd been a mortician in Seattle, but since permits and licenses don't necessarily cross the border and he didn't want to go back to school, he became a bus driver.

He dropped us off in Surrey where we caught a bus to downtown Vancouver and from there the Skytrain to the street where we stayed. It turned out we were at the opposite end of the street from where we needed to be, but a long walk got us there eventually.