So we amped ourselves up to take the big leap and crossed the border. We had mentally prepared ourselves for quite a grilling at the border, but it could not have been easier. Because of our length we had to use the semi truck lane, which was completely clear. When we arrived at the window, we handed over our passport and answered 2 questions, and were asked to pull forward. We drove past some sort of (I can only assume) scanning machine, then were handed our passports back and set off on our way. Phew. We weren’t doing anything wrong, but it felt like there was a lot of pressure because this leg of the trip really relied on getting into the USA.
Kirsten had found a Harvest Host not too far from the border at a beef farm. To our surprise when we put it into the GPS, it was only 15 minutes after the border in a little town called Lynden. We showed up and again got a nice treat for being so long, we parked in the field in the back where we were all alone. We got to talk to one of the owners for some time while they took us for a tour of the farm.
We learned a bit about the Wagyu beef they were raising: in short, it is the same type of cows which would produce Kobe beef that comes from Japan, but in order to be called Kobe it must be raised in Japan in a certain way. Japan also no longer exports those cows, so the cows on this farm were descendants of the few that made it to the USA during a period of time where Japan was allowing exports.
We felt so comfortable at the farm that we decided to extend our stay another couple nights and cancel the next stop we had planned. We had a check engine light on in the truck and staying in one spot allowed us to troubleshoot this. I had purchased a code reader a couple days earlier that told us it was something related to the mass airflow sensor. I started by cleaning up a couple ground points and cleaned the sensor. We took the truck for a drive and it was running smoother than it had since we bought it! Niko helped me get the supplies from town (and spent some extra time at the farm supply store) and Mason was happy to get his hands dirty to help fix the truck.
Extending our stay also meant that we were here on July the 4th! This was quite an experience. Neither of us had done an independence day in the USA. Our host said we could see fireworks from their property, but we wanted to explore the town of Lynden a bit so we decided to bike into town to see if there was any show going on there. As we rode we saw many different people setting off fireworks in their yards, which we stopped to watch a few. We talked to a few locals who said there is no specific show, just everyone doing their own thing.
The town of Lynden is a small, cute, Dutch-themed town where everything felt very well-kept and friendly.
So after we did a loop in town we set back to the campsite to watch from the high point on the property. We got the kids quickly dressed into the pyjamas, made ourselves some hot chocolate (Irish cream for the adults), and hurried out, fearing to miss the show. To our amazement, even though we started seeing fireworks at 6pm, they continued and increased in intensity until midnight. We stood out on the edge of the hill which gave us 180 degree view and all across the horizon there were fireworks shooting up (over a dozen properties I counted) each of which would be considered a reasonable Canada Day show. We stayed out there pretty late and after we put the kids to bed I stood outside for a while longer just to soak it in. It was quite a sight.
