To Seattle and beyond

The longest part of the gloomy rain sodden four hour bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle was getting through customs. Everyone has to get off the bus with all their belongings and the driver has to get everyone's bags for checking by US officials. Thing is it's very slow. Every single day 3 buses from different companies arrive 4 times during that day at roughly the same time. You'd have thought there would be some kind of preparation for this influx of people but no. One guy on the customs desk and three guys behind standing around talking crap. I'm still not sure why we had to pay $6 to re-enter the US either but we did.
We arrive in Seattle, spotting the famous Space Needle from a distance like we were looking for Blackpool Tower. It was throwing it down, but luckily our bus dropped us only a couple of blocks from our intended hotel. We still got soaked. Seattle definitely lives up to it's reputation for being wet!
We needed to get down the coast fast so hiring a car turned out to be one of best ways to do it, that way we could see a bit on the way too. We didn't see anything of Seattle other than the car hire place because we knew we'd be back to drop the car off anyway. Unfortunately, the car hire contract we signed didn't allow us to go any further than Oregon state, in other words into California. On the second day we were driving through the snow covered rolling landscape of the California mountains. Excellent.
From Seattle it didn't take long to get into the hills and the snow. Even on the main interstate the snow is piled high at the roadside whilst we drive into thick flakes. Endless green hills covered in snow and a eerie mist. It looked like the opening credits of a film. Now this is America.


Further along the highway we pass endless signs telling me to buy any item you can imagine. The road signs here not only tell you what petrol stations are coming up ahead but also what motels and fast food joints are in town. I'm constantly feel the need to eat after being bombarded with KFC, Subway and Taco Bell signs.
Stopping in an no nothing town that mainly consists of one road of generic fast food places and petrol stations is a cheaper alternative to a tourist attraction town. When night comes round I'm quite glad to come across yet another strip of this glowing signs of the night.
Our aim is to get to San Francisco for the day before New Years Eve and stop for a couple of nights. We manage it in two days, not bad from Seattle. The stop outside San Francisco was a motel by the side of the highway, standard. A MacDonalds was next door and a guy is getting beaten by a group of blokes in the car park. Various shouting and noise continues for a while. There's nothing like a good beating to make you feel at home.
Driving in America is easy enough. It seemed a bit confusing in Seattle with the constant Stop signs and bad signs but once on the highway you see another side to American life. Huge trucks and absolutely massive bus size campervans are everywhere.
California looks good though even though I didn't quite expect there to be this much snow, I thought it was sunny and hot all year round. Damn you Hollywood!