It’s not often Google lets you down but on asking how long it’d take to cross the USA border into Canada it suggested between 45 and 90 minutes on a holiday weekend. This was a ‘holiday weekend’. So as we had a 11am lunch date on the outskirts of Vancouver we set off in good time to avoid being late.

Of course there wasn’t another car in sight as we handed across our passports to the border official and answered his questions. Were we carrying firearms? Anyway, wildly ahead of time for our luncheon we drove to Steveston, a twee little suburb of Richmond and had our first quality coffee of the trip.

Anna then spied there was a charity shop across the road from the cafe and we whiled away the rest of our freetime buying LPs (me) and jeans (her) until it was time to go. Henry and Stella lived in Richmond and had emigrated to Canada from Hong Kong nearly 30 years ago. I met Henry as his tour guide on my last tour leading a small band of North Americans around the Cotswolds. We’d stayed in touch and when I mentioned my proximity he’d offered to buy Anna and myself lunch. 

We found their property, enjoyed some tea and a catch up and then drove for some Dim sum. I have never had such delicious Chinese food. All freshly prepared with delicious ingredients including prawns and lobster. It was noticeable that Anna and I were the only non-Chinese in the 70 or so in the large dining room. (Anna was the only one not using chopsticks.) However, apart from confirming that the food must therefore be authentic and the highest specification it did also confirm our mutual love of football. Brazil versus Norway was on large screens and Norway’s superiority and goals was met with considerable glee. The bond between Asia and Scandinavia was probably not as strong as the probable long odds on Norway winning that was fuelling their vocal support. Many Chinese do like a flutter.

After such a wonderful lunch we thanked our hosts and headed east to Hope.

The town was on a main road heading east into the Canadian interior. The town had been used as the set for ‘First Blood’, the first in a long line of Rambo movies in 1982. To mark Sly’s time in the town there was a wood carving just off the Main Street.

However, aside from the Hollywood connection it now seemed a fairly small, unimportant and down on its luck place where the heavy traffic rumbled through the settlement possibly stopping at the McDonalds or the other common Canadian fast food outlet, Tim Hortons. To paraphrase Simon & Garfunkel from “The Boxer” – ‘I do declare I took some comfort there’ – with a grilled cheese sandwich later that night.

Back in the BnB I watched England beat Mexico in some comfort. Never in any doubt….cough!

After rising and meeting some other folk, originally from Bridlington, we fired up the Nissan and continued east to Kelowna.