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The SRZero electric car that started a trip to Argentina from Chena Hot Springs 16 days ago has reached the Lower 48.

One of the members of the Racing Green Endurance team wrote this about the leg from Tok to the border:

About 40 miles on from Tok, the road deteriorated rapidly, and in some stretches speeds as low as 25mph had to be endured as even the big SUVs had to navigate around elephant-sized dips and loose, uneven gravel. The poor quality of the road is actually due to efficient maintenance rather than the other way around; the ripped up carriageway is part of the process of repairing it and bringing it up to a quality standard. This is more difficult than in other parts of the world as freeze-thaw conditions and copious amounts of melt water during and after their long winters all contribute to yearly road damage. But the SRZero continued through it all without any problems, and 80 miles on from Tok, we reached the US-Canadian border…

…well that’s what we expected to happen! The reality was that all of a sudden we saw a sign saying “Welcome to Canada” with not a border guard in sight. It was here that Clemens’ homework paid off; while the rest of us were laughing about how lax the border was (or seemed to be) Clemens was asking us to stop and turn round! We had forgotten to have the Carnet signed; an official document detailing every item of equipment we have with us to prove that nothing that had been imported into the US had been sold or retained inside the US.

So, back up the hill we went until we reached the US border (now from the wrong direction!) where we were greeted by a very enthusiastic border guard. The conversation goes something like the following:

Guard: “Hi, how are you?”

Clemens: “Fine thanks” as he mumbles something and gets out the car to have a friendly chat with the border guard.

Guard: “REMAIN IN YOUR VEE-HICKLE!” he shouted.

Clemens scurries back in.

Guard: “YOUR PASSPORTS!” he exclaimed, followed by general murmurs of approval as he checks our faces against our passports and scans them through his machine. Much time is spent thumbing Clemens’ passport with a very perturbed expression; clearly he wasn’t a fan of the 2 Iranian visas in there!

Guard: “Is this your motorhome?”

Clemens: “No, we’re hiring it and depositing it in Seattle.”

Guard: “OK, let me see some proof of the vee-hickle rental and registration.”

Toby passes across some documents to the above effect.

Guard: “The rental seems in order, but you have given me the user manual for the motorhome. I do not need this.” He hands back said document.

Alex: “But the vehicle registration document is in the back of that folder.”

Guard: “I will ask you for that document when I need it!”

2 seconds later…

Guard: “Let me see the vehicle registration document!”

Anyway, you get the gist. But everything was signed and handled efficiently, and we weren’t delayed for too long.  The SRZero, as usual, got preferential treatment and was waved through without much hassle.

From the border post we followed an incredibly scenic route through no man’s land until we reached the official border, and incredibly, the border between Canada and the US could be visibly seen. In the forest separating these huge nations was a massive tract of trees that had been felled to mark the border. Dead straight, it extended in both directions for as far as the eye could see…quite amazing actually!

For more, go to www.racinggreenendurance.com