Resting In Kamloops

We decided to skip our planned visit to the Okanagan and to take a more direct route home. We had a few reasons with the heavy smoke in the air being the foremost. We are also socialized out and exhausted from the Six Day Irish Wedding. We will come back to the Okanagan to visit all the folks we wanted to see.

We drove from Revelstoke to Kamloops and checked into the Kamloops RV Park which it turns out is situated only a few feet from both the Trans Canada Highway and the railway tracks. It is as noisy as most truck stops but they can somehow justify their $47 per night rates. They do however have great showers with endless hot water which we both took full advantage of.

We have been incredibly either lucky or skillful at setting up our satellite dish but this time we had problems. After finding the settings and checking the Dishpointer site We started the usually quick process of locking in on the bird. Well we tried for two hours with only a flash or two of signal. I knew there was a tree but was convinced this was not interfering. Eventually our neighbour came out to help. He had sold the system in Alberta and had a pretty good eye. He figured the tree actually was in the way and made a suggestion that led to this

Redneck Tripod Solution:

Nurse Norma Is Fired!

Nurse Norma is fired! She ripped the bandage off my worse knee and it hurt like heck! Applications for a new nurse are being accepted... Now she wants to take the bandage off my toe to inspect the damage...

Revelstoke, BC

We are in Revelstoke parked in a huge, informal parking area by the river. We wanted to get an RV park with a pool but my knees are not presentable enough to share in a pool! 

The highway was really slow going yesterday with tons of paving and one way traffic. The normally two hour trip took almost four hours. Doesn't matter, we have lots of time!

Unexpected Stopover!

We left the Kananaskis Casino about 10:00 expecting to drive through to Revelstoke or maybe even Kamloops but such was not to be! We stopped at the Husky station in Golden to dump and clumsy me fell over the damn trailer hitch and ended up with two heavily bleeding knees and the end torn off one big toe! (No photos) :)

Not too painful but lots of blood thanks to the blood thinners! I finished dumping, hosed off all the blood and pulled into their huge truck parking area where Norma applied lots of alcohol, antibiotic cream and bandages. I will survive but we are staying parked here for the night. Ah, the pleasures of getting old(er)!

Still Here At Kananaskis!

Yesterday we decided to stay one extra day to rest up. We did that as well as go to the casino for a late buffet breakfast and to make a small donation to the slots. This morning was cooler and since Norma had not slept well we decided to camp out in the free parking area one more day. No rush! We have no reason to move except to buy milk as ours somehow got left out and went sour. Our friendly RV neighbors saved me a trip to town by giving us a cup or so for Norma's coffee. All is well!

We watched the Blue Jays game at 10:00 and then the BC Lions game at 1:30 PM. We put a couple of potatoes in the microwave and will find something to go with them. We will not starve and tomorrow will find us moving on down the road! Life is Good!

Smoke Sun At Kananaskis, Alberta

Kananaskis Smoke Sun!

8:00 AM here in the Stoney Nakoda Casino parking lot. We are exhausted enough from the Six Day Wedding to just stay parked here for the day. We may wander over for a buffet breakfast but other than that, it will be a day to read and catch up on CNN. Right now there is not enough sunlight getting through the smoke to charge the batteries! The smoke situation is not going to improve as we move west but we are getting reports that it is clear on the Island.

An Irish Pub!

Yes, we have an Irish Pub here at the wedding! What is an Irish Wedding without a blow-up Irish Pub? Yes, that is a real Irishman in font!

Falling Laptop!

Disaster averted! As we were doing the roller coaster twister drive of highway 3 or 3B this morning the laptop fell from it's perch on top of the front fridge and landed on my head/shoulder/arm, bounced off and hit the floor. Hard. I figured there was no reason to panic, stop and test it. If it is broken, it is broken. Alas! When we parked I turned it on and it fired right up! And as a bonus, my Rogers Internet works in Crowsnest, Alberta, a wide spot in the road with a Tim Hortons and a Shell station with some truck parking! I needed the Internet to find the coordinates for the dish so now we can watch the Blue Jays! 

That old Toshiba is no match for my skull! Life Is Good!

Day Three Of The Epic Journey

Day 1 - Campbell River to Abbotsford, BC Walmart

Day 2 - Abbotsford to Princeton BC truck stop.

Day 3 - Princeton to Trail, BC Walmart.

Today was a brutal drive! I do not remember so many steep uphills and downhills! I had the Ford V-10 in "Haul / Tow" mode and it was working hard. It was brutally hot outside so the air conditioning was sucking power out of the engine and making things much worse. Even with the tow / haul function working I was still on the brakes too much on the downhill runs and they were hot! It was not a pleasant day and we went through about $160 worth of gas today!

We got to Trail at about 4:00, gassed up and found Walmart, It is still very hot and we are running the generator and air conditioning while we relax and make dinner. This trip is taking much longer than planned and we still have 800+ kilometers to go on winding, steep roads. We will have a better plan to get home!

Slow Trip To Alberta

We are on the mainland heading to our grand-niece's wedding on the 11th in Lacombe, Alberta. We are taking our time on the slow road, Highway 3 (Hope - Princeton Highway) which sort of follows the US border. We left Saturday, caught the 1:30 ferry and drove to Abbotsford where we discovered Norma's new phone was not working!

No Telus stores open on Sunday of a long weekend but we found a Source store (Radio Shack) where an obliging salesman had a look at it. He determined it needed a reboot which he did. It came back to life and he refused any payment. Nice guy and they don't even sell Telus.

Anyway, that took until noon so we were late getting away and tackling the mountainous Hope Princeton Highway. We pulled into Princeton at about 4:00 and are staying in a Chevron Truck Stop. My Rogers Interned gets no signal here but there is an A&W next door with free WIFI that reaches our rig. I repaid them for it's use by walking over and buying dinner to go.

Tomorrow we will drive as far as Trail, BC. It is nice being back on the road in the motorhome!