July 21, 2010

Good bye to Friends

Day 82

 

Today we bid adieu to our new but good friends, Mike and Gladys.  We first met them in the campground in Banff, two months ago.  They were traveling with two other couples, each with RVs, headed for the same adventure destination as we were – Alaska.  Their planned route was similar to ours but with some variances in timing.  Although not planned we managed to cross paths every day or two as we went up the Alaska Highway.  At some point in Alaska they separated from their friends and spent several weeks, as we did, traveling and exploring on their own.  Unless you take the marine highway (ferry), you have to leave Alaska the way you came in, going through several towns a second time.  As we were driving to Wal-mart in Whitehorse, Sue suggested we swing through the parking lot area where a number of RVs were parked.  Low and behold there was Mike and Gladys’ RV.  They had arrived less than thirty minutes earlier.  We swapped experiences for a while and then went out to dinner (only the second time this trip) to celebrate our anniversary.  Mexican, what else :)  .  We had the same basic route planned for the trip south so we decided to travel together.  So we shared the road, campgrounds, and experiences for nearly two weeks.  This morning we drove south for an hour and a half and stopped in Kamloops. 

 

Kamloops, BC

 

 

 

 

We had a snack at a very nice donut shop and then said our goodbyes.  They are headed east and then south to their home in Spokane and we are going west, south and west to the Vancouver area before heading south again toward home.  Very nice people.  We enjoyed their companionship very much and would like to do it again.  I’m sure we will keep in contact.

 

We opted to take Canada 1 to go west.  A good two lane road with frequent passing lanes that goes through picturesque farm and ranch country. 

 

Irrigated farmland on left, desert on right.

 

 

 

 

North Thompson River.

 

 

 

 

The alternative is a six lane freeway that takes probably 95% of the traffic.  Another no brainer. 

Today was our first experience with ‘heat’ since last summer.  Temperature here got to about 85 for a while.  Hot enough for the locals that they all comment on it.  We know that much worse is yet to come.