Monday, May 10, 2010

May 10, 2010

Pretty Day

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North on Highway 97 again.  This is the same 97 we first picked up in Weed, CA and have been on much of our trip since then.  We will leave it for a while but will find it again in a week or so and pretty much follow it all the way to Alaska.  To the rest of the world that section is called “The Alaska Highway” or “The Alcan”.  Canadians refer to it by its’ number, “Highway 97”.

Beautiful day.  Bright sun and temps. in the low 70’s.  Very pretty country.  Mile after mile of long, large lakes one after another nestled in between beautiful green mountains

02 Hwy 97 and Lake Okanagan n of Summerland

 

03 Bridge to Kelowna

 

Bridge over narrow part of one of the lakes.

 

 

 

07 Hwy 97 by Lake KalamalkaL

09 Hwy 1 lookng north from Malaka

05 Fruit trees

Many orchards.  This area grows and ships more than a third of Canada’s apples. 

 

 

 

 

 

This string of lakes is a large summer resort and camping area.  We are a little early for the season so traffic and numbers of people was not too bad.  

10 Three Valley Lake Chateau

 

 

Three Valley Lake Chateau

 

 

 

 

 

We went through several very large towns.  Each with several large shopping malls, every fast food imaginable, Home Depots, Walmarts, etc.  Picture Roseville, CA but stretched out along one major road.

Last summer we went to Promontory Point, site of the last spike driven to complete the transcontinental railroad.  Today we stopped at the site of the last spike driven to complete the trans-Canadian railroad.

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Monument

 

 

 

 

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Description

 

 

 

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Painting depicting ceremonial placement of spike.

 

 

 

 

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Caboose display, real pulling train that happened into picture, monument commemorating last spike.

 

 

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Tee shirt in gift shop at last spike site.

 

 

 

 

 

We are parked for the night in Revelstoke, BC. 

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There are snow capped mountains on all sides of us with river valleys between them. 

12 Mtn view fromm hwy 23, near Revelstoke 11 Mtn View from Hwy 1

 

After setting up the carbus we went to town to get info on local sights.  Again we are a bit early as much of the hikes and mountain drives are still snowed over.  They did tell us about a waterfall several miles south of town so off we went.

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Sign at trailhead.  Walk was actually about two minutes.

 

 

 

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Sutherland Falls.

 

 

 

 

 

One more thing. 

Happy Birthday Christina!

           Love, mom and dad



May 9, 2010

O Canada

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Headed north from Grand Coulee.  

02 Lake roosevelt

 

Backside of Grand Coulee Dam

 

 

 

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Front side of Grand Coulee Dam – about half of it.

 

 

 

 

 

In less than 45 minutes we went from dry, pretty much barren hills to trees and mountains that reminded me of northeastern California.

03 Hwy 155 

Road north of Grand Coulee.

 

 

 

 

05 Hwy 97 to Oroville

 

 

Road in to mountains

 

 

 

 

 

Over a summit and down into a series of narrow valleys.  This is apple country.  Lots of orchards tucked up against the hills.  Many types of apples.  Long stretch of road with apples on one side and a series of lakes on the other.   We stopped in Oroville, WA (another non-unique city name) 06 to mail some letters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and five miles later we came to the Canadian border. 

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The wait time for the border was only about ten minutes. 

 

 

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We showed our passports and answered a number of questions.  We had to surrender our lettuce and our one pretty old apple.  Went in to customs after throwing away our produce and they did a quick background check on us.  We passed.  The customs agent gave us some tips on things to see along our planned route and wished us a pleasant trip.  We were in Canada.

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No cell phone and no navigator to help guide us here.  Street Atlas still works fine but we have to rely on guide books for finding POI’s, etc. 

Basic max speed on road north of border is 80 km per hour.  That is a little less than 50 mph.  Much more comfortable driving speed.

The valley from the border north to Penticton and beyond, some 30 or 40 miles is the Napa Valley of British Columbia.  There are vineyards and wineries everywhere.

 

14 bicycles on hwy 97

 

We saw lots of cyclists on our drive north from the border.  Just like the Napa Valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stopped in Penticton, BC at a very nice RV park.

15 Parked at Oxbow RV Park

 

 

Very few other RV’s yet.   After setting up we took a walk.  Stopped at Wal-mart to compare prices.  A bit difficult as all liquids are in liters.  Will have to get a handle on that when we buy gas.

Across the road from the RV park is the north end  of a large (long) lake.  There is a nice park there which probably is pretty busy a little further in to the summer.

Lake Skaha  

 

Lake Skaha

 

 

 Pete sundial

 

Pete standing on analematic sundial.  Concrete pillars represent the hours.  Shadow made by hands held over head points to time.

 

Sue sundial

 

 

Sue’s shadow.  Pointing to 2:35 pm.  Add one hour for daylight savings – right on!