Monday May 6 Sunny & warm To Castlegar, BC
Well, it was up and at 'em early this morning. We had places to go and people to see!
Just a couple of minutes after 0700 we said goodbye to Gary and his faithful companion Molly. We had an absolutely delightful weekend with Gary and Deana. If we hang around the Kootenays for a while this summer, we might just see Gary again. His son lives in Nelson and we talked about meeting up in Castlegar sometime during the summer.
A few minutes later we were headed south on Hwy 97. We knew we were going to encounter rush hour traffic, especially in Kelowna. Here are some pictures Jen took just to give you a flavour of our drive through the Okanagan Valley.
It is almost criminal to see what is happening around the Kelowna area. Houses, condos, apartments are scattered everywhere as in the picture below.
We cannot imagine what the residents must think of what was once a pretty place to live. Fortunately most of this mass of humanity is centered in and around Kelowna. People moved from the lower mainland to get away from the hustle and bustle. Now Kelowna is just a big city; not for us.
A traffic light on every block, it seems, is modern day Kelowna. It took us a good 30 minutes to get through to the south side which is now West Kelowna.
We stopped in Summerland, just north of Penticton, to pick up a window for Ali's front door. Why I didn't order one when I ordered the other 3 windows four years ago I still don't know. But now all I have to do is install it, perhaps one afternoon at the park in Castlegar.
Out of Osoyoos, we went from 919' to 4,007' up Anarchist Mountain, in 2nd gear. The climb took 24 minutes. The tempera-ture dropped from 26C in Osoyoos to 19C at the summit.
We stopped for a coffee break at the Riverside Park in Midway. The small RV park is behind me as I took this picture. It has a few electrical only sites for $22 a night, the remainder are unserviced for $20 a night. We have stopped here before. Such a pretty spot.
Just as we were finishing our coffee, a group of people and their dogs came past us. One of them came up and asked if I was on the "trailer forum." When I said "yes", he asked "Are you Coventry Kid". That's my "handle" on the cargo trailer forum. What a small world, that we stopped when we did, where we did, etc. I introduced myself and Jennie and gave Rick our card.
While Jen rested, I strolled through the park and across the bridge to the other side of the river.
It's amazing what one finds just walking through a country subdivision.
This was parked on the driveway in front of a house. Amazing piece of equipment. Notice the chain steering and all the gears to make this monster move. I assume it runs as it looks in pretty good nick.
I turned around a short distance later and headed back. I stopped at this sign and looked with great interest at the biking and hiking trails across the river.
Those trails are somewhere on this hill!!
We continued our journey east along Hwy 3. We stopped in Green-wood for a snack. After Grand Forks, we started to climb towards Paulson Summit (5,036', 1,535m) on the Bonanza Pass. From there,
it was pretty much all downhill into Castlegar.
But I couldn't make it. I needed a rest, so we stopped at a rest stop for 30 minutes while I recharged my batteries.
Refreshed, we continued into Castlegar arriving at the Kootenay River RV Park just before 1700. It had been a long day. We'd driven 278 miles (yes the van is still in miles).
As we pulled into the park, Lorraine, the manager, was working in a flower bed. We introduced ourselves and she guided us to our site.
Our cargo trailer friend from Ontario, Garnett, had arrived a couple of hours earlier. Lorraine assigned our sites, side by side, which worked out well. We have grass outside our door, Garnett has gravel. The park does not allow carpets on the grass which suited Garnett just fine. He spread his 2 carpets over the gravel and put out his awning. Quite a comfortable space.
Our sites are pull-thru but only as far as the trailer is concerned. Once Ali was in the correct place, I drove across the grass and parked behind the trailer on the side of the road.
Here we are side by each; Garnett's Matilda on the left and our Ali on the right.
This is a very lovely park. We are going to come back here for an extended stay, if we can, before we head back to the Island.
So that's it for today. Tomorrow we'll have a few chores to do, like laundry and shopping. When we get up to something interesting, I'll be back.
See you soon.
