the vacation...... part 1ne

the long version, with photos.

part 1ne: home to vancouver. photos are at the end.

summary: 9 days. 3,000 km (1 864 miles for some of you). 5 hotels. 1 b&b. 4 mediocre continental breakfasts. 1 decent continental breakfast. 2 superb breakfasts. many on the run fast food meals. 2 overpriced restaurant meals. 6 safeway lunches. 2 digital cameras. 820 assorted photos & videos.

so, here we go. imagine finally booking time off work, after 9 grueling months of grindstone, overtime, nightmare projects, and some of what they hired you to do..... you now have 16 days of complete freedom (including weekends of course).

day 1ne: so the car goes in and gets a pretty thorough once over before heading out since it's a road trip. i believe i whined about some of this in a previous post so a summary: 4 new tires, complete brake job, new water pump, some rad work, alignment, new alternator, and a couple misc. things. $2000 later, we're good to go. kal-tire is where i had the work done (with the exception of buying the tires). remember this. it's important later.

day 2wo/3hree: not much happens. spend some time with the young'un. figure out what needs to go on said road trip. prep and pack. drop off the young'un with the in-laws and spend some time visiting.

day 4our: head out on the road. get an early start. right after physio for the old shoulder. everything runs late, as the office screwed up the booking. eventually get out and hit the road - only losing a couple of hours. no big deal, as we're not really in a hurry. there's some stuff we want to see, but we've got lots of time. so we opt to go fairly scenic in our drive to vancouver and take the no 1 highway west through the roger's pass, and then to the 3a down through the okanagan valley in b.c. (not to be confused with the okonogan area of washington.)

travel tip: if you're not in a hurry, and are looking at spending some time in small town antique stores and the like, DO NOT travel on a monday. you would be amazed how many small towns still close down on sunday/monday.

the no 1 highway, being the major east/west highway across canada isn't exactly the most meandering of highways, but it still has some fabulous scenery. you start driving west across the praries, and move into the foothills, finally entering the rocky mountains. somewhere in the midsts of hours of mountain driving, you cross into bc (which is pretty much mostly mountains.)

turning off the no 1 highway and heading south down the 3a brings you onto a secondary highway that is even more scenic, with a twisting road that follows the mountain shoulder, minimal guardrails, and a dramatic view that falls hundreds of feet into the valley below you. lakes and rivers seem to have no end amidst the pine and aspen forests. it's hard to drive some of these hairpin turns and look at the scenery - and yet somehow it's hard not too. (and lest you think we're insane up here, the guardrails are on the sharp turns. we're not stupid, eh.) while the scenery is fabulous on these twisty mountain roads, there are few places to pull over to take photos since there are often no shoulders. rest areas are often hours apart, and the best you can do is an emergency pullout area not much bigger than your car. photos "on the road" through the mountains are not many due to these issues (and having driven this area many times previously).

bc has a somewhat unique structure for most of their towns. because most towns are located in valleys, they tend to be long and thin - often following the highway for a time, but sometimes only being a couple of blocks deep. this of course depends on the size of the valley and town.

the first day was mostly driving due to a late start, and the fact that small towns still close on mondays. it saw us through banff, into kootenay national park, yoho national park, through golden, into glacier national park, mt. revelstoke national park, revelstoke, sicamous, by the spiral tunnels, and onto the 3a into the okanogan valley, mara lake, enderby, armstrong (where they make armstrong cheese - tours available), spallumcheen, vernon, oyama, and finally into winfield where we spent the night at a super 8 motel.

ah yes, winfield - i remember staying there on vacation as a kid with the family once, 20 some years ago. dad had gotten tired of towing the tent trailer through the mountains, so they booked a motel with a kitchenette for the week. it advertised a pool. so imagine our surprise when we arrived, and they had filled the pool just the month before. i looked for the motel as we drove into the town, and was pleased to see it just freshly bulldozed, bulldozer still on-site.

guess i forgot to mention bc is not just mountains, trees, rivers and lakes. for the most part, the rest of it is a national park if there's no city or town nearby. and if you think the names here are funny, you should try a map of newfoundland. i'll also mention the okanagan area is known for it's fruit orchards, wineries, and ogopogo (the elusive relative of the loch ness monster said to inhabit the waters of okanagan lake.)

day 5ive: as the day dawned, i had my first complimentary continental breakfast from a super 8 motel, and pondered what i had done to deserve stale bagels and weak coffee for the price i paid. actually, to be honest - there wasn't a super 8 we stayed at that the room wasn't clean, and the service wasn't good to exceptional. the breakfasts over the week varied from location to location, but on the whole were "reasonable" for muffin, danish, cereal, bagel with coffee/tea/juice style breakfasts. we ate 'em because they were included for free - and i would likely have grabbed a bagel from safeway anyhow.

back into the car, and on the road into kelowna where things were open (being tuesday, and a pretty major town). picked up a couple items, and spent too much time - so back on the road to try and hit vancouver by end of day. through peachland, summerland (home of summerland syrup/fruit products - tours available during the summer season), pentiction, the hope slide, kalmeden, olalla, keremeos, hedley (had to go through hedley, one of my favourite bands named themselves after this town), princeton, hope, and into the 'greater vancouver area' chilliwack and abbotsford.

and somewhere between abbotsford and fort langley, as we left a rest stop - a radiator hose developed a leak. at night. in the dark. on a major highway with nothing around. imagine as i watch the light come on, and the engine temperature rise toward the red. stop on the shoulder, and see antifreeze steaming off my engine into the cool night. but luck was with us as we had 6 litres of premixed antifreeze. i opened the empty radiator and refilled it. topped up the reservoir.

and off we went, driving with flasher on. rigs and semis flashing lights and honking at us as we speed down the highway waiting for the luck to run out. radiator light goes on again. temperature starts to climb. look for enough shoulder to pull over on. refill everything again. cross our fingers and pull back into the night traffic - driving with emergency lights on.

what's that? an exit? shit - missed it. have to keep an eye out for the next one. ok.... there it is. and into langley we head, managing to pull in at a service station before we red-line. refill everything with water to get to a mechanic. find a phone. book a motel in the area. try to find a mechanic in the area.

would you believe kal-tire had a location 6 blocks from the service station? would you believe when we pulled in at 8:50pm, someone was just locking up as they were headed home? they re-opened the store to book the car in for the next morning. took the keys. got all the pertinent information. and then he drove us to our hotel. late night dinner at denny's - and it was good.

day 6ix: the morning dawns with the realization that we have a half dead car in the shop. so we call about an hour after they opened. they've already been in touch with the location i had do the work, and have diagnosed the issue. it's in the works to be repaired - and they're just waiting on the part. should be an hour or so. grab the lamest breakfast of our stay from the travelodge we're in, and call a cab.

this was the most interesting cab i've ridden in. the driver shows up, and heads inside where he proceeds to ignore us (his fare) and grab a cup, and paw through the complimentary guest breakfast. he then realizes we're standing by the cab waiting, and heads back out. he opens the back door, and gets into the front of his cab, reaches over, and hits the meter. we pile our luggage in through the one open door, get in and close the door. he takes off - headed to the back of the hotel, where he meanders through the parking lot, and around the block to get headed to our destination. he proceeds to meander the longest way of traveling between the two locations, with a punjabi radio station blaring at top volume for the trip. we finally arrive. he pulls up. we all sit there. i finally get tired of waiting - and open the door. he reaches over and turn the meter off. we hand him money, which he drops into his pocket with no change forthcoming. we exit, hauling our own luggage out. as he pulls out and leaves, we realize he never signaled. ever. and i have no idea of his cab company's name. guess i won't be complaining.

after a short wait, the car is deemed ready. a bill for a new radiator cap and small hose is presented. i pay $27 and we're back on the road. labour covered under warranty. 193 locations across canada. tough to go wrong with that kind of service.

we hit new westminster where our friend lives right about noon.

to be continued....

rest stop on the no 1 highway, probably
somewhere in the yoho national park.

odd rock formations on
the side of the highway

rock formation on the side of the
highway at the spiral tunnels

i wanted to buy some new antiques,
but like most small towns, they
were closed since it was monday

rogers pass, park information centre

rogers pass

my vote for ugliest hotel in the rockies
(i don't think i've ever gotten the name of
this place in all the times i've driven by it.)

train sheds. built to keep the
tracks clear during avalanche season.

calm, quiet, peaceful mara lake

calm, quiet, peaceful mara lake

(all images copyright 2006 - any use by an party other than myself must be approved. if you want to use them, please make your request in the comments section. don't be a dink and steal it, ask nicely.)