September 25 to October 5, 2011

September 25, 26 & 27, 2011

We are planning to go to Chilliwack BC. in couple days, Tuesday but have to do what they call a loop around, which is we have to go off of Hwy. 1 Trans Canada and go up Hwy 33 to Kelowna and then back down Hwy #97 to 3A and back onto Hwy #1 again. It is about 100 kilometers longer but goes through the valleys rather than over mountains and is a beautiful scenic drive. If it is too long a trip to Chilliwack we will stay at an RV park as most of them are still open until Oct. 15.  Some are open all year but hard to find sometimes.

Just a quiet day at campsite, Ken washed the trailer down yesterday and today we did some detailing on the trailer, looks great when just cleaned and all bugs gone!  The front gets all the bugs against when driving, just like your windshield.  Met another couple that think they want to do the travelling but are having trouble selling their home, they are not sure if they really want to or just close it up for a few months.

Our last day at Christina Lake, raining out, Ken has done some waxing but could not do much.  It was very windy here today as well.  We were in trailer with the door open reading and heard a loud noise and thought it was large pine needles on the roof again as they have been falling all day, but it was actually a branch had fallen off a tree and came down our door onto the step.  Nothing was damaged, just pine juice on the door, but if it had hit the roof dead on could have lost some sky lights.  Leaving in am for Hope, BC. as did not want to travel as far as Chilliwack.

September 27, 2011

We took HWY 33 this time as we had discussed earlier since this was not supposed to be as winding or steep curves and turns.  The road was pretty good, there was one mountain we climbed from when we left Kelowna *(2100 ft.) to top of mountain (5300 ft.) climbing the whole time.  The scenery difference between when we left the Okanagan Valley through to Hope was so very different.  The Valley is green and lush, plants and flowers blooming drive up the mountain we were looking up and could not figure out what it was, the section had been totally clear cut, not a tree to be seen, it looked from afar like someone had just chopped the mountain off!  Further along we were still climbing and turning to another side of the mountain, and were driving through the clouds.  The mountains off to the side were close and we could actually see ice and some snow at the top.  Coming down the mountain, the trees were totally different again.  All through BC there are evergreens, not many leafy trees and no maples.  Here there were some leafy trees including a couple of maples and they were still green.  I did take pictures but not sure if they will tell the story, this is when a professional photographer or a really great camera would be nice to have.  Will post but don’t know if they will do it justice.

This Hwy also had signs all along advising of weather conditions and warnings that from October 1 to April 30, 2011 snow tires required and to carry chains as well.  There are even places to pull off when you get on and through to put the chains on and take them off again. Mountains are great as long as there is no weather you need to deal with.  If you live here, you don’t need to go far if you don’t want to so they know how to stock up. Arrived in Hope.

September 28, 2011

The park we are in is totally covered in trees and as we are right into the side of the mountain, there was hardly any light at all, even when the sun was shining so it made it seem dreary.  I did get a couple of pictures of the mountain in the clouds again which still amazes me.

Wanted to do some sightseeing while here, went to town of Hope, they have an artist that did carvings all over the city that started with one, which was a tree that had died and he did the carving with a chainsaw – amazing detail, I took a couple of pictures of these.  After we left Hope, we then proceeded to Hell’s Gate (from Hope to Hell – go figure!) There are several tunnels through the mountain that you need to take, could see the other side so not so bad.  The train even goes under the mountain and you can see it from the other side, kind of cool. They have amazing gondola ride across the Fraser Canyon, also had a suspension bridge, which was across as well. Ken was not sure if he wanted to go but did. I am giving you a web site to look at as lo and behold, someone (the official photographer) forgot to recharge the camera.     http://www.hellsgateairtram.com  Will be heading to Chilliwack in am.

September 29 2011

Headed to Chilliwack BC and decided to stay for the week.  The park we are in we asked for no trees and that is what we got.  There are cedars and evergreens on each side for privacy but the top is not covered.  The reason this makes a difference is that if we get debris on the top of the slides, Ken needs to climb on to the roof to sweep it off so it does not get caught in the slide mechanism.  One of our next purchases will be for the covers to go over the slides so that this stop debris and rain from coming in when slides close.

Nice town, all amenities here.  The temperature has been fairly mild but rain most days, just a drizzle some days, not a really hard rain.

September 30, 2011

Not much happened today, just settled in, went visitors centre and reconnoitered the town.  But I really do miss a month end (NOT)

October 1, 2011

We did some shopping around town and at same time, checked out restaurants as decided would be nice to go out for dinner.  Have not been doing that a lot on this trip, so it is a treat.  Found great steak house, reasonable wine and please atmosphere called Mr. Mike, which is a west coast chain and it was excellent.

October 2 2011

Veg day – we are allowed you know – don’t have to be doing something ALL the time!

October 3, 2011

Yesterday drove to Bridal Falls – yes it seems like everywhere here has a Bridal Veil waterfall, so it must mean something.  Did not go to it was further away than thought but going through the trail, the forest was rather eerie.  The trees all had moss cover on them, as very damp, rainforesty I guess you would call it.  There were some huge cedar trees and ferns everywhere, one cedar was broken and other smaller ones were growing up through it. 

From there we went to Minter Gardens which we were recommended but when we arrived, the fee was 17$ each and did not want to spend that much money just to look at flowers (Ken not impressed).  As we were talking about it and leaving, a lady came up to us and offered us a pay one get one free coupon as her and her daughters had it left and they would not be coming back again this year.  We graciously accepted it and Ken just paid the seniors rate so was even less.  There are nice people all over like that, we will reciprocate somewhere down the road.  Once in the gardens though, they were amazing.  We were there for a couple of hours, it was warm enough to walk around, and not rainy.  Pictures are coming but my surprise was when I found palm trees and beside a maple tree to boot. I like Chilliwack!

October 4, 2011

Lazy day today, I have been catching up on updating blog – I really need to write something every day as when I don’t, there are things we do that just don’t catch up here.

We did have a bit of an issue with trailer brakes and looks like we are going to need to upgrade our brake controller on the trailer, not a really big deal, but better safe than sorry.  We did get pricing from large RV dealer here in Chilliwack, so do want to get this done before we hit any more mountains.

Not sure if we are going to be staying another day here or if we are going to head to Vancouver area, checking what the best weather is as we don’t want to head south until November is possible.  We will be going there at some point though to spend at least a week as there are lots of sights to see and we do want to get a chance to drop in and see friends of ours (Terry and Sharon) son Joe and his family.

A note on pictures, I am taking so many and want to make sure I get the most interesting ones out to you.  I have taken tons more so whenever we do get back; you may be bored personally by us with even more.

 Drop us a note if you like either under comments or by email.

By for now and will update as we go.