I'm writing from a grocery store WiFi spot, since we've been without electricity, water or WiFi since leaving Osoyoos 4 days ago. No cell phone adds to the disconnectedness, so here briefly is our 10-20.
We climbed up a crazy hill out of Osoyoos on the number 3 Crowsnest highway, that immediately tested the repairs we'd had done. I promised the truck that if she got us to the top, we'd finally christen her. Duly motivated, she triumphed, and we held our own, watching numerous other cars and trailers pulled over onto treacherous shoulders, thrilled that we were safe. We discussed, and our burgandy little 3/4 tonne girl now goes by the name of Mabelline, Mabel for short, and Maybe on the hills. ; )
We stayed a couple of days in Kokanee Creek, recovering from all the stress, and doing little actually. We dropped the kayak in the lake, threw a lot of balls for Dallas, and played a lot of cards. We have only the water we put in the holding tanks, and our solar panels, but they are doing the job nicely. We are just not charging up our cell-phones, laptops and other sensitive electronics.
Then we were off to Moylie Lake, betting that a large provincial park would be our best bet with no reservations on the August long weekend. Being told that sites were $24/night, and wondering at how most parks are supposed to be $18, but we keep finding the expensive ones, we learned that the ones with showers cost more. D'oh! It's the smaller parks from here on out, and we'll save $6/night, satisfying my cheap bone.
Tomorrow we will hitch up and be on our way through Alberta, probably making it to around Lethbridge or thereabouts. We think a night of WiFi and electricity might be in order, since our projects are languishing, and my video-camera flash memory is almost full.
We did fix on the panniers and try to bike to Cranbrook today for groceries (about 17kms each way), but we didn't take into account the highway speeds of 110kms, and the massive volume of holiday traffic screaming past us. We turned around fairly quickly, and right now, it's just me, Maybelline and the grocery store WiFi , while Kate and Dallas self-amuse in the nice lake back at the park.
We also learned that we left Squamish just in time- there was a big landslide there apparently, a day or two after we left, which blocked the Sea-to-Sky highway between Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver for 4 or 5 days. Yikes!!! All that blasting and massive construction must have finally taken their toll.
Anyway, I have some groceries to wrastle up, so more in a day or two.
