Tuesday August 14 – Coachman Inn, 120 N Samish Way, Bellingham WA98225

Yesterday while we were driving through the boring bits on the I-Whatever, I played with my Iphone and Iwatch to practice taking remote selfies etc.  Here is my first effort:

Well, it's a start!  At least we are both smiling : )

We need to be up early to enjoy breakfast in the hotel before it finishes at 9am and after that we spend a couple of hours back in the room on the laptop trying to transfer money back to NZ.  We must have been doing too much as they have now put a hold on our account : (   However, there is a Bank of America just across the road, next to the mall so we go over there to see if a real person can help us sort it out.  Nope, pretty much a waste of time.  Don't they go to bank school or have a BI (Book of Instructions) like the good old Nattie Bank where I used to work?

While we are at the mall we take half an hour and have a look through a couple of shops, TJ Maxx has some gorgeous handbags but they are rather bulky and I’m not buying anything more until we have finished our internal flights within USA.

We carry on driving north for about 60 odd miles to get to our accommodation for the night, just south of Bellingham.  We chose the Coachman because it has an outdoor pool but otherwise it is just another hotel room which blends into the memories of many other hotel rooms.

Even though we are on the second floor we take up both suitcases to try and condense/repack so we can get away with 2 suitcases, one hand luggage and one handbag so we are within the bag allowances to fly to LAX with Alaska Airlines tomorrow.  We will need to pay on the day for our cases,  I think $25 per bag, as long as they are not over 50 lbs which equates to 22.6 kgs but we have no way of weighing them so trust to luck!

We missed out on lunch today so opt for an early dinner and choose the recommended Fat Pie Pizza in Fairhaven, where we tried to get into a week ago but it had a queue way out the door.  Tonight, or rather this afternoon, however we can get in and are escorted up to the third floor where we sit outside on the deck with a ‘view’ of the water.  There is a sliver of a view of the water but it is rather hazy, once again due to the smoke haze from wildfires in BC and in northern California.  Bonus, it is happy hour so our wine and beer is discounted : )

I might be getting better at selfies:

KnJ at the Fat Pie Pizza, Fairhaven WA

Had a nice relaxing meal and it’s still sunny when we get back ‘home’ so I sit out by the pool for an hour or so relaxing with my book while Kim rests his eyes in front of the TV.

Monday August 13 – Days Inn, Everett Mall Way, Washington WA98208

The smoke smog is thick again this morning as we leave Spokane and set off along the I90 to get some miles under our belt, we have about five hours drive today to the Washington coast.

After nearly two hours we decide to change to the more scenic SH2 through Quincy, Wenatchee and Leavenworth, which adds hardly any more miles but about an hour drive time to our expedition.  There is much more to look at this route.  We’ve always wondered what some of the crops are we see growing beside the road, some are obvious like corn and grapes.  Along this stretch there are signs on the fences telling us what crops are being grown in that particular field, everything from apples of all kinds, sweet corn and field corn (who knows what the difference is), alfalfa, pasture, carrot seeds, beans and even rye whiskey!

We are lamenting the thick smoke obscuring the views then discover a camera setting for ‘clear scenic shots’.   I think it does make a difference.

Smoke still obscures the distant hills

Scenery after changing the camera setting

We are in the Cascade Mountains and stop for some lunch at Leavenworth, a Bavarian town which was so pretty with alpine style buildings, restaurants serving German beer and food. The Wenatchee runs alongside and is a habitat for ospreys and eagles although we don’t see any today. The village is a gateway to nearby ski areas and the Wenatchee State Forest.

Horse and cart - that's obvious isn't it?

Main Street Leavenworth

Beautiful window boxes

We arrive at Everett about 3.45pm where we are booked into the Days Inn for the night.  We have a ground floor room and can park right outside which makes a nice change for Kim who usually has to lug our suitcase up flights of stairs.

I intended to go sit by the pool but start up the laptop to do a quick couple of things first and before I know it it's after 7pm and we really should go get some food.  There is a mall across the road so we figure we will get food there before they close at 9pm.  We duck into Buffalo Wild Wings and choose the tasting selection to share.  Just right!

Sunday August 12 - Baymont by Wyndham, Spokane Valley , WA

We wake to clear blue skies with a couple of little white fluffies peacefully floating.

We like Whitefish!  It’s a real nice resort town in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana and one of the gateways to the jagged peaks, lakes and glacier-carved valleys of Glacier National Park.

On our way west to Washington we choose the scenic route SH2, not the I90 even though the GPS wants us to go that way.

Montana to us is lots of trees, high hills, lovely scenery, huckleberries, good well cared for roads and modern towns.  It has loads of lakes and we drive past a chain of them, named McGregor, Thompson, Ranbow, Crystal, Horseshoe and Loons and lots more.

Montana

After we drive through Libby and still in Montana we get back into smoke haze from the wildfires in Kootenai National Forest to the north of us.  Then we take the Wild Horse Trail Scenic Byway to drive through Idaho.

We are slowed to a stop along the open road as a car coming the other way stops to retrieve two plastic kayaks which have come adrift (hah, nice play on words, get it) from the roof rack.  They still looked whole so hopefully they didn’t sustain too much damage.

Amazing carved eagle

Then we notice we have lost an hour, it is now 11.30am, it was 12.30 just a minute ago.

At Sandpoint we continue west on SH2.  We see three dead raccoons on the road side, obviously been hit by cars, possibly a family as they were so close together.  Very sad, they are so cute!

We continue driving south west towards Spokane with a pit stop so Kim can get fuelled up on McDonalds, then we are only an hour from our home for tonight.  It’s a nice hotel in it’s own little town (Spokane Valley) a little ways outside of Spokane itself and there is a wide choice of eating options here for later. And the hotel offers complimentary freshly baked cookies which we had to try. I went down to use the office centre to print out our flight confirmations but the computer is currently inoperable.  The same company owns the Super 8 next door and they sent me over there to do my printing but their PCs don’t have USB plugs either.

We are in for an early night tonight, we have had a long drive today and we got an extra hour so it feels later than the clock says.  We have another big drive tomorrow to get back to the Washington coast but then a couple of cruisy days before we fly down to LA.  We are getting this hotel booking in advance down to a fine art but it is still time consuming.  Would be easier if we stayed in one place for more than a night I guess but then we wouldn’t see so much or cover so much ground.

We can't be bothered going out for food so we snack on our cheese and crackers and call it dinner.

Saturday, 11 August – Cheap Sleep Motel, White Fish MT (via Glacier National Park)

Our neighbours got home late and made lots of noise, the same neighbours got up early and made lots of noise.  The upside is we are up and on the road by a little after 8am. Don’t need to wait on breakfast, there is none on offer here.  We only drive about 20 km until we arrive at the border in Carway.  There is a motorbike in front of us but he pulls over to dig out his passport so we mosey on straight through.  A couple of questions about how long we’ve been in Canada and where we came in from and we are waved through!  No drama whatsoever, in fact I think we made her day, she would have been bored otherwise!

We pull over to get the GPS out, so happy to have Miss Bossy back again, we've missed her telling us where to go!  Then get the welcome to USA sign and the ‘Montana Welcomes You’ sign too.

We turn off at St Marys onto the very scenic ‘Going to the Sun Road’ to Glacier National Park and stop at the gateway, again first in line as a new lane was just opening up.  We couldn’t play the 'just passing through' card today so we purchased the $35 pass which is good for 7 days and through we go.

We are early enough to see the glow of sunrise behind us

What stunning scenery! We would not have been able to do this in the motorhome, there is a length limit of 21 ft and a height of 10 ft, and we soon see why as we pass under overhanging rocks.

This would be motorhome stress!

However there are free shuttles from St Marys at the east end and Apgar at the west and we see many of them along the road and  frequent shuttle stops to get off and on and go hiking etc. We drive past 3 campgrounds, two tunnels (imagine the time and manpower to bore through 408 ft of mountain in 1928), Golden Staircase with water cascading down it,  Gunsight Pass, Jackson Glacier, Logan Pass which sits on the Continental Divide at 6,646 feet, Weeping Wall with a waterfall, Bird Woman Falls cascading 492 feet, a serious switchback with views of Heavens Peak and Sun Point.  We are supplied a handout on Bear Safety, so I keep my eyes peeled but the only wildlife we see are two tiny squirrels, one on the road.

It is still hazy but not as bad, I can see shades in the sky it’s no longer just one solid shade.  The tops of the majestic peaks are rugged, the road although narrow is smooth and well cared for and there are many more outlooks underway where people can pull off the road to take photos etc.

We see lots of motorbike groups and bicycle groups too, that must be hard work.  They are very polite, as the road is one lane each way and some areas the lanes are pretty skinny, the cyclists hold out their left arm with palm facing us to holding us back to warn it is not safe to pass, when it is safe they wave us through with a nice friendly smile and wave.

Polite team of lady cyclists letting us know it is not safe to pass just yet.

We stop at lots of outlooks and get out to take photos, our windscreen is so bug spattered it shows up in any photos I take from the car.  It’s a pleasant 18C 66F outside, bit of a change from yesterday 101F+.

Still have the wildfire smoke haze!

Yup, snow on them thar hills!

We are ready for a pit stop once we are out of the park at West Glacier, we're ready for breakfast now and bacon, eggs and hashbrowns, plus a coffee of two and we feel human again!

A little further on at Columbia Falls we see a carwash so pull in and vacuum the grass from our foray to the reservoir yesterday and give the car a much need soap up and water blast – it’s just like new – almost!

We are early to check in to our accommodation and anyway we missed it on the drive in but we wanted to take a look around the town anyway.  We backtrack and find the Cheap Sleep Motel, which I was kinda dreading after last night’s decidedly substandard accommodation, but we are pleasantly surprised.  Our room is ready, the parking is good, WIFI is good, the pool is welcoming and we do take advantage of that after a couple of hours of googling some more places to stay.  The sun is out and just a little filtered but as the afternoon progresses I can see blue sky that looks blue.

Take the opportunity to do some laundry, it’s just down the stairs from us and sit down and write the blog, with a glass of wine!

Dinner was at the Piggyback BBQ down by Whitefish Lake with live music too, I guess it is Saturday night after all.  My Pork Belly Sliders were yum but I left most of the bread, Kim’s Smokey Joe - Brisket served open-face on a roll, smothered in horsey sauce, topped with Montana sauce & melted cheese was also yum but he left most of the bread too!

Cheers!

We had a drive around the lake to watch the sunset before heading back to the homestead and saw a couple of deer having their dinner in someone’s front garden!

Saw this lovely Bullmastiff waiting patiently, what a cute face!

Catching the very last sun beams over Whitefish Lake MT

Friday, 10 August – Outpost Motel, Cardston, AB

Breakfast wasn’t crowded today at the Comfort Inn but we arrived 15 minutes before they closed for the morning so Kim didn’t get his eggs : (

Smiley face, this morning I transferred some money back to NZ and we got NZ$1.50 for every US$1.00.  Thanks Donald, at this rate we will be making money on the motorhome.

The smoke haze still dominates so we continue with our plans to drive directly south to just north of the border today, ready for an early start tomorrow which is Saturday, not ideal for changing countries.  Never mind, we got nuthin’ else to do.  Banff has fires and so does the Lake Louise area so a good call not to go that way.

Leaving Calgary - air traffic control in the snog - must make their job extremely difficult

We start our drive by heading a little ways into Calgary for petrol and to give the windshield a good scrub.  As we head south on Hwy 5 there is not much to talk about scenery wise, it’s flat and you can’t see the horizon because of the haze.  However we do see donkeys x 2, sheep x 3, hills x 3.

We have been glad to have radio stations the last couple of days, we only rescued 4 CD’s from the coach and one doesn’t work, so George Strait, Blake Sheldon and The Young Bucs (from the show we went to at the Safari Rally) have been keeping us company – they get a bit wearisome but if I ever have to do Karaoke with music from one of these artists I will know the words without looking, bonus!

We stop off at Tim Horton for refreshments, it’s 101F outside.  Then it’s only another half hour to Cardston where we have booked a motel based on price alone!  This is the most ‘rustic’ we have had to date, the floor slopes, the hot water takes 15 minutes to flow, that doesn’t matter too much because it’s 101F outside, our duvet cover is from the 60’s, the AC unit is from the Arc but does work.  On the upside the fridge has mini bar stuff in it, the WIFI is great and that’s about it.

Rattly old AC unit in our room, the rest of the decor is of the same vintage!

We checked in around 2pm and after getting set up decide we will go for an explore to the supermarket, the local pool (not a single cm free for two more hot punters), the Visitors Centre and eventually out to the St Mary Reservoir 15 miles away where we might get a swim.  I do get a swim but it is a muddy beach, we sank to our ankles in the damp places.  The water only got as deep as my knees, and there were a lot of people there – why we ask?  Answer, there is nowhere else.

Back to get cleaned off in the cold shower and then off to A&W for dinner.  I get to try Poutine – it is a French-Canadian classic consisting of French fries, fresh cheese curds, and brown gravy.  Glad I got to try it before we leave Canada but probably wouldn’t rush to have again.

Poutain

Cheers Kim, it was only rootbeer!

We still have some Canadian $ left and as A&W don’t have any ice cream treats we wander along (in the car) to Dairy Queen to spend our last $10 on a couple of generous sundaes, yum!

Back to our hovel, catch up on the blog etc and it will be an early night.  Kim is watching cable TV (that's a plus) – I guess it doesn’t matter where you and what your duvet looks like if are if you are engrossed in TV.

Thursday, 9 August – Comfort Inn & Suites, Calgary

We don’t have a long ways to go today so spend a bit of time on the internet planning stuff for the days ahead.  We are on the road by about 10.30am though and find the smoke mist has still not dissipated so there wasn’t much to see on the drive south through the super flat country south from Edmonton to Calgary.

Leaving Edmonton in the wildfire smoke haze

We are in our room at the Comfort Inn & Suites,s Calgary nice and early so we spend some more time planning our next moves, and downloading more maps etc.  We have a nice room and the WIFI is great.

Holy moly it is already 7pm and we now can’t be bothered going out to eat so we order in pizza, we’ll see how that turns out….. Pretty good as it turns out, prompt, friendly, tasty!!

It’s quite difficult to work out the best way to move forward.  There are some great websites showing maps of the wildfires and the extent etc.  They are not letting up so we have changed our plans to drive through Banff and Lake Louise, instead opting for heading more south where we will stop over just this side of the border and get a good start over to Montana in the morning.

The sunsets have been amazing reflected in the far reaching smoke of the wildfires glowing orange balls falling from the sky!

Wednesday, August 8 – Ramada, West Edmonton

Feeling revived after a good sleep and ready to start our day after a good brekkie at the hotel.  My wish for fresh sheets every night is coming true already and I'm not even rich or famous!

First stop is the West Edmonton Mall which was built shortly after we left Edmonton late 1980, so I missed it.  At the time it was the biggest mall in the world but I think it is now the biggest mall in North America.  It is huge regardless and where 'would rather not' shoppers (ie husbands and kids) can while their time away in a huge variety of ways.

Could try the Blue Thunder Wave Pool in the World Waterpark or one of the 17 waterslides, the Galaxyland Amusement Park with 27 exhilarating rides, some seriously scary, the Deep Sea Adventure which has a replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship Santa Maria.  There’s mini golf and a petting zoo.  There are separate theme streets ie Chinatown, Europa Boulevard and BRBN Street with nightlife, food and specialty stores.  I’ve missed some highlights so reading off the brochure now, Deep Sea Adventure, Sea Life Caverns underground aquarium (we didn't even see this with it's 100 species of fish and mammals), Sea Lions with a show every day, Ice Palace to try your skills at ice skating, Ten Pin Bowling and arcade games galore!

Blue Thunder Wave Pool

Beachview Bar in the foreground and waterslides behind - all in a shopping mall!

Kim is keen on winning a Lambo, have to come back to pick it up in January

After the mall we tried to do some sightseeing in the city but it befuddled us, we couldn't get to where we wanted and then there was no parking so we dipped out.  Plan B was to find the famous Scoop n Roll icecream place, Kim wants to bring the idea home if it's not already there.

Brilliant idea, its like tempering chocolate except this is on ice plates!  Might be a good idea for home!

Mmm, how does one go about demolishing this icecream delight?

Murray and Terri very kindly invited us for supper tonight, it hadn't met Terri before, she is lovely and we also got to meet their daughter Nikki, boyfriend John and the dog Jack.  Murray made his signature ribs, and very good they were too, I have to say!

It was great to pick up the threads of many camping weekends at Lake BJ (Big Johnson) 20 years ago with these guys (hence the moniker BJ bunch – not what you might have been thinking).  These boys were all mostly bachelors when we went camping and now they are all married with children and grandies.  It was so nice to meet the wives!  We must be getting on, it was only a 'couple' of drinks over the evening, not like the good old days!  Fuzzy came alone but I would have liked to meet his wife Jen, a long standing kindergarten teacher, she sounds delightful.  Mitts’ wife Margaret was a hoot, and Rolfe’s wife Sharon did seemed familiar, so I think we did meet before.  Our hosts Murray and Terri were lovely and made us so welcome.

Crazy BJ Bunch!! Back left to right Murray, Terri, Sharon, Margaret, Mitts, Rolphe, front me, Fuzzy and Kim

Tuesday, August 7 – Ramada, West Edmonton

Eek, there are a couple of buses of Asian tourists staying here too, wonder what the bunfight will be like for breakfast?  No worries, they have all been and gone so we only share with other couples and families.  Kim’s makes an observation – we have seen a lot of Indians (the Hindu turban wearing type) but Canada is well known for taking in refugees from all over.

We are on the road by 8.15am, the view of the mountains somewhat obscured by the smoke haze from the nearby fires which follows us all the way to Edmonton.  The river running beside us is an obvious milky turquoise and the jagged peaks look faded.  Not many good photos taken today.

 

We get to the Jasper National Park and see a huge stag with a full head of antlers grazing beside the road.  No fee to enter the Park as we are just driving through. We are held up for about 15 minutes by road works within the park and are then lead through the loose seal by a minder to make sure we don’t go over the imposed 40kms/hour.

Not very clear sorry, thru the bugriddled windscreen at speed with little notice

Hazy rocky mountains!

We stop at the town of Jasper for a look around and a tank of fuel, we are getting 47.7 mpg! Then stopped again at Edson AB to refuel Kim’s tummy.  We crossed over the state line with no hoopla and also went through a time zone so we gained one extra hour today, however temporarily.

Very smoky from local forest fires

We arrived at the Ramada in West Edmonton at 3.10pm, about 45 minutes earlier than CoPilot suggested even with the time change, so we are happy to get out and stretch, it has been a long day sitting.  We are happy with our room, it is ready, an hour before check in time.  A 4pm check-in is common here, don’t know what they do with the time between check-out and the next lot!

We phoned Murray and let him know we have arrived safely and arrange to catch up tomorrow evening at his place for Ribs and Baked Potato – all my faves and to catch up with some others from our camping adventures here back in 1980.

After a bit of a rest up we go for a drive around Edmonton to see what we recognise.  After a block of two we ended up right outside my Brother Bryan’s apartment where we lived when we stayed with him back in 1980.  Looks just the same!  Then we drove around the city crossing a couple of the bridges we remember and all in all had a lovely trip down memory lane.

Monday, August 6 - Canada's Best Value Inn, 1501 Swift Creek Rd, Valemount, BC

As we leave Sun Peaks we surprise a deer about to cross the road!

Stop off at Tim Hortons for brunch, arrived at just the wrong time, a queue for the restroom and a queue for the food – so the place must be good.  However Kim’s English Muffin with Bacon and Hashbrown did not hit the absurdly high benchmark he allocates McDonalds, but he said the hot chocolate was worthy.

It was a pretty drive, the very high hills started off a bit bald at first but gradually increased to full coverage.  It would be stunning in the snow.  We drive alongside the North Thompson River for most of our journey along Hwy 5 North.  CoPilot says we will arrive at Valemount by 2.30pm but we obviously didn’t have the recommended number of stops as we arrive before 2pm.  Our room is not ready so we go across the road to the Visitors Centre to fill in time.  We buy a paper map at the Shell Service Station, retro huh!  I think I will be able to read the small print – hopefully!

Last night we did a test transfer of funds from US to NZ through Transferwise, usually the money gushes the other way!  It is a bit different doing it this way round and we chickened out and just transferred $10 but it looks like it is going through OK.  Just seen on the news the exchange rate is getting better for us to send money home too : )

Valemount is short for Valley in the Mountains and there are mountains and the Creekside River where salmon come to spawn – we are two weeks early but we go down to creek for a look anyway.  No bears yet either but there is a moose head in the lobby, I guess that counts as wildlife, it was wild once.

Imagine this little creek swarming with spawning salmon!

Our room is nowhere near as luxurious as last night but it is more than double the price (!) and that’s with our 10% discount.  What were we thinking??  All about getting to Edmonton in the shortest time possible for the driver, that’s what!  And if you come the scenic way there are only expensive hotels to choose from so we suck it up and make the most of it, filling the spa bath to the top, using all the towels and lots of WIFI - after we eventually got it to to work.  Kim's loud rant did not help!  Then all was almost forgiven as we see this lovely sunset out our window.

View from our window at Valemount, BC

Sunday, August 5 – Hearthstone Lodge by Bear, Sun Peaks, near Kamloops BC

We are becoming immune to noisy rattling AC units!  But even though we had such a good sleep, must have needed it.

Sun is out again and we are moving on today.  Need to fine tune the packing – again!

Complimentary breakfast is at the separate Subway on the property, all owned or managed maybe by an Indian family.  We availed ourselves of the ‘free’ brekkie, I think we well and truly paid for it in our NZ$150 for the night.

We drive a little ways to get to Kamloops where we stop to have a look around.  The CBD is pretty quiet being a Sunday but the River Trail Park is not.

Just a short 50 km drive further along off the beaten track we arrive at Sun Peaks Resort town.  It is beautiful and our accommodation at Hearthstone Lodge is superb and all pretty much the same price as the dump we stayed in lasts night.  We have a fireplace, a full kitchen with a fridge, an electric jug to make a cup of tea, real crockery including wine glasses, a tea towel so we can wash and dry our travel mugs!  It’s surprising how much one takes for granted.  We paid the extra to have parking underneath the hotel, and worth it as we do more than one trip to get our stuff up to the room on the 3^rd floor.  We have a view out our ‘opening’ window, looking out onto the Mountain Cross Carts, these gravity powered gokarts get towed up to the top of the hill and the can reach speeds up to 35kms as they weave their way down the hill, a bit like the luge in Rotorua.

Gravity power gokarts

We spend a bit of time in the room getting stuff sorted and them Kim wants to try and download maps for the GPS so I go exploring.  It an awesome holiday spot, not very busy for the long weekend, at least there is room to move around.  The cafes and restaurants start to get busy late afternoon.

Sun Peaks Resort

Cars on the outside, walkiing on the inside

Our home for the night.

We go out for a proper dinner tonight, not a burger, in fave we both have the vienna schnitzel – fitting mountain food.  We sit outside of the verandah in the sun with a cold drink first and its beautiful.

We both go exploring after dinner until the sun eventually sinks below the hills and it gets a bit cooler.

Saturday, August 4 – Cache Creek, BC

Need to fine tune the packing and change some stuff from the live-in suitcase to the storage one.  And throw out some more stuff we can’t be bothered carrying.

Complimentary continental breakfast was a farce, not enough tables for the pyjama clad unwashed, nor for us not that we wanted to sit.  So grabbed a couple of bananas and teas and back to the room.

We get on the road heading towards Sumas where we will cross into Canada. We have a momentary panic, our GPS does not seem to have the Canadian maps – just as well also have good ole CoPilot.  On checking further we confirm we don't have Canadian maps but can buy for US$75, we will try and do without or see if we can find some free ones.

I have updated my phone plan for the month so I can use my phone in Canada.  I now also have data so there is always google maps!

We arrive at the border control without any problem and stop behind about ten cars.  We only wait for 25 minutes before it is our turn.  We see a lady walking over with her suitcase after saying fond hugging farewells to some others on our side of the border.  A bunch of bikes wait their turn, most pushing their bikes as they inch along.  We are hardly beside the booth for a minute then we are passed through.  The key however is to have one of the Nexus cards.  You are xrayed before you wave your card at the reader than stop briefly next to the booth and in less than a minute you are through.

Not too many in front of us as we pull up to border control

This is how some cross the US/Canada border, I',m sure she had a nice holiday

The queue on the other side - Canada to US is horrendous, miles and miles and it is not moving much at all, they will be there for hours.  But it is Civic Weekend in Canada and I guess they want to make the most of their three days off.

Once into Canada we notice a few things, we are surrounded by very high hills on all sides, its very pretty!  The drivers, at least this close to the border, do not keep to the left lane unless overtaking, they pretty much stay out in the fast lane all the time.  However it is nice to be back to what we understand, kms and litres.

We have driven highway 1, 3 and 5 plus some larger numbers?  The speed limits range from 110 to 120kms/hour but it seems all drive faster than that.  The road are nice and in good condition.  We are happily driving along with an outside temp of 80F (American car) but as we traverse some high hills the temp drops to 70 in a couple of minutes and then 3-4 degrees more. Sooner after though we are back on around the 80 mark.  We even get a couple of fat splotches of rain.

We pull off at Merritt for some sustenance.  We think we will stop off at a Walmart to buy something and get some cash out, but being a long weekend the local Walmart isn’t offering that service, they are running short of cash!  No worries we will find an ATM, or not bother and just put everything on the debit card.

More pretty scenery, especially alongside the long narrow Tunkwa Lake and the little lakeside town of Savona.

We arrive at Cache Creek to our very low budget accommodation.  We expected it to be a little rustic and it didn’t disappoint.  We spend an hour or two sussing out where to from here and then go off to find some dinner.  The WIFI is excellent here. There is not a lot to choose from in this burg and Kim had a burger for a late lunch so we end up at the local Husky diner for a not very memorable feed.

Friday, August 3 – TT Birch Bay, Blaine WA

Our last sleep in the coach was a good one, I think we were both soo tired and managed to get in a good 7 hours.  But up at 6am, Lea & Ralph asked last night can they pick it up at 10am instead of 1pm – yikes!  Yep, I guess we can be ready!

One last load of laundry, a couple of quick showers so I can do the final clean in the shower, a quick brekkie which consists of the last of our stuff in the fridge, so I can do the final clean in the fridge, strip the bed and through the linen in the dumpster, it really has done a good job for us but I don’t think anyone else would want it, thank you dumpster man.  And then we can start loading the car.

Then I clean, clean and clean some more.  We are done, coach has never been cleaner, I even founds nooks and crannies I never cleaned before!

L&R rock up and experience a bit of an admin malfunction – the forms they printed out for us all to sign (remember, our printer is mort) have been left at home!  Hmm, lets see if the office will print them out for us from Ralph’s printer – yup panic averted!

Ralph drives off with Finn the dog, buckled into my seat (probably looks much better there than the last co-pilot) and heads off down the road, with Lea following in their car, and us following nervously behind snapping photos as the opportunity arises.

We successfully reduced our belongings from 350 sq ft to  mqybe 30

Ralph driving their motorhome to it's new home!

Funnily enough, neither of us felt a particular wrench when they drove it away, I think we had both done our ‘accepting’ at the time of accepting their offer – so that is a good thing!  No tears, tantrums or terrible selling remorse.  They will look after and enjoy our baby!

Our final mileage was 84683 so this trip we have safely traveled 4,050 miles, from Houston TX, through New Mexico, up through Arizona, through Utah, to Oregon where we spent most of our time and then a little further north to Washington State.  Our intention was to travel through Canada but it will be so much easier now in a rental car and not having to declare food etc.

Large sign!

The weather has been great, rarely going below 20C - except in the mornings (although there were a few cold days which weren’t driving days on the Oregon Coast).  Looking through the driving log, we have counted one rain day, one sun shower day, three overcast days and one drizzle travel day – all in all I would say that is a successful escape from winter in Wellington.

So we can now relax, Kim feels a load has been lifted, he doesn’t need to worry so much about cars pulling out on us, the coach takes a little bit of stopping!

OK we have now moved on!  We had such an early start to our day, we need more coffee and I conveniently remember where I saw a Cinnabon!  That’s that taken care of : )  While we are here we have a quick look around, Kim wants more cold pills and then I see a Ross and even tho our luggage is bulging and even tho we sent stuff home already, I just needed to buy the Tommy Hilfiger tote bag I have been hankering for since I saw one in Houston and didn’t buy.  I wasn’t actually looking but I am sure Kim rolled his eyes at me adding more stuff to our already extended capability.

So we check in to the EconoLodge in Bellingham and realising it is rather close to the I5 ask for a ground floor back of property room – one out of two not bad, we are at the back but on the top – 3^rd floor – but there is a lift – lucky!

So we got our luggage up to the room and now we can see what we brought that we didn’t need to, some of it food, so we take care of some of that promptly.  Then we spend the afternoon googling where we can stay on our way over the border to Canada and our stops on the way to Edmonton.  Bad mistake - travelling on a long Canadian weekend,even though we are still in WA just over the border. Hotel prices on both sides are 50% more for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the options are diminishing as we google.  So we’ve got a crap hotel tomorrow and a nicer one on Sunday and then I hope we can take our pick and not pay holiday rates.

Thursday, August 2 – TT Birch Bay, Blaine WA

This is our last whole day and night in our motorhome - sad face : (

He cute little black squirrel racing up and down the trees makes me smile  : )

Today’s plan is more cleaning and biffing stuff until we get our rental car at 11am.  It’s a very nice Ford Fusion Hybrid (white - from the girls point of view) and will apparently do 42 miles to the gallon!  We stay in town for a while and I have a quick look at the Bellis Fair Mall, it’s a big one and we will be staying nearby tomorrow night so will have a good look around then.

Back to the coach, seal up our carton after one more look through, we need to itemise how many pairs of jeans, shirts, shoes etc. and take it the Post Office in nearby Blaine, just south of the Canadian border.  The lady is so helpful and chatty, I think that was to distract our attention away from the face the carton weighs a meagre 32lb and it cost over $200 to send.  The good news is, it was sent Express, at no additional cost and we can track it and if it is not delivered as promised by 9 August, we can claim some of the postage back!  Let’s see how they perform.

We have a drive around Blaine, it is a lovely little town with a nautical theme, a quite large marina, lots of trees and hanging baskets, a coffee shop built like a ship, an office for something obscure with model boats adorning the windowsills. 

Its nearly 4pm and we still have a lot to do so head back to the coach for our last evening, attack the fridge, do more laundry, more packing, more unpacking and repacking, finish off the wine so we don’t have to declare any when we get to Canada, make lists, fluff around until it’s time for our last sleep in our motorhome.

A bit of a mission to downsize from the one on the right on the one on the left!