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| lane 29, Departure Bay, Nanaimo, BC |
After waving goodbye to Bruce we were almost immediately at the terminal in Departure Bay. We bought our return passage to Vancouver and pulled into our lane for boarding the 0830 ferry, the sun just coming up over the mainland. We were the first ones there so I was pretty confident we would get on. It was a quiet crossing and we arrived in West Vancouver at 1030 where we met up with Lara and Jesse one last time to say goodbye. I sure am going to miss my two little grandkids..Then we were on our way east towards Chilliwack, Hope and the Alberta border. We had decided to drive through the southern part of the province and avoid the Rocky Mountains as it was getting into the snowy season on the high elevations and I had no wish to camp in below zero temperatures. It was a beautiful day and the traffic pretty light as we followed the winding Crowsnest Highway skirting the US border through the Okanagan Valley to Osoyoos and Oliver where we stopped for the night. It was a very comfortable 26 degrees when we arrived and set up. It was the first time we had been to Oliver and the area and we were both amazed at the plethora of wineries here. It was called the Wine capital of Canada for good reason as almost 40% of BC's vineyard acreage is planted here. Marie and I agreed we could live here quite happily.
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| arriving West Vancouver |
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| me and Joshua saying goodbye, one last time |
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| lunch stop near Hope BC |
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| on the Crowsnest Highway along the Similkameen River, Manning Provincial Park, BC |
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| fresh Okanagan fruit |
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| Lake Osoyoos, BC |
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| Desert Gem RV Resort, Oliver, BC |
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| Crowsnest Highway, BC |
British Columbia seemed to go on forever when we got back on the road the next day and continued our journey towards the Kootenays and our next stop. We didn't make much time as highway 3 went up and down and off in all directions as it followed the mountain passes and avoided the high elevations. The scenery was amazing though and we stopped often to take pictures. Cranbrook was our last stop in BC and we found a quiet campground, the Mount Baker RV Park. Mount Baker, off in the distance, is not to be confused with the active volcano located in the cascades of Washington state.
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| Wigress Lake, BC |
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| Christina Lake, BC |
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| Castlegar, BC |
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| driving through Creston, BC |
Then back on the road next morning, stopping off in Sparwood to see the world's biggest truck, the Titan 33-19, 22 feet high, weighing 1,220,000 pounds with a 16 cylinder, 3300 hp engine built in 1974. Bruce and Kirsten had told us about it, had taken pictures of themselves beside it so we did the same, amazed at the size of it. A half hour later we crossed into Alberta and headed towards Lethbridge, then onto Medicine Hat where we stopped for fuel. Here we got onto the Trans Canada east and were soon motoring into Saskatchewan, heading toward the small town of Gull Lake where we planned to stop for the night. It was a typical prairie town, surrounded by farms, oil derricks and ranches and the horizon stretched on forever. The campground was almost deserted and very peaceful until later in the evening when we were joined by two other campers who set up so close to us we decided to move to a quieter location. We had another long day of the prairies head of us before we reached Ontario... gws
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| Kootenay River and Mount Broadwood |
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| Mt Fernie, Fernie, BC |
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| world's largest truck, Sparwood, BC |
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| somewhere in Alberta, on highway 3 to Medicine Hat |
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| Gull Lake Campsite, Gull Lake, Saskatchewan |
