O, Canada

I’m sitting in the laundry room at this misfit KOA reject campground (more on that later) waiting for our clothes to dry, so I figure I would do a little trip update.  Today marks day seven of our travels out of Alaska and by all intents and purposes, it has all gone quite according to plan- and if you know Ben or myself- this makes for some happy campers. 

Our trip technically started nine days ago after we closed on our house and the house was officially put in the buyer’s names.  We still had two nights before our trip was scheduled to begin, so our friends kindly let us camp next to their house for those nights.  We spent those days and nights hanging out with Jimmy and Hannah and their kids, watching some movies, bowled some games and got our ducks in a row for the trip. 

 

I will miss my Hannah!

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After saying our final ‘see you laters’, we headed to Tok, AK where we stayed at a campground that Ben always tent camps when he goes to Dawson City, YK for his motorcycle trips.  We felt especially fancy because this was the first time we had full hook ups for our trailer which meant we didn’t need to worry about conserving battery for lights, turning water pump on and off, and we could use our coffee pot for coffee in the morning!  We were really feeling high class in that moment.

The border crossing went off without complication- even with two guns, three dogs and all of our worldly possessions on board.  We have since been exploring the great land of Canada.

As anyone who has driven the AlCan knows, it is a lot of Canada to explore.  Days of it even. 

 

Good ol Watson Lake Sign Post Forest

We were convinced to check out Liard Hot Springs, BC on our travels and we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the campground was at the hot springs.  No hook ups (no coffeepot), but the spots were beautifully kept and we could walk right to the hot springs from the trailer. 

 

Ah the smell of sulfur in the evening

After our dip in the springs!

While driving, we saw some awesome wildlife- as one is apt to do driving in British Columbia.  Lots of buffalo, a few bear and one ornery caribou who took its sweet time crossing the road in front of us.  

Baby!

Momma and her cub

Speaking of wildlife, the dogs are doing amazing.  Hannah and her litter went with me to see Secret Life of Pets the day before we left and I think it was good for me to be reminded how much our pets love us and how much they just want to be a part of our lives.  Ben thinks I anthropomorphize the dogs too much as it is- but I often lose sight that they can’t understand us beyond yes, no, sit, stay, don’t poop there, you stink, go to bed.  I knew getting them adjusted to the camper-life would be a challenge, as our already small trailer would be even smaller chock full of a motorcycle and lots of totes.  So I have definitely been trying to be a lot more patient and calm when trying to get them to understand that they need to stay on their dog beds or under the couch and not under our feet in the kitchen area or bedroom.  They seem to really enjoy hanging in the back of the truck bed, always trying to jump up in there when we have to go from place to place.  The KOA in Hinton (north of Jasper) even had a neat off leash area with all kinds of obstacles.  I read after the fact that people were not allowed on the obstacles (whoops). 

 

Can I haz some cheez?

Goat

The lake matches my collar mom- take my picture

The trailer has also done really well- we are proud of ourselves for how well we were able to secure all of our things inside.  With the shit conditions of the highway, we knew that everything would be put to the test and anything that was not strapped, bungeed, closed in a closet or pinned in a corner would be sent flying everywhere.  The only issues thus far is the piping on the hot water heater has a propensity to blow off.  It did this in Kenai and Ben tried to rectify it as much as possible, but in Hinton, the end blew off again sending hot water everywhere in the bedroom hallway.  So he fixed it.  And then the other end blew off 5 minutes later spewing more water.  And then Ben is laughing hysterically.  And then he fixed it again.  

 

Pretty view from Hinton KOA with some monoliths in the way back

Our other more pressing- pun intended- issue was that due to some still unknown reason, in Jasper and Banff, the trailer tires started touching the trailer.  This caused a nice burning rubber smell.  Luckily Ben identified the issue after a few stops before anything broke or blew- he needs some spacers to add a bigger gap between the tires and the inside wheel well.  Unluckily, we were in the middle of the Ice Fields Parkway where there is nary an auto parts or even hardware store to be had. 

So the next 2-3 hours were filled with bated breaths and ‘oh shits’ at every bump, just waiting for one of the four tires to blow (we only have one spare).  

This is what I do while Ben checks the tires for mishaps

Pilot enjoying the Ice Fields in Jasper

Oh, and on top of that we were not able to go see Lake Louise or Moraine Lake due to the insane amount of tourists.  So add a crying wife who can’t see the one place her parents loved so much when they visited ten years ago and the only thing she wanted to see in Canada, combined with the ridiculous amount of traffic and bad drivers to Ben’s stress of the trailer catastrophically failing with no solution in sight and you have a pretty good idea about how he was feeling yesterday afternoon. 

Thankfully Ben is Ben and Ben is not Steph and he managed to get us safely to Banff to find some lunch and a hard ware store sans major issue or meltdown.  He was able to find a solution to the spacers by purchasing washers at the local Banff hardware store.

 

We had no idea it was a vegetarian restaurant, but it was really good!

Bean, hummus, veggie burger on black bean bun, Yum!

The least of the rubbed carnage

Yay for having all of your tools on hand!

After Ben fixed the trailer we made our way to Revelstoke, BC.  This made for a very long day of driving…lots of overpasses, lots of hills, lots of descents, lots of truck transmission bitching and moaning, lots of alarms going off on his gauges and fans kicking on to cool the engine.  But we finally made it.  To the misfit, reject KOA campground.  We know that it used to be a KOA because it is located off KOA Rd and all the signage has the infamous KOA mustard yellow and red writing.  We have collectively decided they were fired from KOA rather than disbanding on their own because everything is a little more haggard, a little more overgrown, a little less polished than the KOA we stayed with in Hinton. 

In any case, Revelstoke the town is a really rad place.  I say rad because it is clearly a ski town, full of ski shops, ski type locals as well as tourists.  [Side note: We have encountered several Australian servers in the last few days so I asked a bartender why Aussies come to Canada and he replied “Why do Canadians come to Australia?” *shrugs* Apparently the two countries have a very amicable work visa situation making movement between countries fairly fluid.  He also said Aussies tend to flock towards ski towns.  Interesting, eh?] 

Anyways, we stumbled upon a German Indian restaurant last night (they even had a small Thai section).  As soon as we walked in Ben starts cooing over the spätzle smell and I’m cooing over the curry and naan bread smells.  I had the best schnitzel I have ever had and Ben says he had the best spätzle he has ever had outside of Germany (when I went to Germany I survived off of cold cuts and bread- stupid 15 year old taste buds).  It was awesome to hear the cook hammering out the schnitzel in the kitchen while we were munching on garlic naan and smelling a variety of curries being prepared. 

Today proved to be another culinary success of Revelstoke.  We arrived to town fairly early to check out the farmer’s market that our waiter from the German Indian place suggested which was full of fresh produce, honey, jewelry, pottery, etc.  We had brunch at a taco place which provided us a front window seat to people watch the market goers.  For dinner we checked out a pub called Village Idiot and had an awesome time sitting at the bar chatting with several folks about our travels, their travels and the Olympics.  One rather drunk patron basically said “WTF are Americans doing in Canada during the Olympics?? We are at like MACH WAR WITH YOU!”  (mach war?) to which Ben calmly replied “It’s not the Stanly Cup, it’s the Olympics-calm down.”

 

Columbia River in Revelstoke, BC

No smiling on road trip!

People watching cove

It was fun watching USA win the majority of what was on as well as chat with the bartenders while eating more good food.  Not sure if it’s a Canadian thing but both bartenders shook our hands when we got there and introduced themselves to us- as well as when we left.  If it’s not, then it is one more reason why I like Revelstoke, British Columbia. 

The only reason we are staying here is because we had to move our departure date back in order to be at the house while we had new windows installed.  All the campgrounds in Banff were booked by the time we went to change our reservations, therefore leading us to Revelstoke- to which we are quite happy!

Tomorrow we head to Vancouver to round out our Canadian tour.  We are looking forward to becoming more of tourists rather than travelers in these next few weeks as the ‘work days’ as Ben called them are pretty much over.

Au Revoir Shoshona!