Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

15th June 2012 - leaving Burnaby for Kamloops, BC

We left Burnaby on a sunny morning at 0815.

The road to Kamloops is excellent - there was still snow on the mountains.

Another spectacular snow covered mountain along the way. We noticed that a lot of the trees have been crushed and broken like toothpicks due to avalanches

Passing Portia - the road conditions in winter are obviously quitedifferent . Vehicles require chains.Elevation - around 2000metres.

This beautiful vista greeted us as we approached the township of Kamloops. The Thompson River runs through and cuts Kamloops in 2.  The City Centre of Kamloops sits in a long valley with residences hugging the valley wall like flies in a fish shop.  All shopping and amenities in this place - I was pleasantly surprised at the presence of Walmart. Canada also has their own version - called Canada Super Store. Food prices is comparable to Oz but lamb is almost double the price.

Kamloops RV Park is located 13 miles from the town centre. The South Thompson river is just across the road (and railway) from it. We woke up to very low clouds on the mountains on Saturday.Kamloops is the Tournament City of Canada - there are some lovely golf courses here.

We arrived at 1.30pm at Kamloops and we were out at the Rivershore Golf Course at 3.15pm. The weather forecast for the following days was not good so we decided to take advantage of the sunshine.

Guess who?

The golf course is surrounded by houses - players are responsible for any damages to residences. Golf is not cheap in Canada - this particular course is designed by Robert Trent Jones. 18 holes of golf at twilight time is $47.00 pp plus $18 for a motorised cart. 

17th June 2012 - Kamloops - USA Father's Day

We are conveniently parked next to the BC Wildlife Park so we decided to check it out.

These 2 hanging baskets at the entrance to the Park had the most gorgeous black petunias.

Aren't they magnificent?  The Wildlife Park takes in injured animals and birdlife.

One of 3 very regal Bald Eagles the Park. Caught this shot of the eagle moving his right foot forward-it must have got tired of posing!

 There was a Father's day Walk/run fun raising event on at the Park - we were blessed with sunshine today although the dark clouds were not far away. It was comfortable enough for sandals - temp. was around 20C.

Spotted this little cutie enjoying the day out with her family.

At the Birds of Prey show - a Turkey Vulture takes off. Apparently they barf when they get startled so we stayed real still!

It was quite a windy day and a few of the birds had to battle to land-the turkey vulture on final approach.

This gorgeous Golden Eagle was on its debut - it had one broken wing and will never fly again.  The injury according to the keeper could have been sustained when it flew into electrical wires or perhaps run over by vehicles.

This young bear was out testing his climbing skills-luckily he was behind bars!

A bison with his raggedy coat.

The gamekeeper told us this peacock charges people-we asked him how much.

Well...looks like Mr Bison has another thing on his mind!!

A rather snooty looking owl.

This poor bald eagle has a broken wing and is reduced to trundling on the ground instead of being the magnificent flyer it is.

One of the turkey vultures on show about to take off.

This was the 2nd time this Golden Eagle was performing at the show.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

7th June 2012 - Depart Bellevue for Vancouver, Canada

This trip has not been without its problems with our truck and the 5th wheeler. Before we head on the road, all brake lights, turning lights etc. have to be A okay - well, we were up bright eyed and bushytail and ready to leave at 8.30am. It is 10.30am before we can go as the right tail lights on the 5th Wheeler (aka as Al) is not working.  Thank goodness Tom is an excellent handyman but it still took 2 hours troubleshooting and fixing before we hit the road.

Click on a photo if you only wish to view the photos.

We were warned that crossing over to the Canadian border can be a long arduous process with an RV, however to our delight it took no time at all as we took the Commercial Vehicle channel. In fact the Canadian Customs Officer was not even going to stamp our passports if we had not requested it(just so to say we've been to Canada!). She was absolutely wonderful...only apples, peaches not allowed into Canada, we also had no problems with alcohol.

A rather spectacular bridge in the process of being built.

Logs floating down a river - unfortunately as you can tell, the weather was rather miserable.

8th June 2012 - Burnaby, Canada
Arrived around 2.30pm at the Burnaby Cariboo RV Park. What a lovely RV Park - it has an indoor swimming pool, spa, gym, games room, kids playground. 

Office at Burnaby C RV Park.  The truck refused to start after we had stopped to register - thankfully it decided to go after Tom had opened the hood and had a look.  It was raining on our arrival so getting set up was rather wet...thank goodness we had decided to invest in a couple of $1 rain ponchos from the Dollar Store in Salem! The RV Park offers help with reversing Al into his slot.

Click on a photo if you only wish to view the photos.

Al in his "green" box.  If you have a good look, you will see white stuff on the ground..well they are the seeds of the cottonwood. Major hayfever irritants - this stuff just floats everywhere and gets into everything. Tom had to get on top of Al and give it a good clean as the cottonwood becomes clumps of cottonwool when they get wet.

Creek in the conservation park.

Doing my David Attenborough thing - I found this black slug at the park. Meanwhile, the truck is still giving problems with starting.

9th June 2012- Burnaby, Canada
Called out the Canadian Automobile Association guy (RACQ has reciprocal with them) - no  charge. He was at our site within 30 mins - such a nice guy.  The truck's batteries need replacing - he suggested the best price for them is at Costco.  Canada has a 12% tax, plus environmental tax and deposit charged on aluminum cans. 2 new batteries later and all's well.

10th June 2012 - Vancouver City, BC
My brother and family live in Vancouver, in a suburb called Pitt Meadows. We had planned to meet him at Granville Island before heading to his home for a couple of nights. This is the approach into Vancouver City Centre. Vancouver is a large sprawling city..it must have the next largest population of Chinese outside of Asia!

Approaching downtown Vancouver City.

Granville Island is not an actual island but a piece of land that juts out from the mainland. Its a tourist attraction with buskers, beautiful vegetables, craft shops etc. There is Paid Parking, credit cards are accepted at the Parking Stations.

Click on a photo if you only wish to view the photos.

Crowds enjoying the free busking at Granville Island.

Eduardo and his mate entertaining us with his fabulous pan flutes.

Eduardo's assistant - she's in charge of selling his cds - check out her gold necklace!

Tom at Food Hall, Granville Island.

Vegie Stall at Grandville Island, Public Market.

Check out the different varieties of berries! yum yummmm!

Gluten Hell!at Granville Island.

My brother's home at Pitt Meadows.

My sister in law Cindy and me.

My niece, Faith

Tom, Chris and Faith at Osprey Estate

Tom cooking up some steaks at Chris's home.

My sister in law Cindy, my nieces Faith and Grace with Tom.

Chris took us to this lovely estate near his home called Osprey Estate. 
It is situated next to a First Nation (Canadian aboriginals) settlement.

Check out the Pepsi dispensing machine on the balcony. 

You wouldn't want to run out of coins at home!

Click on a photo if you only wish to view the photos.

Looks like the Canadians have the same problem as Australia.

Latest refugee arriving at Alouette Lake! Just kidding - its only Faith.

A rather chilly day at Alouette Lake.

Faith came prepared with rice and chicken! That girl can eat. Her sister Grace could not join us as she was sitting for her Grade 7 Piano Exam.

A lovely aspect of Alouette Lake.

Faith being her energetic self!

Money does not equal class - this monstrosity is locally known as Disneyland.

This is a private home, check out the number of garages.

The Asians at Burnaby Mountain Park gettting ready to do the tourist thing.

The Boyds at Burnaby Mountain Park which was virtually round the corner from Burnaby RV Park.

We thought these totem poles at Burnaby Mt Park might have been carved by the Canadian Indians but as it turned out, they were a gift from the Japanese!

Lynn Canyon - water everywhere,

it was absolutely pouring but being the true blue tourists, we persevered.

The girls and their Aunty Betty on the suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon.

Do we look like we are having fun?  Of course we are!

We went prepared for the deluge as you can see. It would have been quite a beautiful place if the weather had co-operated.  There were trails that we could have done but would have been rather miserable and dangerous in the wet.

Bellevue, Washington

Click on a photo if you only wish to view the photos.

6th June 2012 - Bellevue, Washington

8.30am depart Salem, Oregon and arrived at Trailer Inns, Bellevue around 1.30pm.  We were parked 2 lots away from a Cedar Creek 5th wheeler which we thought was big until this monster pulled up right next to us!  Trailer Inns is a basic RV park, good thing about it - right next to Baskin Robins!

 This 46footer belonged to a couple from Arizona and 8 dogs! We got talking to the gentleman and interestingly his company makes the Taser Guns.

This was only a stopover for two days on the way to Canada so not much to do as we have previously been to Seattle last year. we did catch a new movie Prometheus  which is a scifi not great but not to bad.

2012 continuing tour of the USA and Canada

Well it is late May and we have arrived in the USA to commence our travels starting where we stored the RV in Salem, Oregon and will spend 2 weeks here getting the Truck and the 5th Wheeler shipshape for the journey.

I was surprised to find everything in such good condition and apart from a flat tyre on the 5th wheel due to a valve stem leak everything was ready to go. I have bought a small solar charging panel and left it on the dash of the truck and it has kept the batteries charged for the last 9 months. The truck started straight away and we have repositioned the rig to the campsite at Premier RV Resort where we left from last year.

The interior of the 5th wheel is in remarkably clean condition with no signs of mice, rats or other vermine. I spent an afternoon washing the exterior of the truck and RV so we are now in good shape. I have the truck booked in for a safety service before we set off on our travels.

Stay tuned as the reports will only get better.

Our planned tour for this year takes us from Salem, Oregon up to Seattle WA, Vacouver Canada then up to Kamloops, Revelstoke and on to Lake Louise and Banff in Banff National Park in the Rocky Montains to a place called Hinton and then across to Edmonton and then turn south to Calagary for the Calgary Stampede and then return to USA at Glacier National Park where we will spend a week before proceeding to Yellowstone National Park home of Yoggi Bear.

From Yellowstone we head west into cowboy country including Cody, Buffalo in Wyoming and  Deadwood, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse memorials in South Dakota before proceeding south to Denver and finally on to Amarillo in Texas for a grand total of about 5,000 miles.

We did manage to get a round of golf in at the Salem Golf Club, one of my favourites in this part of the world.

Betty loves the flowing bushes in Salem.