Canada

We wake up to a gorgeous morning -- blue skies, waterfalls, white-capped mountains.

After packing up (again) we drive north on Hwy 1 through the Fraser Canyon area (beautiful scenery) and stop at Hell's Gate. Hell's Gate is a tourist trap, BUT a tourist trap with great scenery! We take their airtram from Hwy 1, across the Fraser River (165 feet deep and lots of rapids), to the bottom of the canyon. We take lots of pictures, look at their salmon hatchery museum and have lunch overlooking the river. Great time!

We continue on our scenic drive along the Fraser River and then Thompson River. Both sides of the river have very active railroads so we spend time watching trains. One of the highpoints of the drive is when 4 longhorn sheep cross the road in front of us.

One of the lowpoints today is paying $3.95/gallon for diesel!!! This is the first time this trip we've paid over $3/gallon. (As an fyi, regular gas is about $4.75/gallon.) The second lowpoint is constantly hearing the news reports today about the Canadien $ hitting 30 year highs vs the US $. Last year when we travelled to Canada we paid US $.80 for each Canadien $; this year we paid $.92 for each Canadien $.

We decide to drive several extra hours to get to Quesnel BC so that we can leave the 5ver at an RV park tomorrow while we drive to Barkerville (100km east of Quesnel). We plan on staying at a nice RV park beside the lake, but it's a 3-day weekend here (Victoria Day is Monday) and the nice RV park beside the lake is full. So we continue driving and find a park behind a motel. Not picturesque, but at that point we just wanted a place to stay. One good thing is they have free wifi that actually works well :-)

We are filling in the map on the side of our RV:

We drive to the Canadian border at Suma, WA and have no big problems crossing the border. I meant to use up my apples, but forgot so I am forced to throw them out at the border (but the meat and dairy products are fine).

We stop at the Chilliwack Visitors Center and load up with pamphlets and booklets on Canada. Eat some sandwiches in the RV and take off.

Our next stop in Canada is at a bank to convert some U.S. money to Canadian and to get a calling card to make land-line phonecalls. Our cell phones will cost 69-79 cents/minute to use in Canada, so we only intend to use them for emergencies and even then we may not get a signal. Our cell phones will no longer be roaming when we arrive in Alaska, BUT not sure where we’ll get a signal so again we’ll need to use land line phones. We buy a $20 phonecard and learn that there is a 13% sales tax in BC!!! I thought the 8% tax in Washington state was high.

We stop at Hope, BC and set up/unhook the RV, walk around the park, relax awhile outside and then take off for downtown Hope. We walk around the town to look at the wood carvings scattered throughout the town. Hope BC claims to be the wood carving capitol of the world. The carvings were interesting and (more important) they were outside on a beautiful spring day.

Hope’s other ‘claim to fame’ is that it was used in the 80s for the Rambo movie, First Blood. They’re even having a festival later this summer to celebrate the 25th anniversary of making the movie. Apparently one of the scenes take place in a series of old railroad tunnels, so the RV host suggested we go see the tunnels.

There is a short trail that goes back to the tunnels and the walk is very picturesque, following a roaring stream through a canyon. I’m glad we went to see the tunnels even though I don’t think I ever saw the Rambo movie.

It’s our 32nd wedding anniversary today so we go out to dinner at a place recommended by the RV host, Skinny’s Grille. The name seems a little odd and the decorations inside are very eclectic, but the food is wonderful!

So our first day in Canada has gone well….nice scenery…some sun and blue skies….warm temperatures…good food…great walk through the gorge & tunnels. Now to end the day on a great note, I get ready to watch my favorite TV show, Grey’s Anatomy. Unfortunately I find that the cable channel that carries ABC network is complete static!!! So we end up watching a tv show on the educational channel about the first auto trip across the U.S. Interesting show....not better than Grey's Anatomy, but interesting.