We are home, as in back in the United States. As lovely as it was to be in Canada, there is something about being back here that is special after 11 days away. Plus, no more funny money, kilometers and litres. I did love the French Canadian accent, though. Ooh la la.
While we were always conveniently driving/staying along highway 1 in our Canada parks, this route also follows along the Canadian Pacific Railway. We won’t miss the constant train noise at all of our sites, especially the last campground. There were times where it was soothing, but sometimes the screeching was just a bit much.
Rick will miss the poutine and the ceasars (bloody mary with clamato vs tomato juice, yuck).
The last place, Revelstoke and specifically the Lamplighter campground, will always hold a special place in my heart. Some campgrounds just hit me the right way, and this one did that. Everyone was pretty close together, but the grass, trees and general layout made everything more than ok. Plus the area was super clean, from the laundry and garbage areas (that we did use) to the bathrooms and camp kitchen (that we did not). Everyone was relaxing and appropriately respectful of others; so Canadian. It was definitely a vacation spot, with so much nearby to see and do. As we left this am, we knew we were taking fond memories with us.
And today was a long day to think about our time in Canada! We were up bright and early, and quickly on our way. As you may remember, we had initially planned one more stop in Canada (Quilchena), but scrapped it due to high temperatures, a lack of shade, and an abundance of bugs. These are in the top 3 things of things I don’t like in a campground!!
Anyhow, we did stop near there today as our halfway point, and it was HOT! Rick said he doesn’t regret making the change, and I hope that he’s right. This was the place he wanted to relax/fish, but I think we will have opportunities to do more of that over the next seven weeks.
Yes, we still have seven more weeks. Aren’t we lucky? We are going to get VERY comfortable in the pacific time zone.
Our planned drive was only altered with a couple of construction-related slow downs. We spent all of our Canadian drive (4.5 out of 6+ hours) on major highways, were we went up and down over 3,000 feet a few times. It wasn’t as beautiful as our earlier travels, but still quite lovely. As we finally descended, it was strange to be at <500 feet above sea level again.
We crossed the border with (thankfully) no fanfare and then found ourselves on good old US country roads for the rest of our trip. It reminded us of home, and of Maine. (Boy do we miss our friends and favorite spots in Maine right now since we have been there the last 4 years in a row at this time.)
We enjoyed views of Mount Baker when we crossed the border, and know we will continue to see it, and others throughout the Cascade Mountain Range. We are excited to now formally explore the PNW (Pacific NorthWest) region over the next few weeks!
Our campground is a lovely place to settle in, with shade, cooler temperatures and no mosquitoes. We may even get to sleep with the windows open for a few days. Time to explore our next national park in the morning!
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