110 To Vancouver

Canada
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Manitoba to the Pacific

91 To Winnipeg
92 Winnipeg
93 Wasagaming
94 On to Yorkton
95 Manitoba Beach
96 Wanuskewin
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98 Edmonton
99 To Hinton
100 To Jasper
101 The Rockies
102 Snowy roads
103 To Drumheller
104 Dinosaurs
105 To Banff
106 Banff
107 Banff
108 Lake Louise
109 Farewell Rockies
110 To Vancouver
111 Go Canucks
112 Morty & Harry
113 Where next?
114 Visas and Picasso
115 Downtown
116 Catch up
117 Vancouver Island
118 To Tofino
119 Pacific Rim
120 Surfers and big trees
121 Last Legislature
122 Farewell to Morty
123 Mile zero, again

Canada: British Columbia

Monday 21 November 2005

Can't see the town for the logs

On our way to Vancouver, always west

We left Merritt having our suspicions confirmed that this is a small town with not a lot to it except lumber. There was a sizeable lumber yard on the way back to the main road and we stopped for some photos. The smell of wood and sawdust had a sort of homey feel and quality to it.

On the way down to Hope it was more hills and valleys with long slow roads up and what seemed like even longer roads heading downhill. I cannot recall ever being on a road that kept going down, down, down for such a long time. We finally reached a valley floor and for a short time were back to long straight roads stretching out ahead of us. Here though they were two or three lanes wide all the time, a sure sign that we were heading back to dense population and urban sprawl.

Bright clear sunny skies kept us company along the way and even the trees still had leaves. The last lingerings of autumn colours were still to be seen making us feel like we had stepped back in time to the drives we did in late September/early August on the East coast. The lift to our spirits that the sunshine had brought was short lived though. As we passed Abbotsford the road again started to crawl down hill and with the lower elevation the fog came back. We had hoped to see Vancouver in the sunshine but it was not destined to be.

With temperatures in Vancouver higher than where we have been for the last two weeks we have opted to leave hotels/motels behind us and get back onto campsites while we still can. Our site for the night is at Burnaby, a town outside of central Vancouver but part of the greater Vancouver suburban sprawl. It’s a big RV ground with well maintained sites and a small swimming pool and hot tub. Even though it is low season there are plenty of people here.

Having switched Morty over to winter time running (i.e. no fresh water on board) it was time to reverse the process and to flush the anti freeze out of his tanks. It was an easy enough process it just took time as pink, frothy water seemed to come out of the tap for ages. We were both though looking forward to spending the night back in Morty.

We headed out to the local Lougheed Mall to restock with food and other essentials (wine!) and also booked Morty in for a thorough clean tomorrow. He is now well and truly covered in muck and grime again having spent the last week or so going through snow and fog and as the time is approaching for us to sell he needs to be spruced up.

Back at the campsite we cooked for ourselves for the first time in a while (one of our favourites – sausages, cous cous and what we call Mediterranean vegetables) and spent a pleasant evening on board before crashing out.

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