Saturday, July 23, 2011

Part V: road trip

this was the hardest part to choose - which way to go as we travel towards vancouver.
originally i thought of roger's pass and revelstoke. then i was leaning toward frank slide. but in the end i couldn't bear to go backwards (back to AB) so we drove northwest to kootenay bay to take the longest free ferry in canada (it's just a part of the highway here)

the ferry arrives in balfour, and we go southwest to nelson - a good candidate for an overnight.  supposed to be a hippie town and we wander downtown and the farmer's market

this here's the park where the market it - just beautiful with a waterfall




pepper has a homemade rootbeer, but this nelson is a bit too hippie for us.  as pepper later says: "i was kind of afraid.  like someone was going to offer me drugs")  so we grab a pizza for lunch and head further west


we stop at a hydro dam and end up chatting with this old lady who bikes this highway a few times a week (!) when i say: it's the highway, isn't it too busy? she tells me there's a shoulder.  non plussed
she's exactly what this province grows - active, outdoor people who remain so.  i didn't have the nerve to ask her age, but she looked like rob's grandma

after grand forks, the topography really changes. it makes us think of the real west - sort of barren and tumbleweed-ish.  and pretty empty.  this is the main southern highway and there were a few ranches but pretty much nothing.
then we descended into this beautiful valley and found osoyoos.  did you know canada has a desert?  this would be it - it's irrigated so's to hid that fact.  it's a vacation town for americans: lakes and waterparks, and we're lucky enough to get one of the last suites.

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