Happy birthday to daughter-in-law, Kerry!

Following another chilly night, we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning. Although Peggy is sure she could have gotten amazing sunrise pictures right from our campsite, it was just too cold to crawl out of the sleeping bags. We are getting faster at packing up and were on our way by 10 a.m. We’ve decided that on travel days, we’ll have breakfast on the road. Well, many other people thought the same. We skipped the lines at the restaurants and got on the road; but thanks to the Kind bars Beth had given us, we didn’t go hungry.

We noticed increased traffic in Canmore yesterday but today, we saw more cars than all our travel days combined. As one Canadian said, people are finally getting out and visiting after 2 years! For the most part, traffic moved smoothly but we are spoiled and not used to a lot of people.

Downtown Ravelstoke

After passing 2 eateries we finally stopped for food about 1 pm in a lovely town, Revelstoke. The food was delicious and the people so friendly. We will miss the Canadians and their hospitality.

Canadian Rockies along TransCanada Highway

Canadian Rockies along TransCanada Highway

Today, the scenery was absolutely spectacular. It’s almost as if Canada and Mother Nature saved the best for last. We crossed the Continental Divide and moved into Pacific Daylight Savings Time. Since we will be moteling it tonight, we planned on driving for about 6 – 8 hours. Our original destination was Kelowna, BC, but we didn’t realize it was a major tourist town on Okanagan Lake and the town was totally booked up or had only 1 or 2 rooms left at almost 3 times the rate we had been paying. (This south central part of British Columbia is a water sports paradise.)

How quickly the scenery changes.

Approaching Okanagan Lake, BC

Our 8 hour day ended up being a 10 hour day as we pushed on south to Oliver, BC about 20 minutes north of the US border. Even here, the motels/hotels were mostly booked up. We stopped at a pub & hotel. Again there was “no room at the inn”, but the manager, Wendy, offered call around and find us a room somewhere else. She even offered us a room in her house if she couldn’t find a vacancy somewhere in town. As it turned out, she found a room at the Maple Leaf Inn that had 1 room with kitchenette (for less than double what we’ve been paying). It was with mixed emotions that we declined Wendy’s offer. Meeting people like Wendy is one of the best parts of travel! She is managing the same hotel her parents had owned in the 60s.

Well time to tuck in our comfy home for the night. It has been a long day. We will sleep well tonight.