Vancouver Island

It is a lovely day and the ferry trip over was relaxing. The traffic from the landing up past Nanaimo was painfully slow. I was so glad to finally get to Rathtrevor Beach, a favourite for my kids and grandkids.  I love the area too. Beautiful trails along the ocean.  I started out on the trail along the water just to stretch my legs so no camera but it was so good to be there I just kept on walking.  

On the way back I came upon a great snowy owl, who wasn’t so snowy, and the light was so good I went back to get my camera. Then I did the trail all over again to catch the sunset.  Didn’t get back to my site until dark.   I’m so glad to be on the Island again. 

Family and Friend Time

The past three days have been full of family and friends. I am so glad I have had this time to connect with them all.  Everyone was so generous with their time, hospitality and great food.  Three of my cousins live in the Okanogan  and all have beautiful homes overlooking their respective lakes.  One built his house, himself without nails. Amazing.  Up in the hills there are deer, coyotes, and raccoons.  It is beautiful county. 

The deer welcomed me without fear

The post and beam design he built himself without any nails

The view from his loft office

A deer waiting outside his door in the morning to thank him for being so good to them

Family time at my cousin's further south

They have a beautiful new home with lovely views over the vineyards and lake

After two great days I drove down to Ladner to stay with an old friend, who has also recently moved there. We walked around the neighbourhood, he cooked a great meal and we had a good time catching up with each other. An easy morning before I headed to the ferry and Vancouver Island. 

Family and Friend Time

The past three days have been full of family and friends. I am so glad I have had this time to connect with them all.  Everyone was so generous with their time, hospitality and great food.  Three of my cousins live in the Okanogan  and all have beautiful homes overlooking their respective lakes.  One built his house, himself without nails. Amazing.  Up in the hills there are deer, coyotes, and raccoons.  It is beautiful county. 

The deer welcomed me without fear

The post and beam design he built himself without any nails

The view from his loft office

A deer waiting outside his door in the morning to thank him for being so good to them

Family time at my cousin's further south

They have a beautiful new home with lovely views over the vineyards and lake

After two great days I drove down to Ladner to stay with an old friend, who has also recently moved there. We walked around the neighbourhood, he cooked a great meal and we had a good time catching up with each other. An easy morning before I headed to the ferry and Vancouver Island. 

Day of Rest

Day 6 Castlegar to Grand Forks

It was a beautiful warm day.  Got to Grand Forks at lunch time, saw a lovely little campground next to the river, a perfect place for a time out.  I asked if they had good internet and they did. The owners wondered if it was because I wanted to watch the debate as they were really interested in it. Spent the afternoon by the river reading, did some laundry and after dinner sure enough the connection for live streaming was good.  It seemed Hillary held her own but a sad time for politics in their country.  

                                This is why I wanted to stop.  Even my own little beach

I looked up from my book and there was a young deer across the river 

just looking at me then he turned and started eating

The next few days I am spending time with family and friends. 

Will pick up again when I get time.  

Slow Down You Move To Fast

Day 5 New Denver to Castlegar

Today was supposed to be an hour and a half but everywhere on this route seems to take much longer.  It was a really pretty drive down but heavy with clouds, not good for photography. 

I thought I would like Slocan but Sunday morning and not a soul around with the threat of rain  it felt pretty empty. I did like the paintings on some of the buildings but with rain threatening I kept moving on. There is a famous bicycle trail built on an old railway bed that goes 50 km all along the lake.  I sort of wished I had brought my bike but I probably wouldn’t have gone on it alone as this time of year there were almost no cars let alone bicyclists on trails. Once I got onto Hwy 3 again the traffic picked up and by the time I got to Castlegar 4 hours later the RV park only had 2 sites left, granted it is a smaller park.

I headed out right away and visited the Brilliant (and it is brilliant) Suspension Bridge built in 1913 by the Doukabours. An equally beautiful arch bridge for Hwy 3 was built next to it and there are lengthy descriptions of the difference in construction and enginering between the two styles. However I don't have a good picture of the Brialliant Bridge.

 Brilliant Bridge is the lower one in the background 

 From there to the Doukabour museum. I had an informal tour by a really smart Doukabor woman who game me a different history than I envisioned.  She estimates there are only 22,000 in Canada, mostly in BC and Saskatchewan and few live in colonies anymore.  

I needed some exercise so went down to Millenium Park an incredible park for a town of only 8,000 people. It was reclaimed from gravel pits and has 3 natural swimming ponds with water slides and a long paved river walk to Zuckerberg Island.  I wonder if Mark knows about it. Anyway it was beautiful and busy and I loved being there. 

Then onto the downtown Sculpture Walk.  There were about 30 pieces within a 6 block area and again there were quite a few people following along on maps. It is my favourite town on this route. 

By the time I was finished I was really tired and hungry, ordered Boston pizza and while waiting went over to Safeway and filled up with gas. Back at camp I ate at the picnic table and watched the sun go down over the river. It was a full day and was thinking how good it would be to have just one day to not be moving. I opened an email from a friend with this quote from an interview with Jeff Bridges: 

Bridge: I'm 66. I cannot believe it, man. I cannot believe it.

They tell you this your whole life, and it's really true—how fast

it goes. And it picks up speed. I've got these two voices in my

head. One is saying, "Man, you're 66. You're not going to live

forever. You got a lot of stuff you wanna do, so get on it,

because it's gonna be over in a little while. There's not much

time left. And the other guy in my head says, "Will you please

relax? You don't want to spend the rest of your life in the middle

of some homework assignment, doing all this achieving. Why don't

you just take it easy?"

Methinks this is hitting a little too close to home.  I don’t feel like this trip is a homework assignment, although this nightly blog might seem like that to the reader, but a break from driving would be good and I do like this site so we will see in the morning.

And this is the view in the morning!

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