Carpe Dory (2)

This is not only our last stop before re-entering California, but also our last stop with hookups for the duration of the summer trip. We fully appreciated our little portable space heater and lived it up with lights and fans and charging of all the things. We also really loved this campground, more so than last time for some reason. It is a windy place for sure. Like I think it’s officially a windy place. It definitely helps to be towing from north to south so that the wind is most likely going to be a tail wind. And it helps to keep mileage distances short from stop to stop, so you can play with travel timing if you’re trying to get under windy weather. A lot of the time though, you can’t avoid gusty days, so I like to just drive slow and stop along the way. For this travel day, Richard got out and biked from campground to campground and it worked out perfectly.

He is nothing if not exceptionally gifted at finding well rated food along the route. This is why I gain weight after a summer trip spent biking and hiking miles and miles. His food finds are just too fun not to do. This one was located in the Langlois Market, about half way between Bandon and Cape Blanco. They advertise “legendary” and “world famous” hot dogs, so I’m curious how many of my international friends have heard of them. They’re damn good, I’ll give them that for sure. They make their own sweet mustard daily and the hot dogs are thick and juicy and flavorful. You can smell them from the parking lot, which is where I parked and eagerly awaited Richard on his bike. I also found an intriguing bottle of Grandpa Jack’s Cranberry Syrup, so we got that.

This campground is nice in that it is five miles off of the highway. Keep that in mind if you are biking to it, but of all of the Oregon State Parks we have stayed at, this one feels more quiet. You are a short walk from a beautiful ocean view, and an easy hike out to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is not open to visitors as it is under very expensive and difficult repairs. Finding people to fix Fresnel lenses and restore historical buildings responsibly is neither cheap, nor fast. They accept donations if you are interested in helping with the restoration project. The information center is very nice and has all kinds of information panels explaining the history of the place.

Our main item on the itinerary for this stop was a do over of a ride that went sideways last time we were here. The ride up Elk Creek Road is one of Jay’s Essential Bike Rides, and it’s a beauty. What we did wrong last time was start biking from the campground. Remember I mentioned the campground is five miles off Highway 101? Well, there is also a short stint on 101 before you ever turn onto Elk Creek Road. Also, the first five or six miles is meh. The spectacular part happens on the last ten miles, after you pass the fish hatchery and the road bends right and into a canyon. There, the river is right by your lefthand side, and little waterfalls surprise you on your right, as they cascade down the lush cliffside and down to the river. The water is crystal clear and alternates between tumbling over rocks, and collecting in wide blue-green swimming pools. When we did this ride the first time, we basically wasted our legs, and my battery, on at least ten miles of not so great riding each way. We miscommunicated when Richard rode way ahead of me, I misjudged my battery capacity, and we hit headwinds on the way back. All of those factors made the ride seriously disappointing and, after we sorted it all out, we vowed to do it again someday.

This time, we communicated all the things the night before, drove to a pull out down Elk Creek Road a bit, and I took my backup battery. What a difference! While in the canyon, the road becomes narrower, but there are very few cars, so we get to ride next to each other and chat. We found a big fat slug in the middle of the road on the way up. I decided to move it because it looked like it was in danger of getting squished. I saw it on the log where I relocated it, which is much happier than seeing a big ol squish mark. We both really loved this ride and I would say you could even start it at the fish hatchery if you wanted to keep it shorter. We did hit headwinds on the way back, but it was so much better just making it back to the car instead of having to slog all the way back up 101 and then five miles to the campground. We could have parked farther along the road and would not have felt like we were missing anything. Having that backup battery means I can stop and take pictures if I want to, and then Turbo power back to Richard. He was doing the ride clipped in, so it’s easier for him to just keep pedaling. There are two primitive campgrounds out there, which I could see being nice if you want to feel away from it all and just spend time in a beautiful river.

For dinner that night, we celebrated with pancakes and sausages, eggs, and Grandpa Jack’s Cranberry Syrup. Yikes that was good! That is seriously some of the best syrup I’ve ever had. It’s perfectly sweet and tastes like fresh cranberries, has the perfect consistency, and really kicks pancakes up a notch. We were so excited, we got a stovetop cast iron griddle to try in Dory so we can facilitate making this dinner again. Richard notes that it is super easy to make pancakes and we don’t need to carry a mix around with us. Holiday gifts this year may very well be themed on cranberry syrup. Our other dinner was a Blue Apron turkey stir fry with Bok Choy, fresh ginger, scallion rice and a Gochujang-mayo sauce. We do eat well out here. Next stop is back in California!

Total miles from Bullard’s Beach: 32.2, 16.0 mpg, 2 hours 45 min with stop for hot dog. Site 30 hookups. Minimal cell from site, but excellent cell from day use. No dump. We dumped at Humbug Mountain for free. Good dump there. Cell service is weird in the campground, but you can get an excellent signal from the bluffs, and just enough in the site to text.

This was another great stop with a dairy based motive. We used to get Bandon Cheddar Cheese regularly when we lived in Oregon. It has since changed its name to Face Rock Cheese Company and it is not that easy to find. Whenever we go through the Oregon coast, we always try to pick up some aged cheddar on the way. Our plan to bike over to the creamery was immediately thwarted by a flat on the rear tire of my e-bike.

Have you ever changed the rear tire on an e-bike? Rear tires are already a pita to remove because of the chain. When you add in the motor, wires connecting the motor, and big weird bolts holding the wheel on, I was ready to find a bike store and have them do it. I remember going to a bike store in Bandon last time and specifically talking to the owner about how hard it is to change the rear tire of an e-bike. Like, I wanted to buy tools to carry with me in case of flats. But after talking to him, it sounded like the best tools to have on hand are snacks so I can wait patiently for Richard to ride back to the car, come pick me up, and take me and my flat e-bike to the nearest bike shop. So we called the place and discovered it is out of business. Sad. But also, now what? I was so convinced of the improbability that we could do this ourselves, I was ready to go with, “Flat tire? Well, I guess I need a new bike.” Fortunately, Richard was more reasonable about the whole thing, and without that much trouble, was able to get the tire off. We did have a spare tube cause I’m prepared for all problems, even if I don’t believe I can solve them. It was tricky lining up the bolts, and it could have been tricky to know how to plug the motor wire back in, but they put little arrows on both sides to help with that. All told, we spent maybe a half an hour problem solving, and we were on our way to cheese.

First, we toodled around the very cute town old town of Bandon and rode down to the Face Rock view point. We took the requisite facie, and rode directly to the Face Rock Creamery. We got the aged cheddar and made a separate trip to the Ray’s grocery store to get makings for nachos. Super fun!

The next day was pretty windy, so instead of doing more biking, we walked out to the beach and lighthouse. Richard did a dunes loop trail in the morning, which taught him he hates sand. I think he bailed mid loop and found the road so that he could stop trudging through all the sand. He says that, in addition to the sand walking, the loop trail is covered with horse shit and bugs. One star review. We avoided that trail and stuck to the pavement until we got to the beach.

There is a fun little gift store inside the lighthouse and I recall making it a plan to see all the lighthouses up and down the Oregon coast. I think we’re missing a couple, but have been to most of them. That could be a fun theme treasure hunt some summer. For dinner, we had a delicious Blue Apron Romesco chicken with red onion, poblano pepper, and scallion couscous. Lovely two night stay!

Total miles from Jessie Honeyman: 66.9, 16.0 mpg, 1 hour 47 min. Site C20 hookups. Great cell for both. Ok dump. Curbed with a sideways notch.

There always comes a point in our travels when we need to work out relationship crap. This is honestly part of the reason we do this, because struggle makes you stronger, and all that. It tends to happen when we are on the final stretch of summer break, and therefore starting to think about returning to real life. It’s not that these are the issues we’re working out, I think it’s just that there is an underlying anticipation of work taking over the unfettered time we have together, so perhaps it puts us both on edge. So far, we’ve managed to work through all of these rough spots and come out the other side more connected, and armed with strategies we can try for the future. I’ll spare you the psychoanalysis we do to get to the root of how we each get spun up, and instead share some of the solutions we arrived at this time around. For one, travel days tend to be a common trigger for unintended mutual irritation, so we have made a pact to try to front load expectations the night before. Like we need to make sure the “white board” is clear, the weather forecast and driving routes have been checked, and plans have been agreed to on the morning exercise needs. When I say “white board,” I mean we need to check in with each other about whether there are any residual unspoken gripes, even small ones, that need to get aired and cleansed; like those stupid small moments, “Remember three days ago when you shook your head? Yeah, that pissed me off.” An apology, clarification, recognition, are all that’s needed to wipe it off, but if you don’t, those things build up. Travel stress amplifies everything, so there’s our new protocol: check in the night before, especially before travel days. And secondly, we both acknowledge that it is harder to stay connected at home than it is when spending all our time together in small, acoustically accessible, spaces. We’re going to try building some habits at home after dinner, where we intentionally talk to each other without phones, or yarn, in our hands. It’s so easy to let that time slip away and so important to make the effort to pay attention to each other. That’s it. Nothing deep or TED Talk worthy. But those discussions were a big part of this particular stay.

What kicked all of this off was the spur of the moment change of plans to get a really early start leaving Tillamook in order to avoid forecasted wind. Richard thought he would be ok skipping a morning walk, but that turned out not to be the case. That all went according to the change in plans, but it came at a cost. In any case, we arrived quite early and, as anticipated, could not get into our site yet. I knew there was a nice Day Use area at Woahink Lake and that was a great place to park and knit while Richard blew off his I-don’t-like-to-sit-in-the-car steam. I used the inverter to heat up the leftover grilled cheese and fries, reminding myself that the inverter was a worth it expenditure. Then I just worked on angry sock knitting. I am super proud of having learned how to use a magic loop to knit teeny tiny thready yarn into a rib stitch sock cuff. Knitting also turns out to be an exceptionally good activity to do when miffed. Notice the slogan on the project bag: Knitting, because murder is wrong. That is so real.

Jessie Honeyman is a huge campground, and yet all of the sites have really nice privacy and plenty of space. There are so many family friendly activities in this park, and there were certainly a lot of families taking advantage of it. We took a nice walk past the lily pond lake and then over to Cleawox Lake. There, you can rent kayaks or paddle boats. I do believe I’m going to go the entire summer without taking my boat out, but that’s ok with me. It has not been hot enough to feel the urge to be on the water, and that is a good thing. Route planning to end up on the coast in July was brilliant. We have also successfully avoided wildfire smoke. I want to remember this for the future because returning home via the coast also means you are mostly traveling with the wind. We didn’t use the AC once all summer and are not likely to need to before home. We are the smart party.

We got in a nice bike ride and hike the next day up to Sweet Creek Falls. Richard knew ahead of time that part of the trail would be closed, but you can access almost all of the falls viewpoints if you continue a half mile to the Falls Trailhead. The bike ride was really nice and mostly gentle, meandering through farmlands and private residences. We drove up Highway 126 to get to Sweet Creek Road. This begins in the couple of businesses town of Mapleton. There is a market there which is nothing to go out of one’s way to explore, and a couple of store fronts that used to be businesses. That must be a tough location to try to maintain a business. We parked the car at the turnoff and got our bikes out.

The ride is about eleven miles to the second trailhead, where there is a small parking area. The trail itself is immediately rewarding. There are sort of constant little falls all the way down, with some of them being named on Guru Maps. It’s obvious when you get to the closure why it was a very good call to close that sucker down tight. The section of the trail directly above Annice Falls and Punchbowl Canyon Falls is on a suspended catwalk, precariously attached to a rocky cliff. We could tell what must have happened based on all the scraped up dirt on the road right above that spot. Clearly there was a landslide that went down from the road, over the cliff, and right onto that catwalk. Without the suspended portion, the river is too rocky and swift for a trail to get around the bend. I’ll be impressed if they are able to rebuild that structure and we will check in the future to keep tabs on it. Even without that section, it’s a beautiful trail. There are some downed trees you have to get around, and it’s rooty a lot of the way, but very worth the one mile out and back from the upper trailhead.

On the way back, we stopped at the Safeway in Florence to get a couple of things. We didn’t go into town this time around, but there are lots of restaurants, stores, and dessert options. Nothing was grabbing us, so we stayed in the campground. It’s a super nice campground and I’d come back. There is a nice hike to Woahink Lake that Richard did the next morning. The lake is lovely to look at, and I imagine nice to boat on. Someday perhaps. Service is spotty in the campground, but we could both hit service from this site. I think it helps to be toward the front and closer to 101. Otherwise, you’re in a service dip. The sites are spacious and private. Can’t complain at all.

Total miles from Barview Jetty: 134.9, 16.6 mpg, 3 hours 30 min. Site 68 hookups. Ok dump, but water tends to pool. Ok cell for both, but stronger signal closer to 101. Good cell at Woahink Lake Day Use. Water spigot in site.

This stop had one job, which it tends to do very well. That job is to be located relatively close to Tillamook Creamery. It’s not a far drive from Ilwaco, and check in time is 3:30. That left us wondering what to do to kill time before arriving. Richard went on a long walk in the morning to try to find the North Gate Trail, which was a good use of time. Still, we had to check out by 11, so we looked for things to do along the way.

We’ve seen signs for the Lewis & Clark Visitor Center, on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. There’s an interpretive center, RV parking, and enough historical exhibits to keep us entertained for about two hours. I’m glad we went. It’s informative for sure, with a replica of Fort Clatsop (where the party spent their first winter), and docents performing reenactments of some of the daily chores the explorers would have done. For example. we got to see a live demonstration of rendering fat over a fire in order to make candles. That was cool. We watched the informational movie and hit the road, aiming for a 3ish arrival. Nailed that one, but also unintentionally timed the travel just as the winds started picking up. I’m ok with a tail wind, and even a direct headwind, but crosswinds are my nemesis and it was a rather tense tow down to Rockaway Beach.

We made it nicely timed so that they would let us in just a wee bit early. We wasted no time unhitching and made a bee line for the creamery. If it’s not the 4th of July, this campground is sort of meh. The sites are fully serviced, but slotty and packed in tightly. You can get to the beach and that would be the thing to do here. We were not there for recreation purposes, so we just went straight to Tillamook for a late lunch/early dinner.

If you’ve been to the creamery, you know. In addition to a fine and dandy view of the cheese making process, Tillamook Creamery sells all their ice cream, plus a selection of savory lunch or dinner options that showcase cheese. What’s not to love about foods that showcase cheese?

We have been looking forward to the mac & cheese, served in a small cast iron pan, for a long time. It definitely held up to the anticipation. I want to make a note for my future creamery visiting self: Get 1 order of mac & cheese and get an add on side of French fries. That’ll be plenty. Waiting in a long line to order dinner and seeing how cute and small those cast iron pans are, I tend to question whether splitting that will be enough. This time I ordered a grilled cheese, which comes with fries, just to make sure there was enough. It was way too much. The grilled cheese was fun, but not much different from any old grilled cheese, and need not have been purchased. I did save half, plus at least half of the French fries, for a nice inverter powered microwave lunch the next day, so it wasn’t a waste. But next time, just get the fries.

The ice cream also deserves a note to future self. Get the single scoop in a bowl with hot fudge. I had planned on doing that, but when the ice cream dispenser asked me if I wanted the “Brownie Sundae Special,” like my husband had gotten, I couldn’t very well turn that down, could I? And yes, the brownie bits were really high end brownies. And yes, the hot fudge was super thick excellent hot fudge. But honestly, I thought I might die right there. It was so much food. I couldn’t finish the ice cream, and that says a lot.

We walked around the upstairs for a while, where you can see people actually processing huge blocks of cheddar. There are informational kiosks everywhere telling you what all the equipment does. It’s a fun experience, especially if you are working on finishing way too much ice cream while you walk. There is a vast gift shop downstairs and we identified the fabulous fudge as Coops Hot Fudge. That is worth a special order for sure.

Leaving the busy creamery, we drove into town to do our weekly shopping. We saw an incredible deal on Tillamook ice cream. It’s a good thing Dory’s freezer really can’t keep ice cream frozen or my declaration of never indulging in ice cream again might have fallen by the wayside within minutes of saying it. Great stop always. We will never pass through this area without indulging.

Total miles from Eagle’s Nest: 74.6, 15.4 mpg, 3 hours 47 min with stop at Lewis & Clark. Site 32 full hookups. Good cell for both. Dump $10.

Our first order of business on leaving Whidbey Island was to try to get on the ferry as a stand by. I don’t know why I completely forgot about making reservations ahead of time, but by the time it dawned on us we’d be needing a ferry ride, the only available slots on the day of departure were at 10pm. Luckily, they only sell about 60% of the tickets ahead of time and they are extremely efficient at packing ferry boats. I skipped my morning shower so we could get there as early as possible and we were on the 8:30 ferry with no trouble at all. Not that I’m advocating some new kind of lifestyle where I just play everything loosey goosey and expect things to work out. That is unlike me and would result in a nervous system breakdown pretty quickly.

It was an easy drive down the scenic Hood Canal valley. We noted again that Dosewallips would be a nice campground to stay in at some point. We also took the opportunity to dump our tanks at Potlatch State Park Campground. That one would also be a possibility but it seemed like the sites around the back of the loop might be tight. I didn’t really explore, but I did see a sign warning of maximum vehicle length of 22 feet beyond a certain point.

Highway 101 is generally a pleasant highway all up and down through Washington and Oregon. It curves a great deal to run through Olympic National Park and we did not follow it that direction. Instead, we took the more direct route of 101 south, to 108 to McCleary, and then 8 and 12 to Aberdeen where we rejoined 101. 101 is confusing. The most exciting part of the drive was seeing a sign saying “Fresh Cookies 1/4 Mile Ahead.” We’ve passed by a million fresh fruit and vegetable stands. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fresh cookie stand before though. So yeah, we had to do that.

Once again, I was not able to reserve a site down below at Cape Disappointment State Park, but it’s really sinking in on this trip how much we enjoy electric hookups. We have two perfectly good lithium batteries and 400w solar panels and can do just fine for a couple of days without needing to charge, but when we have the hookups, we tend to run fans, use heaters to dry things out, and turn on lights with wild abandon. It’s a level of easy that can really help when traveling for long stints. For weekends, it honestly does not matter. When you’re going on the second month on the road, it’s just super nice to not even have to think about being super fast when getting something out of the fridge. In any case, this is all to say that I still enjoyed staying at this campground, even if it is not as scenic. Also, there is no cell service down at the state park, and that too has an impact that is subtle, but adds up.

Richard went out and walked the Discovery Trail while I relaxed and got back to attempting to knit socks. I have this teeny tiny strandy sock yarn and teeny tiny thin circular knitting needles. The last time I attempted sock knitting, it was the final straw in over extending my hands because I was death gripping the needles to keep the itty bitty yarn threads from slipping off the tips. I’ve been afraid to come back to it, but I’ve gotten more practice with our daughter’s scarf, and my hands are feeling much better. I’m following a “vanilla sock” pattern from someone called “The Crazy Sock Lady” and I’ve watched her video tutorial many times. I was excited to come back to it and I am five rows in to a ribbed cuff. I frogged it once already, but I’m getting better! Richard was out walking something like ten miles and was gone for over two hours. He kept texting me to make sure that was ok and I kept telling him to shush because I was concentrating. This is definitely a helpful hobby.

We had one full day in the area and we just did a repeat of our last trip. The Discovery Trail is one of the best biking experiences we’ve had. It’s not all that long, but it weaves and bobs along the shore for seven or so miles. You can make side trips into town where there are lost of touristy places to buy things or get a bite to eat in Long Beach or Seaside. To get to the Discovery Trail, there is a section that starts in Ilwaco, which is where this campground is located. It rolls steeply up and down through deep woods and goes over a fun boardwalk section. You’d miss all of that if you started from the state park campground.

We did an out and back to the North Head Lighthouse, just to see it. There are some historic houses there that you can actually stay in, plus a gift shop. We were just there for the views and we turned around and rode back to the start of the beachy part. The day began overcast and misty, but on the way back, we got beautiful blue skies and nice views.

No blog post would be complete without a bakery mention. There were two on this trip. One was in Long Beach called Dylan’s Cottage Bakery. There we split a chocolate raised glazed and an old fashioned. The second one was Sadie and Josie’s Bakery and it’s right on the way out to the Cranberry Museum. Sadie and Josie’s is really incredible and they offer you so many samples! I wanted to get something, but it had to be small enough to carry in a backpack and would last through three more weeks of travel. I settled on their almond roca and it is wonderful.

The Cranberry Museum is worth a trip if you are anywhere in the area. It would be a sight to see the harvesting of cranberries that happens every October. Maybe that will be a post retirement trip. Growing cranberries is a very complicated endeavor and their museum shows all the different kinds of equipment and growing techniques they have used over the years. For example, in the 1920’s researcher D.J. Crowley tried to convince farmers about the benefits of wet vs dry farming. At the time, most farmers did not believe that using water could protect plants from frost. Decades later, many of his recommendations started being implemented. It’s an interesting history and it’s all laid out nicely in the museum.

We left with a bottle of cranberry syrup and went back to Long Beach. Richard wanted to get his hair cut and couldn’t resist trying the place located next to the largest frying pan in the world. While he did that, I grabbed a cup of clam chowder across the street at Captain Bob’s Chowder Sisters.

Before riding back up the steep climb to the campground, we checked out “downtown” Ilwaco. It has a cute but short strip of inns and businesses along the water. We noticed businesses advertising cleaning and packaging of fish, so clearly fishing is the main form of recreation in town. There was certainly a lot of action around the docks.

From here to home, I think all but one of the campgrounds will be repeat stays with likely repeats of previous activities. This repeat was just as fun as the first time. We even made pancakes and used our newly bought syrup to try. Richard is now motivated to make his own cranberry syrup so he can make it more liquidy and less like cranberry sauce. Sounds like a good project for home.

Total miles from Fort Ebey: 194.3, 15.9 mpg, 6 hours 5 min. Site 21 full hookups. Good sewer in site. No dump because all sites have hookups. Great cell for both. Laundry, pool, showers.

When I tell people how long we spend on the road camping in the summers, one of the first questions I get is: “Together?” The next question is often: “How do you do laundry?” What people rarely ask, but should, is: “How do you defrost the freezer?” Question one is kind of why we do this, and we took care of questions two and three on this stop. After about a month, the little freezer in our battery run mini fridge gets crusted over with enough ice that it is hard to get the ice trays in and out. To defrost it, you have to turn it off and wait about an hour. It’s good to time that so you don’t have a lot of things that will go bad, and since we were down an uncooked chicken breast after the border crossing, and generally depleted on fridge food, this was a good time. We had targeted a Safeway in Bellingham, WA as a replenish stop and verified online that it had Chobani yogurts in stock. Richard has a Chobani every day and really prefers those over what is available in Canada. We stocked exactly enough Chobanis for the duration of our entire Canadian stay, relinquishing some fridge space normally designated for bread, in order to fit them all. I needed to blog, so I sat in Dory while things melted and Richard went and found a little pond trail to walk on. We stored whatever was cold in an insulated foldable box thing and put a bag of ice inside. It works pretty well, although we did later decide to ditch the frozen shrimp that had not stayed frozen. After everything was wiped down, we turned the fridge back on and filled it all to proper traveling capacity with a nice shopping trip. There is also a Trader Joe’s just down the road, so we got our preferred string cheese again, and some familiar salads for dinner.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we arrived at the campground and got unhitched. It’s a very nice campground and I got a super nice pull through site. One of the things we were looking forward to, besides seeing my life long friend, is getting all of the things I ordered online and sent to her house during the trip. Included was a replacement power plug for Dory’s backup camera. Somehow it lost a piece on the pluggy part, but happily, that is something you can order. I did pretty well backing into sites without it, and this site turned out to be a pull through, so I didn’t even need it. It will be nice to have it back though. I also got an expensive thumb brace. I am happy to report that it has been really helpful and I am finally feeling like my hands are returning to normal. Usually, the “gold standard” expensive equipment is the way to go when you’re talking about injury supports, so I’m glad I got this thing. It has been about a six week recovery period and I wonder if that would have gone faster if I’d splurged sooner.

We headed over to Anne’s right away and she was generous enough to offer the use of her washer and dryer without even being asked. She’s super awesome that way. She lives in an adorable house in Coupeville, which is centrally located on Whidbey Island and just a ten minute drive from the campground. We chatted and got caught up while whites were washing and made plans for the next day.

The next day was dedicated to doing touristy things around town. Coupeville is an extremely picturesque historic town, featured actually in the movie “Practical Magic.” There are cute shops, a bakery (which sadly is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays), a few restaurants, and a great ice cream place. Richard walked over from the campground and met me downtown. We then went to Anne’s where she drove us out to a gorgeous bluff trail and historic site.

As is common with most early settler historic sites, many of the surviving (or replicated) buildings, have to do with fortifying against attacks from the native people whose land was being taken. There are four block houses on the island, which are sort of like log cabin keeps. There are also some historic houses and informational kiosks located in Ebey’s Landing State Park. We got in a lovely hike up the bluffs to a viewpoint where you can see all the way to Olympic National Park. Off in the distance, you can just make out Vancover Island, and on a clear day, Anne says you can sometimes see Mount Rainier. Great trail with access to the beach if you either walk or park down below.

Post hike, it was time for ice cream. You normally get three small scoops unless you are under ten or over fifty. If you meet the age requirement, you can ask for a single scoop. And while we met the age requirement, we were not going to shortchange ourselves and commit to only one flavor. I got mint chip, coffee almond fudge, and huckleberry cheesecake on a waffle cone. This place is in the top tier of ice cream places and worth any size line. We happened to be there on a slow day, but would have waited a good long time if need be.

After hanging out and doing a load of colors, we walked downtown and grabbed dinner at Molka Xete. This is a Mexican restaurant with an interesting menu. You can get five tacos with different meat fillings, but we went with something called a Sincronizada, which is two flour tortillas filled with your choice of meat, beans, cheese, guacamole, and cilantro. It was really good! The chips appeared to be freshly made too, which is always fun.

The next day we all drove town to the town of Langley. This is a larger town that is sort of the main tourist destination on the island. People come for day trips from Seattle and often end up in this town. It’s hip and proudly progressive, with signs of protest in most of the storefront windows. That was nice to see. There is a cool glass blowing shop, where you can blow your own small glass things or purchase any of the incredibly beautiful creations. I was tempted by the garden decorations in swirls of blue or green, but couldn’t imagine how I could get anything home.

Our obligatory food investigations included a hot slice of pepperoni from Village Pizza, a slice of Marrionberry pie from Whidbey Pies, and some chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick from Sweet Mona’s Chocolate Boutique. Whidbey Pies supplies a variety of pies for the whole island and their only storefront is in Langley. The filling was amazing and the crust nice and crisp.

We let Anne get back to her busy new job and we checked out South Whidbey State Park. This place was a campground, and in fact, we really thought it was still a campground. There is a dump there and we’ve contemplated using it, but we’ve also contemplated staying there, which you for sure can’t. It’s kind of a ghost campground where you can see where all the infrastructure is, like an entry kiosk, water spigots long since shut off, and evidence of campsites, even ones with hookups, being slowly reclaimed by nature. We were super curious as to why this nice campground got closed. A passing ranger answered the question by explaining that a tree fell and killed a visitor back in 2012. A study was done to determine whether it was safe to keep allowing overnight camping and it turned out many of the trees were diseased and it would be too impactful to remove all of them. So they closed the park to camping, but kept it open for day use. And left the dump station.

There are some nice trails in the park, one called the Hobbit Trail. They have some viewpoints of the water in a couple of spots, but are mostly forest walks. There is a trail that used to go down to the beach, but the stairs got washed away and they are not planning to replace them. You could scramble, at your own risk, but we were fine stopping at the big red hazard sign. If you combine all of the out and backs, the Discovery Loop, and a visit to a huge 500 year old Cedar, it’s around two and a half miles. It’s a shame you can’t still camp there, but I guess that’s better than getting squished by a tree.

We had another really lovely visit with Anne on a beautiful island. She has made such a nice home for herself in such a perfect location. The weather is always nice on the island and there is plenty to do to entertain guests. We were thinking about what we would do to entertain guests at our place, and besides a super cool backyard campground and slushies to offer, we would pretty much suggest a BART ride into San Francisco. We have a nice bike path and a lovely reservoir, but living in a tourist destination would be pretty cool. Well done Anne. So fun to see you every couple of years. Please come visit let us make you slushies. You are, of course, most welcome to use our laundry facilities.

Total miles from Vancouver: 125.9, 16.2 mpg, 7 hours 25 min (with border crossing and stop at Safeway to defrost freezer). Site 43 no hookups. Ok cell for both in site. No dump, no solar. Nice bluff trail around campground.

Well that was an incredible stay in a place that has everything. In fact, it had way more than we anticipated, or intended. It turns out there’s this thing called the “World Cup.” And it turns out we timed our stay exactly during the period when Vancouver was hosting some of these games. It also turns out Canada’s team had made it to the final rounds. “Historic,” apparently. We did not know any of that, but it explains a lot. For example, it explains the insane amount of traffic and the 3 1/2 hours it took to get to and through the city. It explains the premium level surge pricing I cluelessly paid on the reservations. It also explains why there were so many soccer ball shaped things everywhere, like, doughnuts for example. It all makes sense now. We have learned much. On our way out of town, and the country, we learned much about agriculture inspections and what you should really not try to take across the border. So much learning.

Our travel day from Hope to Vancouver was super chill because I took back roads. Yay me. I should have turned off avoid highways as we got closer to town though, because rather than routing me over the bridge that Trans Canada Highway 1 goes over, it took me on the bridge that goes right smack through the center of downtown Vancouver. That was unnecessary to say the least, but it wasn’t traveling at highway speeds with trucks on my tail, so that’s something.

You can’t beat the Capilano River RV Park for location. It is at the foot of the bridge that takes you into North Vancouver and was super easy to use to get in and out of the city. On bikes, that is. With just one wrong turn into a shopping mall, we found the RV park and started to get set up in our full hookup site. It was raining on arrival, which makes everything just a little harder to deal with, but right away we noticed the hookups were on the wrong side of Dory and appeared to be shared with the site that butts up with ours in an uncomfortably tight way. In fact, in order to make room for whoever is camping there, we’d have to pull Dory forward quite a bit. And there is no way she’d be reaching the sewer. And even if she could, we could see that whoever was in that adjacent site had a whole sewer hose system they were expecting to keep plugged in, as it were. We walked back to the office to explain the situation, which the guy at the desk didn’t really seem to understand, but he moved us into the one other site that was available. Did I mention this was World Cup week? We hadn’t finished the setting up process, but we had unhitched. I used the caravan mover to put Dory back on the hitch and we relocated to a back-in site around the corner. That was fine. It’s a slotty set up at this park, designed for big rigs, with no privacy or anything, but we were expecting that. The one thing was that when we tried to dump, the sewer was backed up, so the experience was…. unpleasant. I’ll leave it at that, and state for the record that they had someone come out and fix it before the next time we needed to dump, and everything was fine. I am just now realizing I didn’t take a single picture of Dory in the site, or the campground. Scenic is it not, but for convenience, I would totally stay in exactly that place again. Location, location, location. And they give you free little bags of freshly popped popcorn.

We were both pretty fried at that point, and proud of how we kept our cool through a bumpy entry. I wasn’t going to be into making dinner with our one remaining chicken breast, and that came up later when we crossed the border back into the U.S. Damn chicken I was too tired to cook. We decided to drive a short distance over to a shopping mall where there were many options for dinner. We chose Zaatar w Zeit and it was a good meal. I think it’s a chain place that serves Lebanese dishes. We then just walked around the mall. There was a Whole Foods and a well rated bakery to check out. We got a chocolate croissant at Angus T and it was very good. We could tell it would have been flakier when freshly baked, and Richard confirmed that by walking over and getting an almond croissant fresh the next morning. That one exploded with flakiness in the bag when he cut it in half. Great place! We wrapped up the day with a walk in the Park Royal Mall and a quick stop at Purdy’s Chocolatier. Their fancy truffles were out of our price range preferences, but they also serve ice cream that you can have them dip in their white or dark chocolate for an outstanding treat.

The next day, we hit the bike trails in Stanley Park. That was one of our targeted activities and it’s a five star experience. Going across the Lion’s Gate Bridge the first time is quite exhilarating, but you get used to it. You cannot beat Vancouver for bike friendliness. We’ve never seen an urban city put so much smart design into making bicyclists safe getting in and around a city. Really well planned. On exiting the bridge, I will say it was not straightforward to find the Seawall Trail, and it seems that if you don’t want to walk your bikes down a steep dirt pathway, you have to go a fair ways riding the park road until you come to “Second Beach.” There you can catch the Seawall Trail and take it all the way around the peninsula. It is so worth it. We did a full loop so we could see all of it. Bikes travel one way on a raised sidewalk, while pedestrians have an adjacent paved walkway. No cars. It makes for the world’s best bike ride, right along the water. You get views of passing ships, a lighthouse, little islands, a totem pole display, wildlife, and a beautiful little lagoon on the south side. That’s an E ticket ride and I highly recommend it.

We took a complete break from any and all calorie counting for four full days and just dove in to all the culinary experiences we could pack in, both in terms of time, and stomach capacity. There is a place called Nine Dumplings Nine Dishes that serves rainbow colored filled potsticker type dumplings. We got the assortment of nine flavors containing either pork or chicken filling, and oh man, were they good! Then it was off to find another top rated doughnut place. This one was called Lucky’s Doughnuts and it is located in the 49th Cafe on Main Street. They were selling chocolate custard filled soccer ball doughnuts, which was another clue that we were there during a soccer themed time. Oh good lord, you guys. I know I’m talking a lot about food in this post, but you need to get yourself to Vancouver and get a chocolate filled soccer ball doughnut like right now. The custard was barely contained inside the light and fluffy doughy goodness. Sweet glaze and cocoa powder topped to look like a soccer ball. So damn good.

We of course had to work off all this sugar, so we continued biking along, either on protected and dedicated bike trails, or very well marked bike routes, all the way over another bridge and to the south side university area. There is an anthropology museum there and we had discounts we could use. The UBC Museum of Anthropology is a treasure trove of artifacts from all of the world, but it focuses on indigenous First Nations people in the region. They have an impressive display of totem poles, which I didn’t know until now, are exclusive to First Nations people of the Pacific Northwest. There are lots of kiosks explaining the history and how these house poles represent the passing of spiritual and worldly rights down family lines. They perform Potlatch ceremonies, which had been expressly forbidden until recently. There are quotes and first hand accounts from native people explaining the importance of these traditions and the deep meaning they carry across generations. In celebration of this rich history, we had a serving of “bannock,” which is a sort of biscuit that is traditionally fried, but is baked in the museum cafe, and very much like just a regular biscuit. Authentically themed carbs are always a must do. We had enough energy left to get ourselves to dinner at a Thai restaurant in the south district called Unchai Thai. We had the drunken noodles and it was excellent.

The next day was equally impressive in terms of how many food stops we hit on our eat-your-way-through-Vancouver tour. The day started with Richard going out and getting morning doughnuts from Goldie’s. One was a strawberry cream filled and the other a classic old fashioned. That got us sugared up enough to again ride across the bridge and try to find a faster way down to the Seawall Trail. We did find an unpaved, pretty steep trail that was navigable, even with walking an e-bike downhill, that lands at the parking area for starting the Seawall Trail. It’s an ok access point, but I would never want to walk my e-bike back up. It did give us a nice ride before heading into downtown to find yet another bakery. This time it was a place called L’Atelier Patisserie, which was said to have had some of the best croissants in town. I’m still thinking about how good their double chocolate and butter croissants were. The flakiness was not too explosive and they were airy and yet substantial at the same time. Delicious.

The trail systems, as I have mentioned, are really incredible. They have fully paved and protected multi-use trails that will get you most anywhere you want to go along the edges near the water. When the bike paths are not separate from cars, like when cutting across town, there are clearly marked routes on all of the street signs, so you know which streets are more bike friendly. Tourist information booth people happily hand you comprehensive maps of the system of color coded routes through the city. While navigating cities is still challenging, we were able to find all of our target spots with no trouble, even when they were in the heart of downtown.

We moved to the old part of town, past the stadium and Science World, which is currently sporting a gigantic soccer ball in case you have forgotten about the Word Cup. Gas Town is the historic area, with lots of brick buildings, a working Steamclock, and tons of bars and places to shop and eat. Because we were fully observing “calories don’t count” week, we stepped in to Chocolats Favoris, a great chocolate company from Quebec that sells tins of chocolate sauce you can heat up and pour over ice cream. We each got (very small) ice cream cones dipped in dark chocolate and they were fabulous. I left Richard to stare at the steam clock while I found a public restroom, and came back to him handing me half of a lemon doughnut from Lee’s Doughnuts. He said it was unreasonable to leave him alone in front of a doughnut shop, especially one mentioned on the “best doughnuts in Vancouver” list, and I’ll give him that one.

I wanted to immerse myself in the whole World Cup thing, at least briefly. I mean, it did seem like sort of a big deal to a lot of people. The city had closed off to cars an area of something like six blocks on one of the most central streets, Granville Street, in honor of hosting the event. I read that they have decided to extend the closure actually, as it seems to be good for foot traffic business. This appeared to be Party Central, so we went and checked it out. It was packed with people and adorned with the Canadian flag everywhere. There were street performers and booths to buy things, and lots of raucous laughter and ambient music. I gather the Canadian team had lost their game that day, so I can only imagine what it would have been like had they won. As it was, there was a sort of impromptu parade by fans of the Moroccan team, the team that had beaten Canada. That’s some balls there, to march through the streets of Vancouver singing and chanting, surrounded by thousands of crestfallen, red jersey wearing fans. Canadians are nothing if not polite and hospitable though, so they were probably counting on that.

We rolled on back to the area where giant cruise ships take off and really expensive hotels boast incredible views above the water. Sea planes take off and land constantly, as do all of the cruise tour boats. It’s busy and exciting and as packed as Disneyland on a school holiday. We road through it all, aiming for the Aquarium in Stanley Park. Those tourist booklets come in handy and we had a discount for this place as well. It’s a small but very nice aquarium, with a nice rain forest exhibit, complete with a sloth and some little monkeys. They had two octopi, but they were both hiding from all the people, which I totally get. They also had a tank with Dory and Nemo fish, so of course, I had to take pictures of them. And lastly, just past the seals, there were some fluffy floating sea otters. It was nappy time for them, so we watched them just float around together, hands up, warming in the sun.

That was another big day. Somehow we managed to be hungry for dinner, so we drove to a place called Cornelia Fine Tacos in North Vancouver. This place was fun! It is a totally no contact concept, where you place your order on a touch pad, watch a screen that shows when your order is ready, and collect it from trays that move on a sort of conveyor belt. It’s a Gen Xer’s dream come true where you don’t even have to respond to a waitress asking how your day is. I got a mole chicken and al pastor taco with rice and beans and it was all super tasty. Richard had the tamal de muerto and it was delicious. We also shared a sweet corn ice cream, which I was surprised I liked. It did taste exactly like how you’d think corn ice cream would taste, and somehow, it made for a damn fine dessert. Yes, it’s a hip and fun concept, but the food was also really good.

Our last full day in town was a bit less city mouse, and more country mouse. Taking the bike trail westward, we passed through some fun neighborhoods with open markets and, you guessed it, bakeries. There was one, Savary Island Pie Company, that made all kinds of pies and scones, plus lots of different kinds of loaves and sweets. We stopped there and picked up a chicken basil sandwich to go and I strapped the box to my bike rack as a picnic lunch. It’s a long, hilly ride going that direction, and not as much of it is dedicated bike path. There are bike lanes along the main drag, Marine Drive, and that was safe enough. Eventually, the bike lanes disappear and you are just riding the road. It’s not a heavily trafficked street, nor is it conducive to high speeds, so it is a popular ride for bikies.

We stopped at Lighthouse Park and locked our bikes. We did a nice loop of around three miles through a dense forest with short out and back viewpoints to see the water. The first viewpoint designated as a lighthouse viewpoint really isn’t. There are too many trees there to see anything. If you go to the next one however, you can see it clearly. You can’t walk down to the lighthouse. There are so many islands and land masses out there in the maze of waterways, I’m not totally sure which islands we were seeing. I do believe we were looking at Vancouver Island in the distance, directly across from us. There are some small ones with homes built on them, a tiny one with a lighthouse, and larger islands with, I assume, whole towns. We sat on the rocks at a view point and ate our chicken sandwich. Man that was good. The chicken was flavorful and tender, while the thick slices of bread were toasted with butter and made the whole thing remind me of those perfect grilled cheese sandwiches. They make those too, but I didn’t think that would hold up. We’ll have to go back some day and try them fresh.

The forests have the deep dark feel of a redwood forest, and the cedars do resemble redwoods. We saw Junipers clinging to rocks on the edge of the land, and new growth trees covering old cut stumps like some kind of alien parasite. There is an accessible section to the trail, but once you are off that, it is rocky and rooty and steep in some places. Easy enough for me, but I was watching where I was stepping carefully. There are porta potties at the parking area, which is paid parking. They do enforce that by the way, because we saw an official parking officer go through and check license plates.

Satisfied with a nice hike, we turned back with our bikes and rode Marine Drive until we got to Temper Chocolate Pastry. Here we acquired a nice Canadian gift for our daughter, plus we had to sample a banana and a lemon ginger truffle, for, you know, quality assurance. These are those truffles that look more like works of art than anything edible. We confirmed they are in fact quite good.

We thought for a moment about making our own dinner, but then, nah. Instead, we tried a place that was walking distance from the campground, in the Park Royal shopping center. I’d never heard of Peri Peri chicken, but I guess it’s a popular Portuguese specialty. Nando’s Peri Peri Chicken is a chain and they serve half chickens with a spicy rub and hot chili spiced sauce. We watched the cook grill a whole bunch of half chickens and ours was fall off the bone fantastic. For our last culinary hurrah, we walked around the mall a bit, gaped at the variety of asian food items you can buy at Osaka Market, and landed again at Purdy’s Chocolatier for a small banana ice cream scoop dipped in dark chocolate. What a finale!

One footnote I will include in this post: next time we need to be more careful about what food we have when we cross the border. You’d think us Californians would be more savvy, considering how many agricultural checks we go through coming back into the state. We forgot really, and the culprit that got us sent to the agriculture inspection line was the uncooked chicken. There is a current outbreak of African Swine Fever, so if you say the word “chicken,” you’re gonna get stopped. All told, we were delayed at the border while waiting for someone to go through our refrigerator for less than an hour. They confiscated grapes and the chicken, and that was it. We didn’t have all that much food left, and we didn’t mind really. We do understand the efforts to stop things like invasive insects and infectious livestock diseases. We’re just kicking ourselves for not having thought about that, like at all. For the future, we have a website we can check to see what items are on the most wanted list and make sure we don’t have any of those. Here is the link: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/traveling-with-ag-products

They say Vancouver is known for three things: 1) natural beauty, 2) rain, 3) great food. Yes, yes, and yes to all three. We can’t complain about #2 because we mostly got nice weather. The last day in fact was all blue skies and quite warm. The food was off the charts, as I assume my weight will be once I gain the courage to use the scale again. Don’t care, it was worth it. It is honestly the best thought out city I can think of in terms of being bike and pedestrian friendly. For a big city to commit to so many non car routes, it must have taken a huge amount of planning and negotiation. That’s urban engineering done right. It makes for such an enjoyable experience and creates a whole economy around bike and scooter rentals. Businesses thrive from all the foot traffic and the city can support a dazzling array of international restaurants, shops, and services, making more and more people want to come. It was a World Cup time to visit, but I was amazed at how easy it was to see the whole city without a car. It was four packed days and we really loved it. So glad we came, but maybe next time we don’t have to time it so we’re there at the same time as the entirety of Canadian soccer fandom.

Total miles from Holiday RV, Hope: 98.6, 3 hours 35 min (tons of traffic in the city), 15.8 mpg. Site 81 full hookups (put first in 26, but hookups on wrong side and shared with 27). Great cell, great wifi. Laundry, pool, vending machines, popcorn in the office. Sewer in site was backed up when we got there, but they cleaned it out and it worked fine. It’s at the back of the site, but low down. Good electric and water at the back of the site. Dump station is free and kind of just a depression at the curb by the pool.

This was our last moving stop; a place to get us along the way to Vancouver, but not a destination in and of itself. I want to note that I really preferred taking Highway 5. It was an easy, no stress drive, even with gentle rain and a bit of wind. The key for me is those passing lanes. It may not have been spectacular scenery, but it was plenty pleasant, despite a rainy start to the day as we left Lac Le Jeune.

We got to the campground around noon, with lots of time left on the day but rain in the forecast. We were both a bit thrown by the RV park because I think we were expecting “resort” to mean more like a KOA or something. The people there are very nice and friendly, but this is a really small place. The hookups were not 30 amp, but rather regular 15 with an adaptor they provide. The first time Richard plugged in, the weight of the 30 amp cord pulled it out of the outlet. He had to fiddle with it to make it stay put, and it was raining, and Dory needed a charge. So that threw him. He got a little vapor locked on what to do, so I pushed him out the door and told him to go walk it off. That always does the trick.

It was July 1st, which is Canada Day. There was a vintage car show going on in the park and there were signs of community celebrations, like a small open market and some food trucks. Richard sent me a picture of a yarn store, Yarn Love Studio, and that got me excited. After I had caught up on the blog, I met him in town. He was all regulated, Dory was charging just fine, and it wasn’t raining. All good. I poked around the yarn store and got a really pretty skein of wool yarn with a nice gradient in a color scheme that will remind me of the Canadian Rockies. I’ll make something warm out of it.

I was curious why there were so many homage displays to Rambo in this town, and it turns out Hope is where they filmed “First Blood.” The town is very proud of this and you can see Rambo themed things in stores and on a plaque mounted in the main square.

We grabbed a bite at the Blue Moose Cafe and chose the Canadian panini to celebrate Canada Day. We also got a gelato next door at the Artisan’s Attic and Fudgery next door. They make their own fudge and brittle and offer free samples. The brittle was especially tasty.

We walked a little to see the river and then Richard wanted to go check out Marble Slab Creamery to taste the ice cream. I passed on that one and waited for him at the most Canadian place I could think of: Tim Horton’s. When he had satisfied his curiosity (the ice cream is very good, despite some negative reviews about the service), we split two Timbits (doughnut holes), one chocolate and one lime filled. Quite good, I thought and an appropriate way to celebrate Canada Day.

Before heading out the next morning, Richard got in a hike up Hope Lookout Trail, which was a great way to start the day for him. Any time he can do a climbing trail from the campground, the whole day goes better for him. As our next arrival was a super trafficky, rainy, site won’t work, sewer is backed up, entry into Vancouver, this was critically important and made it so we could both deal with all of that ever so much better.

This RV park doesn’t quite inspire a “resort” impression in my mind, but the people there are super nice, the two sites they have are level, and do have hookups. The 15 amp did work with the adaptor and some fiddling to get our cord to stay in. The sewer pipe was way at the back of the site and high, so it would have been a pain to use it. We didn’t need to, so no harm no foul there, but it’s something to know. There was cell service and workable wifi and Dory was completely safe there. There is a cute looking hotel, some nice outdoor seating areas, and they even have a “Sasquatch Cave” (this is a pile of rocks kids can climb around in and pretend it’s spooky). And there’s a good uphill hike for Richard’s morning regulation. It’s in a good spot to take a breather before heading somewhere else, so it’s a good place to keep in mind for future traveling. I don’t think I’d stay more than a night, but for that purpose, it’s perfectly nice.

Total miles from Lac Le Jeune: 108.3, 17.7 mpg, 2 hours 51 min. Site 2 “full hookups.” Very small RV area with 4 sites, two of them occupied by long term tenants. Electric hookups 15 amps, not 30, with adaptor provided. Sewer way at the back with high raised pipe; did not use. No dump. Pretty good cell. Pretty good wifi.

As we continue to make tracks from the Rockies to Vancouver, we are getting a better sense of the highways through this region. I get the impression that I don’t like traveling on Trans Canada Highway 1. This is based on the fact that this particular travel day involved a perceived shortage of passing lanes or turnouts, high speed limits, trucks, and a whole lot of wind. Now, the highway is not responsible for the wind conditions, but in general, if there is weather that makes me want to go slow, it really helps to have passing lanes or pull outs so people who want to go fast can get by me. We had a confusing time navigating through Revelstoke to get gas, and right away the wind picked up. It made for a stressful departure from the Revelstoke area and though I noticed the objective beauty of the landscape we were passing through, I couldn’t enjoy it at all. When we later got onto Highway 5, there were passing lanes consistently and I was a much happier camper. I’m not sure if that impression holds true in general, or if it was just this stretch of road. I’m noting for future travel, that it might be better to try taking 16 out of Jasper and hooking up with 5 to do most of the southbound traveling. It also makes a difference whether we are traveling vs visiting. I think there are lots of beautiful things to see in the Revelstoke area, but then we would plan for stays of several days and shorter travel times. All of those factors combine into less stressful moves from one place to another.

In any case, we really liked this provincial park. It has nice private sites and I accidentally picked a great one with views of the lake and lots of solar. There is a trail that goes around the lake, and as soon as we got set up, Richard went and did that while I decompressed with crochet projects. I really love my new hobby, but I got spooked by a hand strain after overdoing it with my initial enthusiasm. I will for sure see a physical therapist when I get home, but in the meantime, I’m on my own with the internet and YouTube for advice. I’ve really pulled back and have implemented self imposed time limits and a bunch of stretches. I also picked up a compression glove thing and an ace bandage to try to keep from re-straining the base of my thumb. Camping is a very physical endeavor, with potential for pulling that specific hand area every time I bike, hitch/unhitch, make the bed, use hiking sticks, open wine bottles, all the normal things you do for enjoyment when you travel. So I keep it wrapped out of an abundance of caution. I also ordered a specific CMC thumb joint brace and had it delivered to my friend on Whidbey Island for pickup in a couple of days. Welcome to your 60s. Now you get to be excited over picking up a hand brace. Jeez.

We got to stay put for 2 nights here and that really helps with travel fatigue. We decided to spend the day checking out the relatively large city of Kamloops. We drove about twenty miles back on Lac Le Jeune Road, which is a nice road and a nice quiet way to get to and from the campground from Kamloops. There is a paved bike trail along the river we wanted to check out, so we parked at Riverside Park and got our bikes out. This is one of those trails that hugs the river as much as it can, and then skirts busy roadways when it can’t. It’s simultaneously a nice trail, and not a nice trail, if you know what I mean. We checked it out along the northeastern arm, across the bridge, which was about a ten mile ride. At that point, rain was threatening and we were hungry, so we paused and put the bikes back in the car.

Kamloops is a fun town, with lots of restaurants and a big community park where they were getting ready for big festivities to celebrate Canada Day. We chose Klasske’s Bistro, which serves Donairs. I’d never heard of these, but they are kind of like gyro wraps. Delicious! We got a steak donair with lots of fillings inside and a really delicious tahini and hummus sauce. So good. For our ice cream fix, we went to Scoopz, which is right by the park and has a great variety of flavors.

We were good at that point to call it a day and head back, but also wanted to get gas in town without Dory in tow. It turned out there is a Costco in Kamloops that that made us irrationally excited. We are simple people. Give us the familiarity of a Costco, with somewhat less expensive gas, a $1.50 hot dog, double chocolate chunk cookie, and a caramel brownie sundae, and we’re super happy. For the record, the caramel sundae in Canadian Costco is way better than our version in Concord, with far more sticky caramel sauce and superior amounts of brownie chunks. Just so you know. Also, there is poutine on the Costco food court menu in Canada, so that’s fun. This is the kind of information I know you depend on in reading this blog. When you’re planning your vacations, I know you’re thinking, “But what is the caramel content in the sundaes at the Costco food court in Kamloops??” No worries. I’ve got you covered. You’re welcome.

Then it was back to Dory where I finished horse hair and Richard did another loop around the lake going the other direction. Also for the record, he ate most of that caramel sundae. He needed to work it off and I had a horse to finish. I can’t show you the other project I finished because it is a gift for a friend who actually reads this blog. But suffice to say, it came out cute.

We would stay here again happily. It’s a super nice park and the proximity to a biggish city means lots of things could be restocked, purchased, what have you. Also nice to have cell service. Kamloops is central to a lot of routes to and from the Rockies, so I could see us staying here again. Good stay.

Total miles from Martha Creek PP: 168.0, 15.1 mpg (headwinds), 4 hours 8 min. Site 108 no hookups. Good dump for $5. Good cel for both. Lots of solar in this site. Most sites shady. Trail around lake. View of lake. Lac Le Jeune Road is very nice.

Leaving Monarch, we drove the rest of the highway through Yoho National Park. This whole area is very beautiful. At the end of the park is the town of Golden. Here we stopped at a grocery store and got a few things to keep us going until Vancouver. A nice former Alto owner approached me in the parking lot and started chatting about missing his Alto. He sold his a year ago and bought a van. That seems to be a common practice, especially once the physical demands of trailering become too much.

Once you leave Golden, Highway 1 continues through deep valleys, surrounded always by snowy peaks. It climbs and falls, passing through Glacier National Park along the way. It is a meandering highway that follows the valleys cut by waterways. There are waterfalls and river crossings the whole way. One thing I will say is that passing lanes are sometimes few and far between. This presents a problem for anyone behind me who is in a terrible hurry. I am not willing to tow faster than my comfort zone, and lacking frequent pull outs, there will be times someone is frustrated. Sorry, not sorry. I should get a bumper sticker that says: “I tow slow. Calm down.”

Our next stop was one of three jumps to get us from Yoho to Vancouver. I know nothing about the routes or regions, so I made educated guesses based on location and online reviews. Martha Creek is off Highway 1 by about 10 miles once you get to the city of Revelstoke. I knew nothing about Mt. Revelstoke, but apparently it is a national park and I did not allot much time to it. We noted this area as a potential revisit and this provincial park would be the place I’d stay again.

The road to the park runs alongside Revelstoke River and climbs significantly up when you reach the dam. Then the river becomes a huge lake and the campground is about a third of the way up. It is a very nice park, with sites so level we didn’t even need to unhitch. Some sites have lake views, and all are pretty private and spaced nicely apart. There is a little trail you can take around the park, or you can hang out on a sandy beach. There are day use areas where you can launch a boat or have a picnic. The only downside is the lack of cell service, which can sometimes be an upside when you want to check out. Richard found a trail that goes up to the top of Sale Mountain and he went up that for about an hour the next morning. It’s something like a five thousand foot climb, so doing the whole thing, while I’d never put it past him, would be a large commitment.

We didn’t spend much time in this area, but it seems there would be plenty to do. As a stopping point from here to there, this is a nice park. It’s a little out of the way, but looked nicer than any options along Highway 1.

Total miles from Monarch: 140.3, 17.3 mpg, 3 hours 38 min. Site 15 no hookups. No cell whatsoever. Closest is by the Revelstoke Dam. $5 dump. Nicely paved and nice bathrooms, trash, recycling. Level sites on packed gravel. Well set up and run campground.