Day 2

We're in Valemont, BC this evening. It is at the western gateway to Jasper National Park, in a broad valley surrounded by tall, jagged peaks. The Rockies are on the east and the Columbia Mountains are on the west.

Linda had brought along Mollie, the Garmin GPS device. Diane had already planned to go Canada 97A to Kelowna, then Armstrong, and via Canada Rte 1 to Kamloops. Mollie had other plans, and as soon as we turned onto 97A she began harassing us to turn around. She wanted us to take Hwy 3 to Princeton, then north to Merritt and Kamloops. When she saw we weren't going to cooperate, you could almost here her humph as she rearranged her schedule and gave us directions north on 97A. But at Peachland, just before Kelowna, she again began to browbeat us to turn west on 97C to Merritt. Rather than endure her sulking, we followed orders. I guess she really did know best. We had 4-lane freeway all the way to Kamloops.

It was a nice drive. We started in the Okanogan Valley, which is an agricultural area, mainly orchards and vineyards, and followed a valley alongside a series of lakes to Peachland. Mollie's route took us over a mountain range with a 5800 ft (1788 meter) summit. The vegetation changed from pine and sagebrush to firs and spruce (a lot like the area up around Mt. Hood). There is a tremendous amount of dead trees, whole hillsides were reddish brown rather than green. I don't know if it tussock moth, pine beetle, or some other disease or insect, but it is devastating. Worse than anything I've seen in Oregon.

From Kamloops we were on Rte 5 to Valemont. It got greener and lusher and less agricultural as we drove along. The last 80 km or so was through a narrow river valley, with glimpses of the jagged rocky peaks of the Rockies. But it is still hot, hot, hot. 34 deg (remember, we're in Canada now, but that's 94 deg to you Luddites). We saw our first "Moose crossing" sign, but no meese so far.

Speaking of the metric system, it is taking some getting used to to drive 110 (70 mps) and slow down to 50 in towns (about 35, I think). The car has kph as well as mph on the speedometer, but you really have to squint to read the kph. I bought gas at 1.019 Canadian dollars per liter, which comes out to about $3.47 US per gallon.

Tomorrow we should reach milepost 0 of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek.

By the way, we have found "poutine" on the menu both times we've eaten in a restaurant. Wasn't that what Bush thought was the prime minister of Canada? It is french fries topped with cheese and gravy, and is apparently the national dish of Canada.