Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

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Penticton - Revelstoke (277 km, 4 hours and 4 minutes, max elevation 594 metres)

Yesterday ended on a low-note when we had to drop off Mary jane at Canadian Tire because she was making a disturbing noise at low revs. Before we realized that, we checked whether her exhaust had fallen down and was dragging under the car!

At first they had no available spot to help us until next week, so we headed back out to our car to start calling the garages/service places we could find in Penticton. It was late Thursday so most had closed and gone home.

Before we could get very far, the service manager came running out to our car. He had freed up some space for us. Hooray. He was very very helpful and let us leave Mary Jane inside their shop overnight - snuggled up with a bright yellow Camarro. Very posh and not quite a good match for a silver Toyota Corolla... It was comforting to be told that he could hear what the problem was and that it would be quick and cheap to fix!!

Today we had a hotel breakfast and then had our morning walk - to pick up Mary Jane from the very very nice people at Canadian Tire who called to say they had fixed her rattle. It was pretty simple - the heat-shield underneath the exhaust had worn loose and needed a bigger washer to hold the bolt in place - but we were very grateful that they could squeeze her in and get it done.

So a big shout-out to the service department of Canadian Tire in Penticton, BC!!! Thank you!

So, by then our morning tea had to be a bit rushed as we needed to pack up and check out by 11, but - efficient as we are at making and drinking tea - there was no problem and we were on our way at 10.59! It was a bit of a shame that we hadn't seen more of Penticton as it looked nice with a beach on the lakeshore, but we needed to get on up the Okanagan valley to Revelstoke.
While the weather was a bit sad with rain and low-hanging clouds, it was still a scenic and fun drive. There were many wineries (with very young-looking vines) and fruit orchards and berry fields. If it had been autumn we could have stopped many times and eaten ourselves silly on cherries, apples, peaches, and blueberries. With better weather and more initiative we could have stopped at various wineries, but it isn't quite our thing even if Hild is conveniently the permanently designated driver.

The drive along the lake also entertained us with fun mountain formations, road-cuttings, cattle, and sheep. Never a very dull moment.

Rob was driving as Hild had to do some invoicing - although we think this was a ruse as it was pretty slow leg through Kelowna , including getting gas at a Costco gas station - and Rob's average speed to another hit today. We also managed to miss Hild's planned lunch spot as Rob drove past while Hild was sorting out a particularly tricky bit of work! So instead we stopped in Vernon and found a spot that looked good - only by then it had rained and we didn't fancy walking over the soggy grass to a wet picnic table and we just got out our chairs and picnicked next to Mary Jane. Which turned out quite useful as the rain started again and we could put stuff back in the car to keep dry while we ate under the umbrella! Niether of us fancied getting out from under the brolly to take a photo while it was raining, but we got some shots when the rain stopped!

So Kelowna was reduced to "where be stopped at Costco to fill up with petrol", and Vernon only became "where we had picnic lunch in the rain".

Filling the Trangia to make the tea we emptied our nice methanol storage bottle and re-filled it with the second of the half-litre bottles we had picked up in Ottawa. This is pretty good - we have used less than 750ml so far even though we use it to make tea at least once a day and have also made Rice-a-roni and pancakes a couple of times! We will have to monitor things a bit and pop in to Canadian Tire again if we start getting low - it would not do to run out!

After lunch, Hild picked up the pace (hmmm) and we got to Revelstoke in good time. It was a fun road - not too much climbing as it followed the valleys between various mountains. Pretty views and very little sky between snow-covered peaks. We past lots of adverts for heli-biking - where you and your mountain-bike get flown up to the top of a mountain so you can ride down - without having to ride up first. Hmmph, seems like a bit of a scam to us - if you want to ride down a mountain you should ride up it first in our opinion. But, I am sure the service gets plenty of business as these are fun-looking mountains. We are not sure if we can call these the "Rockies" as there seems to be another big valley to get through before we will drive over the 'real' Rocky Mountains at Lake Louise (in a couple of days), but we can't find another name for them.

It took us less than 2 hours to drive from Vernon to our camp site in Revelstoke. Maybe it went quickly also because it was another scenic route with much to see. Eagle River was meandering along with swampy sections along the road, dense forest on the mountain sides, and snow-caps at the top. The rain was also slowing down so couldn't complain about much at this point.

A picturesque Three Valley Lake Chateau looked nice and expensive as we drove past. We were heading to our 3-metre-cubed cabin (Microcube) - luxurious enough for us.

And then we got to Revelstoke and found our Microcube! This really is a cube - 3 x 3 x 3 meters with just a sofa-bed, and a couple of chairs. A bit like our Yurt in Riding Mountain (although quite a bit smaller) this is a great way to camp without having to crawl in and out of a tent (or put up/take down the tent in the rain!). We don't have heating in this, like we did in the Yurt, but we do have power so we can re-charge the 'phones, iPads etc and make sure Snus is happy so we can be on-line while we work. Not sure I would call this glamping per se, but we like it anyway!

The really clever bit is that they have mesh images of trees on the doors (front and back) so there is lots of natural light, but fron the outside it looks like you can see right through to the forest!

Revelstoke is a fun (little) town that has kept a lot if it's old looking buildings, even if they now house sushi-restaurants and cannabis stores! We went for a walk down from the camp-site (not very far, but about 150 metres lower altitude down the mountain) and did a quick bit of shopping. They have bear statues guarding the entrance to the town, an art installation showing the unsettling size different between a large salmon and a six-metre long sturgeon!

We caught a nice view across the Columbia River downtown Revelstoke.

We bought eggs to scramble - only when we got back we realized that we had had to toss out the salt and pepper shakers when they had burst in the cooking bag a few days ago! Hild found packet we had got from Tim Horton's and we ate the eggs with some nice salty almond crackers so it was OK really. We are always a bit snobby when we use the Trangia to cook at a campsite - by the time all the other people have set their complicated stoves up or collected wood and lit their fires it, we are already enjoying our post-meal tea! We might be limited to basic cooking, but it is so quick and simple to use.

Hild made use of the bit of chill left in the increasingly soggy bag of peas: The best treatment for sprained ancle - RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation).

We couldn't find a bottle of pancake mix in the shop in Revelstoke, so we have bought a packet of pancake mix and we will give that a go tomorrow. Should be fun if nothing else!

Peculiar things seen today: a red-yellow-green sign at our hotel informing us that later breakfast may be better. And along the road we often saw Arne on the road!! This is only funny to Norwegians as it is a common man's name, so maybe there is a Norwegian truck-company-owner in the area?

We also need to check with Jess if she or her family have secretly invested in wineries along Okanagan Lake. We spotted the sign, but were too slow to take any photos: Fitzpatrick Family Vineyards at Greata!

May/June 2022

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