Expedition Canada

Very Flat - Next Stop Saskatchewan - Also Flat 100 km of long straight road By the time we departed River Grove Campground in Drumheller, we had completed 2614 km of our trip.  Admittedly, 300 of those was a dash into Calgary on Monday morning to get the roof glass replaced.  Which is now done.  We are again watertight!  The duct tape did its job but also done a job on the roof, which I anticipate will need respraying when we return home, along with the corner of the front right bumper that I scraped reversing the trailer into a tight campsite.  We knew we were going to miss the BC mountains. As they receded in our rear-view mirror the elevation reduction was not as much as we'd anticipated.   Drumheller is 640m above sea level.  This part of Alberta is flat oil, gas, cereal and cattle country.  The wide open spaces often talked about.  What we hadn't anticipated was the long straight roads.   Driving back from Calgary with my ...

Goodbye Mountains Next stop Calgary Today we leave the mountains and head for the prairies after two weeks of exploring beautiful British Columbia we now get to drive over to Alberta.    It has been an amazing first two weeks to our four months of travel, not all as planned!  The roof glass, which shattered ten minutes into the trip is due to be replaced in Calgary on Monday, to much relief.  The almost daily ritual of replacing duct tape will not be missed!  After our three days in Revelstoke we had a 482 km drive west and south to Kikomun Creek Provincial Park in East Kootenay. As we drove south the mountains slowly gave way to more undulating hills and mixed forest and grassland, following both the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers.  It also got warmer.  After waking to frosts and 3c in Manning Park, Kikomun topped out at 33c.  The AC was both welcome and necessary.  RV's are not as thermally efficient as one's home.  The heat also ensured...

Not the Start Expected  Sunday June 8th Begbie Mtn, Revelstoke, from the dyke walk Seven days in and over 1200 km into our 20,000 km expedition.   I was going to start with the first two challenges of the trip.  That would be a distraction and disingenuous given the stunning scenery and landscapes we have enjoyed to Revelstoke, and the journey since our 4 night stay in Manning Park.  Man ning Park. was a beautiful setting.  Loads of walks, mountains, lakes and creeks and the new Skyview RV park had moder n well maintained washroom facilities and was only at 10% capacity.  The alpine trails were still closed due to snow, but lower levels were open.  We hiked around Lightning Lake (9km) and a number of other trails and would certainly go back.  Revelstoke, our second stop, is now running a close second as a place to live after the Sunshine Coast.  We would have stayed longer.  The campground was spotless with new, well designed and fi...

But for Day 1 Disaster Tuesday June 3 I had not anticipated doing an update quite so soon, but the first two days have been rather newsworthy. No more than ten minutes off the ferry, approaching Capilano on Vancouver's North Shore, a loud bang, huge wind noise and we quickly realised our glass roof on the Tundra had shattered.  We were passing a large dump truck and trailer at the time and assume a stone had bounced off the lorry onto us.   We were a few minutes from Toyota, Jim Pattinson North Shore to be precise, who were no help, anymore than the collision repair centre they directed us to.  "No glass available in North America" was the refrain.  Nick has si nce found some in Ontario.  The question at the forefront of our minds was, will we get further than Abbotsford where we are due to pick up the trailer? The collision specialist, vacuumed out the broken glass (but left half the broken roof in place), stuck on a layer of sticky plastic and duct taped ...