Good evening, Granny Calling…..Day 16 is the first day of our road trip. Robyn and Adam have been planning where they would take us for months. They are two of the best, a great couple who have kindly given up their holiday time to drive us to some special destinations and we only found out a few days before we left the UK that we would be going into the USA for a couple of nights. How exciting, and how lucky are we to have such special people looking after us.
Due to us losing all our stuff on the raft escapade, we have to sort a few things out before we leave. Robyn said “There is no way I am going on a road trip without a cell phone”, I have to agree, sometimes you are driving for over an hour here without seeing a house, farm, or Service station. Adam’s phone was also water damaged so he was going to get a Blackberry which he has wanted for some time. I think falling in the river did him a favour as his old phone was a bit of a Dinosaur!
I was up a 6am as I had to call the UK to report my phone missing, my debit cards and find out how to sort out money, I lost all my money and my cards to the Bow River. 6am here is 1pm UK, so that seemed to be a good time to ring as I didn’t get held up on hold as you usually do. They said I could get an emergency money fund but it would cost. I decided to go to my online banking page, transfer money to Martin and he could access it from his account. No extra cost…simples ttch!
Blackberry were great, it’s insured they said, ring us when you are back across the pond and we’ll send you a new one within 48 hours, doesn’t it just make your day when something is sorted easily, hassle free…..we didn’t need anymore hassle after yesterday.
We went to a Mall and bought a new camera. Robyn and Adam are going to share it for now, I am going to keep the camera when we go home. Martin has Nikon insurance so he should be able to get his replaced easily. Phew…so much to think about. We got some crutches for Adam from the pharmacy, got a huge filled pita for lunch and piled into van and left Calgary. We were heading south towards the Rocky mountains.
It was a gorgeous day, clear blue sky, warm breeze and around 25 degrees. Everything looks so nice in the sun and we were all in good spirits as we headed out of town. We drove through Banff National Park and into Kootenay National Park and Adam and Robyn described points of interest as we travelled. In the mountain, the roads start to twist and turn, a change from the mile after mile of straight roads in the cities and on the outskirts. We climbed up and down hills as we went further into Kootenay, Robyn driving as Adam’s foot was painful. As we drove along we got our first sight of some wildlife, four deer, two standing and two young ones laid down in the grass, they are really pretty and we all oohed and aahed at the sight. A little further on the road split into two lanes our side and Robyn managed to overtake some slow vehicles as we climbed a hill, she squeezed the van back in between two cars and suddenly, the vehicles ahead started braking and slowing down. What’s going on now we wondered, more road-works maybe? As we slowly rounded the bend a Female Black Bear and cub, were casually crossing the road, I struggled to get the camera, still wanted to look at this amazing sight but by the time I switched the camera on and pressed the button, the delay meant that they had gone over the bank and disappeared into the trees. I am disappointed that we never got a picture, but I still have goose bumps thinking of how close we were to them, I’m not good at distance, but I reckon we were about 4 car lengths away…amazing. Some people I have spoken to have lived here all their lives and never seen a Bear and Adam said it was the closest he has been to one. We were really lucky. Further on we saw some wild Canadian Mountain goats, just lurking in a parking space, like they owned the place. What a great way to start a road trip and there was more great stuff to come.
We drove on towards Moose Lake and Radium and as we turned left into the mountain road (well dirt track really), Robyn swapped seats with Adam for the drive up the mountain. Wow! What a scary drive, Gravel road, very high and narrow in places. I am not happy at height and I hate height and movement, makes me feel nauseous but if you want to see things you just have to grit your teeth and go for it. On the way up to Moose Lake we saw, black squirrels, chipmunks and cows! Yes cows, now that is really wild! At the lake, which is really pretty, we stopped and ate the watermelon we had in the cool box and finished off the ham, salami and cucumbers that we brought from the fridge. We didn’t stay too long as the flies are like bumble bees and they BITE! Martin got bitten and so did I, these bugs like British flesh.
On the way down the mountain, we stopped at a natural hot spring, we paddled in water that was hotter than bath water, the smell of the sulphur wafting all around. Martin tried the cold pool too, not for me though, I have had my fill of cold water for a while. We decided not to get right into the water as we had to go on further and didn’t want to get the van wet or our clothes. What a great day and we have some brilliant pictures.
We got back to the van and drove on to Kimberley, our hotel was fantastic, in fact it was more than that. Kimberley is quiet in Summer as it’s a Ski resort, so we got a great suite, 2 en suite bedrooms, balcony, fantastic living room complete with cooking facilities and the beds were so big, it felt like I was sleeping on my own! You can view the resort at www.mountainspirit.ca What a great place. We ate supper across the road at Kelsey’s which is similar to Brewer’s Fayre at home and the waiter (David) was kind enough to sell us a bottle of wine to take back to our room and he even loaned us a corkscrew, even though it was officially against the rules. When we went back to the hotel, we sat at the high table in our suite, drank the wine, took pictures with our new camera with the self-timer and had high jinks taking pictures, even one of Robyn, fully clothed in the bath-tub! We all fell into bed exhausted, what a day, I love holidays …..
Monday morning and we woke in the huge bed which could easily sleep 8. I was first up, I usually am, I think I’ve been second up twice……. What a woman! I switched on the net-book, we have complimentary wi-fi here and I wanted to message people on Face book, I am now without my usual way of contact (my deceased Blackberry). I messaged Joanne, transferred money to Martin’s account and phaffed about, I also made a pot of coffee, there is no kettle for tea. Adam and Robyn got up and hobbled around sorting out their sore feet and got straight down to finding us a Hotel in CouerD’Alane IDAHO we were going to be in America today, earlier than we expected.
We wound our way through mountain roads, past huge green fields and ranches, over railway bridges and through small towns with just a few houses. The scenery is stunning in this part of the World with huge lakes and rivers that wind through the valleys like big blue veins. We counted down the Kilometres to the border and got passports ready. We all laughed at our passport photos and Robyn and Adam thought it was funny that I said Martin looked like an escaped convict in his!
We passed through Cranberra and we all agreed that it looked a bit dodgy, one of those places you didn’t really want to stop at. Maybe it’s a nice place, but it looked dirty and run down. We passed by Elizabeth lake, went through Moyie, where the lake is enormous and the deepest blue and a little place called Yahk, the saloon there was called ‘The Horny Owl’ I’m curious to know where that came from.
We arrived at the border at 1.15pm local time and we had to put our watches back one hour. When you live in little old GB it seems strange to go through time zones while your still in the same country! The Border Policeman was really surly and snapped off questions really quickly. Have you been convicted of anything are you carrying any firearms, drugs, food and so on. I had difficulty understanding him and he instructed Robyn to take off her sunglasses as he checked the passports. Some people just have such an attitude, welcome to America! He told us to park around the corner, go inside and sign up for our I-94 permits to enter the US. We had to fill in paper work, get our fingerprints taken and get mug shots done. It cost us $12 and he asked for it in America, thank God Robyn had the sense to pick up some dollars at the bank and she could lend us some. By the time we got back to the Dodge we felt like criminals. I’m sure we don’t cause the Americans so much stress when they visit the UK, maybe we’re too soft!
About 3 miles over the border in Idaho, we stopped on a hill to take in the view, our first real look at the US, the expanse of land in front of us is immense and you just can’t quite describe the feeling you get. The way you feel like a dot, in a huge world, insignificant and tiny, as they say in America…Awesome! We drove on and passed small towns, with lovely place names like, Songbird lane, Dusty Lane and Silhouette Drive, stirs the imagination and you start to wonder where the names came from? As we drove on, we came to a huge lake in a place called Sandpoint. This was almost a small ocean and there were boats and jet-skis screaming up and down at break-neck speed. Near Sandpoint Lodge, there is a small ‘beach’ with sun beds, chairs and tables, just like the seaside at Blackpool, but with a lake where the sea should be. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The temperature outside was 32 degrees, so the people on the sun beds must be frying!
We finally arrived at CouerD’Alane at around 3.15pm and found the hotel, it’s not as nice as yesterdays ‘suite’ but the room is pleasant and clean. It has a microwave, fridge and coffee maker and a huge Queen size bed. The air conditioning is really cranky and hums constantly but it’s a muggy 32 degrees outside, so you need it on.
We chilled out for a couple of hours and then went out to ‘The Olive Tree’ restaurant for supper. I had Parmesan sirloin with garlic mash, Martin and Adam had a seafood dish with scallops and shrimp and Robyn had Chicken Marsala, with fried potatoes. They brought us hot bread, coated in garlic butter and a huge bowl of salad before we started and I sampled their signature wine, a Rose blush which was gorgeous. Robyn ordered a cocktail, Long Island Ice tea, but she didn’t like it, so Adam drank it, along with his beer and was just a bit squiffy! He and Martin also had 2 pints of Budweiser and Robyn had a strawberry Dachari which looked like a milk shake with whipped cream! At the end of it we were stuffed and made our way back to book a Hotel for tomorrow night.
We have just left the ‘young people’. Hotel booked for tomorrow, we will be staying in Seattle, but that’s day 18 and another blog post, so for now goodnight….Granny….to be continued………..
