Hello!!!
I’m back!
It’s so nice to be here again.
After I post this I’ll get to reading and responding to all your comments on my last post, and the emails that have accrued in my inbox.
Audrey? Has it stopped raining on the coast yet?
There’s a reason I, somewhat facetiously ask that, because after we had finally finished at the house and sent our landlady our final video of the entire place, we pootled up the road – completely exhausted, to the campground we’d stayed at in Agassiz in 2020, the rain had not stopped.
After 10 days there, where we hoped to dry everything out, including our soggy selves, the rain still had not stopped. We did manage to catch an hour-long sunbeam here and there, but those dastardly clouds kept rolling in and letting us know their thoughts on the matter of sunbeams sneaking past their ramparts.
Next came the Coquihalla Pass, a very sane if a little steep, 4-lane highway, that takes one at a steady pace, up fourteen hundred meters from the Lower Mainland to the Interior (of British Columbia)
At least it used to.
After the horrendous floods of last Autumn/Winter a good many parts of the road had been completely obliterated.
The emergency repairs that enabled this major corridor to open within a month, I think it was, are slowly being replaced with something more permanent.
Unfortunately this required many sections of road to be one lane only, in one direction at a time. White-knuckle driving at its finest!
Nevertheless, we persisted … and arrived at our next campground that Mrs Widds sister had arranged for us, (** waves to the Melodious One**) in Kamloops. where the very few raindrops that fell were frozen ones.
It was only after our two-day stay there that I had the energy to even remember to pick up my phone and do a bit of visual documentation.
Cold and Windy, but no rain.
‘Tea & Pee’ Break
Yeah, that’s the natural gas pipeline going in. It accompanied us all the way here, in varying degrees of completion.
With apologies to Credence Clearwater Revival, this shot is from another ‘tea-n-pee’ break, looking out the door, at the North Thompson River, tearing along southwards, at a tidy pace.
Lookin’ out my front door
Next came my favourite bit …
Snow!!! … and a long and only slightly winding road
Which brings us up-to-date-ish with this final ‘out my front door shot’ from our campground here in Valemount.
We’re completely surrounded by mountains just like this one
Here’s a close-up, and if you can spot it, right at the top of the peak is a cellphone/satellite tower!
Right there, framed in the tree branches
The very slow start to the Spring/Summer season means lots of snow for Yours Truly, and temperatures that are 10 degrees below the average for this time of year. Thankfully we brought all our hot water bottles along.
That’s it for now. I’ve taken up the campground’s wi-fi for long enough. Emails and replies to comments tomorrow.
P.S. that 792 meters in the title, is how far we are above sea-level, compared to only a week or so ago, when we topped out at 4 meters above sea level. The air up here is spectacular!
Widdershins Worlds 
Wow, that’s excellent.
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Excellent indeed! 😀
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I see the cell tower. Glad you’re having a good trip, too bad about all the rain. Could you please send it to California? We desperately need it.
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I couldn’t get a clost-up photo, my little phone camera can only do so much, so I’m glad it was visible. 😀 … I have a pair of high-powered binoculars that showed it nicely covered in layers of snow, so who knows how they manage to get any signals in or out of the thing.
Will certainly send any wayward sky-water your way. It’s already shaping up to be a long hard Summer down there isn’t it? 😦
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We’re in Lake Tahoe for the week with the kids, and the week is forecast to have glorious weather, but back in Davis we’re missing a 99 and a 100°F days. Need to put the climate scientists in charge for a couple of generations!
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You get outta here with your common-sense ideas! 🙂
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So good to accompany you both
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Wonderful to have you along. 😀
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Wowee! One hell of a beginning, Widds… loved the wonderful scenery in that video, too…
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Heh 😀 … not doing things by halves, that’s for sure! 😀
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No surprise, you never do!
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Most excellent news indeed. Would it be alright with you chaps if the stock image that my brain conjures up of you is of a pick-up truck and trailer version of the tanker in Duel (but without the hairy ending!)?
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Most certainly alright. If you throw in a couple of dusty and determined women leaning, with serious intent, against the truck, that would complete the image. 😀
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Kamloops! We were there in 2013. August. Dry as a dessicated sandpit apart from the Thompsons doing their confluencing thing. Glad you made it out alive!
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So were we! 😀
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I remember the rib festival and the yarn bombing in the twin centre.. oh and the Jonny Cash tribute act. Now that was the height of cool. Or hot given it was north of 100F. We were overnighting while on the Rocky Mountaineer. Is that a bit touristy?
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One can never be too touristy when one is touristing. 😀
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That is a truism…
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True 😀
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So excited for you! Snow hurray 🙂
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The campground here is a bit too open for our liking, but there’s a ‘code’ among travellers – if someone doesn’t make eye contact then you pretend they’re not there. 😀
A lot of our neighbours are workers on the pipeline, (which I have ambivalent feelings about) so they keep to themselves anyway … which is fine by us. We’re not the most social of creatures at the best of times, but wanting to go to sleep by 5pm does not a party animal make. 😀
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Glad to hear your adventure is going well. (Good thing you brought those hot water bottles.) Yes, it stopped raining here. 20 degrees yesterday. Right on schedule for the long weekend.
Thanks for the update.
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Those hot water bottles are still in use. The nighttime temps are hovering around 0C. 🙂
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What great visual documentation! 🙂
And I love the nickname for Mrs. Widds’ sister: The Melodious One
LOL 🙂 🙂
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Thanks. 😀 … how to name someone without actually naming them. 😀
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I love that expression: Tea & Pee Break, ha ha ha. It is nice to be reminded of how truly beautiful this country is. We are lucky to live here.
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Yep, in spite of all our grumblings about all sorts of things, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. 🙂
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I love those mountains, seeing those must make you feel it’s all been worth while.
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I feel all the tiny, and not so tiny, knots of tension in my stomach just melt away as I breathe it all in. 🙂
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Lovely to see/hear from you, Widds! I’m glad you’ve finally reached some blue sky too, even if it is cold. Please take more pea-n-break videos as it feels like I’m seeing the real Canada for the first time. Great way to travel. 🙂 Cheers to Mrs Widds!
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Heheheheheh … will do 😀
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I went to Salt Spring Island in early May and saw the devastated highway as well. It’s awe inspiring the damage a flood can do. I’m surprised they got that highway opened as quickly as they did. Very impressive!
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I read, yesterday I think it was, that they’re starting the permanent repairs now, so it’s going to be even worse to get through the corridor. 🙂
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Summer – the season of road construction 🤣
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From one end of the country to the other. 😀
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