Castlegar, BC

If you checked in with us on March 16 - The Trip North - a fork in the road - you'll know that we were wondering which route to take north - to Castlegar to visit Derek's dad and step mom or up through Omak and into the Okanagan area of BC. 

Well - we choose Castlegar and arrived here just before dinner time on Monday the 19th. Our timing to travel from Nampa Idaho to Castlegar on the 18th and 19th couldn't have been better because what did we wake to Tuesday morning?

a whole lotta snow - that's what! a winter wonderland

Tuesday morning also happened to be Lloyd's (Derek's dad) curling time. Boy how do you know you are back in Canada when one of the first things you do is watch curling! I could probably come up with a few jokes for that one. It also happens that the world curling championships are on TV as well.

a whole lotta curling!

So off we went the few block walk to the arena to watch Grandpa curl. First we had to conquer the 6" deep snow on the roads, Cassia was pretty happy about it all.

We are NOT exactly dressed for the occasion since our winter duds are packed away in storage.

The curling rink - Men's morning.

Lloyd contemplating the throw of his rock.

Cassia and her Grandpa.

Castlegar has a really good kids consignment store and so we headed there in the afternoon. Sadly it was closed for a few days so instead we went to a few thrift stores. Thrift stores are one of my favourite places - especially for Cassia's clothes. There wasn't much in her age group although I got this really beautiful summer dress for 75¢ and this shirt below for $2. Cassia was excited to get some new clothes.

Just enough snow in the front yard for Cassia to shovel......

and to put some on Roofous!

After many months in the USA it was nice to be on familiar roads and in familiar territory AND nice to be with family. Cassia sure enjoyed her time with Grandma and Grandpa and we sure enjoyed a few more playmates!

Visiting in Castlegar also gave us the opportunity to take a quick trip up to Nelson and Ainsworth Hot Springs. By Tuesday afternoon much of the snow had melted and by Wednesday the roads were dry and so we headed north. 

Thanks for visiting!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Castlegar is in the West Kootenay region of BC - here is the link - boy if you haven't been to BC it is one beautiful place - especially the Kootenays.

Hello Canada!

Monday morning we started out really early from our Dayton Washington overnight spot. 

8:30 am in fact.

We were anxious to get going because we knew that this - our last day in the USA - was going to be a long one. We had A LOT of miles to cover to get to the Canadian Border at Waneta.

This is another one of those get comfortable posts. Consider yourself lucky - I only have 30 pictures to share today out of the 152 I took during our Sunday & Monday drive. There was SO much to see and totally different landscapes along the way. Derek and I were totally impressed with our drive through the eastern side of Washington State on roads we had never travelled before.

So - sit back and enjoy the ride!

The drive out of Dayton was just like the one in - lots of farmland.

From Dayton we headed north on highway 12, but not for long. Approximately 14 miles up we turned left onto the 261. Now - I have to say here that I planned our route to include all red or orange roads on my map - meaning paved and primary. Grrrrrr. A few of those roads - like the 261 through Starbuck really really should be yellow. It was narrow and very winding. Boy if all the roads were going to be like this we were NEVER going to make it through Washington in one day. I was really starting to wish that we had taken on Spokane instead of 'backroad Washington'!

'Where is your adventurous spirit'? asks Derek.

hmmmmm oh I don't know - I think I left it back at Kingman Wash. Yup - that's were it is -- ENOUGH of roads out in the middle of NO WHERE!

A huge sigh of relief coming from the passenger seat about 30 miles later upon turning right onto highway 261/260 - straight and flat - as we rolled into - and out of - the village of Washtucna.

Along the 261 - a very high and long train bridge.

And a bridge for us!

Over the Snake River.

Just after the bridge we noticed a nice park on the right and so decided to stop - we all needed a bit of exercise. Well - Roofous was the only one to enjoy it - the 3 of us froze our butts off and got back in the truck pretty quick.

Just after the park we had to climb a VERY VERY steep hill and again thoughts of Kingman Wash came flooding back - so glad this road at least was paved. I was seriously doubting my route planning and navigation skills by this point however.

We FINALLY made it to the top and the road eventually became quite straight and sort of flat. Another 30 miles and we had hit Interstate 90. Boy, I don't think I have EVER been so happy to be on an Interstate. Alas, it didn't last long. A mere 24 miles later and a gas fill up in Sprague we were back to a winding back road - the number 23 to Harrington this time.

Yaaaa - more farmland. We have to say that we were totally surprised about the amount of open country and large farms in this area of Washington. It reminded us A LOT of Saskatchewan - just a little more hilly.

At Harrington we turned right onto the 28 and soon rolled into Davenport. We had decided to stop in this town for lunch and our very last meal in the USA. 

Where to eat, where to eat, where to eat? Always hard to know when you pull into a town you've never been in. Look for the most cars is our general approach. 

With so few restaurants that one didn't work for us today. We ended up with two choices, right across from each other. One was at the bowling alley painted a lovely green colour with a huge painting with the word EAT in yellow. Hmmmm real promising. The second was this cute little place beside a motel. Hmmmmm a little more promising.

The Cowboy Cafe at the Blackbear Motel.

We REALLY liked the idea of pie plates for plates and think we may adopt that for at home and in the RV.

Can you see how GREAT that meal was. It was lunch time but since we left so early without breakfast we had that instead. Mine - an open faced biscuit with egg, ham and cheese smothered with sausage gravy. Yup - I was PRETTY IMPRESSED - another thing I think I will adopt at home.

All we can say is that with the our dinner the night before in Dayton at Woody's Bar and Grill and today at the Cowboy Cafe in Davenport we were pretty happy with our last two restaurant visits. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND both these fine establishments if you ever find yourselves in these Washington towns.

Thankfully the cafe also had wifi so we could update everyone on fb of our whereabouts and also find out that the Waneta border crossing closed at 5:00pm. It was 12:30 - we figured we had lots of time but didn't want to linger too long so we quickly finished up and hit the road.

At Davenport we got on the 25 heading north and down to the Columbia River. The landscape dramatically changed at this point. Still some farmland but more ranches and a lot more trees.

The 25 crosses over where the Spokane River and the Columbia meet. Also the site of Fort Spokane and the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Probably a nice place to visit on a warm day - but not this day.

 A view of the Columbia. I was pretty disappointed with highway 25. On the map it looked like it travelled along side of the river but in actuality it only comes down along side it a few times. It is a very winding and up and down road. I don't suggest it unless you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind the meandering.

We would have been in a whole lot of trouble had it been snowing - I don't EVEN want to think about that.

Uh oh!

Yup - more snow! Just north of Kettle Falls - thankfully it didn't last.

We stopped at Kettle Falls for gas. It wasn't looking so good to the west. Actually for most of the drive we tried not to look to the west since the clouds were so dark. The station attendant told us that 4 - 6" of snow was expected to fall that night. Sheesh - it looked like it was going to fall any minute. We were a bit apprehensive about carrying on but what were we to do we were so close to home. 

The sky cleared a bit so we stopped for a few minutes at a recreation area.

Back on the road we soon pulled into Northpoint. We put the last of our american money $9 into our gas tank and headed to the Waneta Border Crossing - we had time to spare it was about 3:30pm.

Hello BC - it has been awhile - 5 months and 5 days! How've you been?

Another bridge - have you noticed? We passed over several bridges today.

Once through the border with no trouble at all we made our way through Trail. Sorry - no pics of Trail - it was snowing really hard by then and was dark. The camera flash kept going off. It wasn't until just north of Trail that the snow tapered and I was able to take the picture above.

A mere 18 kms north of Trail lies Castlegar - our destination.

We made it! And just in time - just in time for dinner and just in time before the snow started to really fly!

We just want to say a huge 

THANK YOU to the USA for our great trip this year. We had a great time, saw some great sites, ate some great food and met some great people! 

(By the way - I'll do a synopsis of our trip when we get home - the good, the bad and the ugly.)

Thanks for visiting - our trip through BC coming up next!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: I JUST found this link today through another site and haven't had a chance to look around myself - but I'll pass it on anyway. It is called The Alkaline Sisters and seems to be of course about alkaline. One of the things Derek and I picked up on our trip was a water pitcher and shower head to make our tap water alkaline. Actually we will also be selling these items through the Dreamtree Family - but more about that later. In the mean time maybe check out the site to find out how important it is for your body to be alkaline.

Clear skies to Dayton, Washington

As you can imagine we were SHOCKED to see snow falling on Sunday morning when we got up! 

SNOW!!!

No way!

Based on the forecast, calling for clearish skies, we had decided to leave Nampa on Sunday. This set us back a few hours but by noon the snow had tapered and so we made a run for it. The weather map showed grey skies and precipitation to about the Idaho/Oregon border.

Hellooo Oregon!

It's funny - Derek and I have done this route - along Interstate 84 from Nampa to Pendleton - many times now in both direction. But this year it just seemed to  t a k e  s o o o o o o  l o n n g g g g g g g - up the hill, down the hill, up the hill. We totally forgot how long it actually takes to get to the bottom of the big hill just east of Pendleton.

The sky was cloudy much of the way but no snow - but once we got closer to Baker City it looked like we were about to enter a snow storm.

Thankfully it was just at higher elevations - so no snow on the ground.

We weren't alone RV wise - looks like many others making their way home also.

We even cleared the summit just west of Meacham without snow - surprisingly because it is quite high. Last year when we went through at the end of March there were flurries even. 

As I have mentioned in the past - there is a HUGE hill just east of Pendleton. I always enjoy going down rather than up - although I do have to give Derek a few side glances to make sure he remembers that we are pulling a trailer. I think he really gets into taking the curves as fast as he can. It's that BC raising that comes through - nothing but curves in that province!

Just before the hill - the sky opened up! 

BLUE SKY! boy have we missed you!

We stopped for a few pictures at the viewpoint at the top. It looks nice but it was cold and windy.

Now at the bottom. How nice to see agricultural land - and look! green grass!

Close to Pendleton we took a right - north. We have never been this way before and so weren't sure what to do when we saw a sign at exit 216 for the Walla Walla turnoff. That was NOT on my map. I thought we had to go all the way to Pendleton to get on the 11 north. 

Nope! We decided to throw caution to the wind and turn off.

We were in luck - there is a nice little cut through road that took a good half hour or more off our time - and - kept us out of the city. With this and the time change back one hour at the Idaho/Oregon border - we were doing really well time wise.

We were thrilled with the drive along the 11 - all the green grass and blue sky. What a huge difference from Idaho and Oregon.

We quite liked the city of Milton-Freewater's entry/welcome sign.

Rolling right along - here is the entry into Milton-Freewater...

before long we were heading through Walla Walla.

Walla Walla seems like a nice place. It is similar to the tri cities in that it is a micro climate with a seemingly healthy agricultural economy. We stopped at Walmart to pick up a few extra things - since it is the last one before the border - and even took our jackets off! 

It was getting close to dinner time and we hadn't really stopped for lunch so we were pretty hungry. Since we were in travel mode trying to put on some serious miles we had decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant for dinner. As we drove through Walla Walla headed to the 12 we didn't see much of everything. I am not sure where all the restaurants are in WW but we missed them. Since we are not for turning around we decided to carry on to the next town.

A lot of barns along our route - even more tomorrow - lots of red ones. 

North of Walla Walla on highway 12 around Dixie. We would LOVE to go to Ireland one day - with all the green grass fields we seriously thought we were!

REALLY enjoying our drive now!

Just as we were rolling into the town of Waitsburg we noticed this camel in the field. I wasn't really expecting a photo moment so it took me a second to get the camera up - I almost missed the picture. As we were going by I noticed writing on the barn telling us that this is Izzy the Camel.

We almost stopped in Waitsburg for dinner - but the center was left and we had to go right. Just as we were making the turn and looked back we realized that the downtown looked pretty neat. Waitsburg looks like a nice town - somewhere we should have stopped - but didn't.

Instead we carried on to Dayton. Since it was the last 'large' town on our route for a long time I thought that this would probably be the place we would spend the night. After stopping for gas for $3.85/gallon we headed to downtown.

Pretty quickly we were pretty impressed with ourselves....well we didn't really do anything...but we were thrilled with where we ended up for the night. Another - you just never know moments. You never know when and where you'll stumble into a place that suits you like a glove.

Since it was Sunday evening around 6:30 the downtown was pretty quite.

BUT!

There were a whole lot of cars parked on the street in front of Woody's Bar and Grill. So - Derek rolled on by and pulled in just ahead. This MUST be the place to be.

Dayton looks like our kind of place - historic buildings, neat shops and restaurants and clean.

Woody's Bar and Grill - new owners so soon to be called Threshers.

Since we weren't in a hurry at all we lingered for about 1 1/2 hours at Woody's. Everyone was very very friendly - a local's, farming - working man's kinda place. We felt at home. We spoke with a few people here and there. The bartender also had to serve and since it was dinner time the kitchen was obviously busy. 

No matter - we enjoyed the atmosphere while Cassia enjoyed the attention from the neighbouring tables. 

One day late but we happily celebrated Derek's Irish roots and St. Patty's day. While I enjoyed my Beef Dip (THE best I have ever had), Derek savoured his Irish Death beer and his Angry Woody hamburger and fries.

Derek and his 'Irish Death'

Ahhhh - what a great way to end off our USA tour this year. Just as we were leaving we were speaking to a couple of ladies outside of the restaurant - you know - like Derek - enjoying the fresh air. Derek mentioned that we were just going to stay parked there for the night. One of the ladies suggested the park just back down the main street by the bridge.

'No one will mind?' we asked. 

They assured us we would be fine - well, you don't have to ask us twice. Off we went to the little park. Not a large lot but large enough for us. We settled in and enjoyed a comfortable night in Dayton.

Tomorrow a long day of travel and our last day in the USA for this year.

Cheers!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Well, if you like beer this one is for you. I was kinda wondering about that Irish Death beer. A strange name indeed. A quick google search led me to the Iron Horse Brewery website - home of the Irish Death. Pretty cool site and a local Washington brewery.