We Made it!

As you might imagine ,it was a trip of many adventures...mostly having to do with snow. Our first challenge was to make to Kelowna with our all season tires. Yep. it pretty much snowed or was snowy the whole way with the worst being over the Blueberry Paulson and the entire road from Rock Creek to Beaverdale. We just took it easy and for the most part,there was very little traffic which at least gave you peace of mind that someone wasn't going to plow into you,should you spin out. Our new Saturn did well, with very little slipslidey going on, and we didn't really notice the all wheel drive feature kicking in. I think driving at less than normal speeds was the key factor.
We left at eight,and made a few stops along the way and by 1:00 we were crusing into Kelowna, in time for our appointment at 1:30 to get the new winter tires put on. The dealership is so good there, they had a car waiting for us to borrow while they did a complimentary first oil change and also put on the new winter tires.(not complimentary)
We took advantage of the hour and a half to go visit our dear neighbour, Heavy Duty Bill, who just underwent a serious operation for cancer, where the doctors removed 2/3rds of his stomach and his spleen and part of his Pancreas.
Amazingly, he looked very good for just five days after his big surgery, and he was so pleased to see us. We spent some quality time visiting and assuring him that all he was missing was a big dump of snow.
He was greatful to have good neighbour support and family support during this ordeal. Us too, as now Peter will be doing snow removal for three houses and we were lucky enough to have Emil's co-worker, Janice, house sit and watch the cat for us.

Once we had the winter tires on, we had a laugh, because the sun was out and the roads were bare!
We drove up to Vernon to John and Rondas. They were all ready for us with a lovely dinner and a toast to our upcoming anniversary, complete with chocolates and a Trojan on our bed pillow that night...(mmmm...I wonder where that came from!)
Yep, January 4th was our 38th year of being married. Seems like a long time in numbers, but it all went by so quick, that our memory recalls the best and the worst times and forgets many of those "moments" that floated by as though it was a wave in an ocean of happenings.
We had a few laughs on the drive up...glad we didn't invest in a dry cleaning business one time, nor chose not to sell Redkin products for Maureen, and pretty happy that we didn't buy that huge truck with the dual wheels on back. We did say we loved the amount of happiness our tent trailer brought us, with every so many camping trips to all the little lakes around in the Kootenays,as well as a many a summer spent at Shuswap, or in Saskatchewan. Like a turtle,we had our home with us wherever we went.And so we reminisced.

Back to John and Rondas...we played a new game,called Sequence. Wow! It kept us amused and nearly blinded for hours. A great game for many or few players, involving cards in a Pente like game where you use tokens to get five in a row. Two fives and your team wins. Simple, but hard on the eyes as you san the board over and over for a place to play your token that will improve your row of five tokens, or block the opponents chances. Good Game...Highly reccommended!
The next morning, John Suggested that we take the road to Vernon, then the bypass that goes to Merrit. Probably less chance of snowy roads,than taking 97c...the coneector, from Kelowna. He was right and those roads were frosty, but snow free. Yippee.
The situation changed when we crwled up the Coquilhalla. At first, there was no snow, than one snowfree lane,and pretty soon,after the big Larson hill, snow and snowing and general whiteout. First vehicle off the road was a large van that hit the corner too fast and slid into the snowy lane and flipped when it hit the snowbank. No one appeared top be hurt. We kept motoring along, thankful for the new winter tires as the roads got worse and worse as we neared the toll booth.
That is the photo that is all white.
On the other side of the toll booth,the slush was a foot deep and traffic was dense and both lanes were not good. Before you know it, we were heading downhill. Emil paseed one slow poke and another,and then were alone on the road. Again, thanks to good snowtires, we could travel along, just being careful as one lane was shear ice and the other a half foot of slop. We chose to drive in the slop lane after a rock smacked our windsheild from oncoming cars close to the shear ice lane.
Just before the first tunnel, we could see two guys hopping around near the road trying to keep warm,as their budget Rent a truck was overturned on the side of the road. No stopping as it was ttoo dangerous. The roads were a mess and we were heading into the first snowshed. The ambulance and police were screaming up the other side of the hill to attende one or both of the overturns.
By now, I could have kissed the winter tires.
As we got down in elevastion,t he snow flakes turned to rain and the roads went from ice to slop to bare roads...Yippeee.
We left John and Rondas at 8:00 am and here it was noon, and we were filling up with gas in Hope. I don't recommend driving the Coq in winter, but if you have to, take it slow and have good tires.
We took the shortcut from Costco in Aldergrove,along Vye and turning onto 16th which takes you into Whiterock. In an hour we were at the LAdner and Highway 10 intersection. Great shortcut,thanks to Annette and Trina. It cuts off over an hour to get to the ferries.

We were at the ferry terminal before 2:30 and easiily made the three ferry.
Ok...time to eat breakfast. We had an eventful day at Sonia dn Steves, plus I got my hair done yesterday and visited Annette at her new job. I'll try to post a few more pics before we depart tomorrow morning for Astoria and then to Long Beach.


We
"The Creator"