Early start from Bellingham, on the road by 8AM. Headed up the I-15 & got to the border crossing at the peace arch & surprise, there was no line up at the border. Seemed like our good fortune until we discovered there was no duty free here. Border guard said she had been there 15 yrs and had never seen a duty free at that location. Had kind of counted on getting scotch, but alas it was not to be. I was thinking of quitting anyway - not!
Made good time and stopped in Kamloops for lunch. The good news was they no longer charge a toll on the Coquihalla highway. Stopped at a fruit stand and got a basket of fresh fruit & onward. Lots of road construction & light rain, so never made good time on this stretch. But got to Jasper for a late dinner. It was nice through the park, saw some Elk, a real nice bull and rain through this area. Must have been raining quite a bit as the snow cap on the mountains is starting to build & we were in single digit temperatures all the way. The overpowering 30-40C heat from last week just a memory.
North on highway 40 to Grande Cache in the dark. Lots of construction and this stretch was worse than usual. Heavy fog, rain & muck off the road in the dark, so at time visibility could be measured in feet. Probably the worst trip through this section we have ever had. Oh yeh, it is October in Alberta. North of Grande Cache the road was better, but we fought the fog & visibility until almost 100 clics from home. Could see the lights of a few hunters camps along the road, hmm, wonder if they are seeing anything! Got to the top of Kebelow hill & could see the lights of GP, 50 clics to the north. There must be a song or poem about the lights of home, because they looked inviting, even from that distance. Good travelling after that & got home about 11Pm, 14 hours on the road - a marathon. Time for a wee dram of, OMG - NO SCOTCH!
Well that's it for now folks, until we go back to sunny Arizona after Christmas.
