The Pigs are Flying!

And, believe it or not, UPS finally ran out of excuses not to deliver the package I was waiting for.

Since the pigs were flying and the weather was good, it was finally time to make a break from the beautiful, but frozen north.

With my ‘slightly less than new’ all-season tires, I was a bit concerned about making it up the first hill out to the main road, but with a pail of gravel as insurance, and both Hailey and I crossing our fingers (paws), we made it with no problem.  Soon, we were on dry pavement, and headed down the road into a breezy, well above freezing chinook wind.  Just west of Lake Louise, on bare pavement, we tested our reactions on some black ice that had us doing some amazing manoeuvres for a few hundred yards, but disappointed the ‘ditch gods’ who were sure they were going to claim us more than once.

The next day was clear sailing as well, and we breezed through Salmon Arm on on westward. 

The BC road reports said the Coquihalla road conditions were ‘bare with slippery sections’ but the worst we encountered was some wet and dirty sections coming on the downgrade into Hope, when the sunshine changed to cloud and clag.

Once we were beyond Hope (ha, ha), there was no more snow or danger of black ice hiding on the road, so Hailey kicked back and took a cat nap.

She did her best to be cute, then intimidate the bad men at the border crossing, but they ended up taking her very own catnip plant. There was no line-up at all (perhaps that Harper-Obama discussion helped out?), so of course we got searched, but at least they were professional and polite, which is not always the case .

Elk tracks on my lawn at home.

Now it’s time to find some cheap(er) US diesel, some almost free US beer, and think about de-winterizing the rig as we start heading down the coast. 

Good-bye long johns, hello shorts!

Come along for the ride!