From the beginning, we were planning to meet up with our friends Dana and Yumi. They were coming across Canada from Nova Scotia in their RV and we were planning to meet up somewhere around Nelson. There was plenty of time. We were just travelling across BC. But by the time we were in Osoyoos, they were still in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. It was probably not going to happen so why don’t we go west towards Pemberton and then home?
The main reason we were even on this road trip was to check out the RV lifestyle. Would we enjoy travelling this way? Would I be warm enough? Would it be a real alternative to hotels? Turns out it was better than I thought. Firstly, it was nice to choose when I wanted to be outside and when I wanted to go back inside. Secondly having our own amenities, like a bathroom we could use even while travelling and a kitchen where we could make our own food whenever we wanted was more convenient than a hotel. And lastly, the convenience of not having to pack and unpack each time we moved gave us more of a sense of freedom than I thought.
There were many beautiful stops along our way: relaxing on the beach at MacDonald Creek near Nakusp, having breakfast on a Kelowna beachfront and lunch at a Peachland lake, a bottle of wine in the evening while we decided where to go the next day. It was on one of these wine-filled evenings that Allan called his friend George (see the Finding George blog post) and changed our whole itinerary.
Since we were now coming down the eastern route to meet George, we could come down towards Nelson and meet up with Dana and Yumi. They were going towards Nelson too. Maybe we could meet up at Cranbrook. A whole day went by. No phone contact. We were coming into Cranbrook. “We’ll stop here and have lunch. If we don’t hear from them in an hour, we’re out of here,” Allan decided. We parked in a lot on the main street and got out our lunch. “Keep a lookout for Dana.” Just as we got lunch on the table, a voice from outside said, “You should get a hair cut!” It took a few seconds before we realized that Dana and Yumi found us. They were driving down the highway, saw our RV in the lot and Dana said, “That’s Allan’s hair!”
The next few days was an extended reunion, enjoying joint meals in our RV’s at beautiful waterfront campsites at Nelson and Osoyoos. It was a great way to top off our vacation and solidify our RV experience.
