North to Alaska - Christina Lake to Quesnel, British Columbia

We crossed the border at a little town called Laurier above Kettle Falls, where we stayed for a quick overnight. It was a big campground-not the kind we usually like, but it was quiet and pretty and right on the Columbia River (dammed by the Grand Coulee west of here).  We found a nice spot but were too tired to do much but eat dinner and go to sleep.  The border crossing was fast and easy.  They seemed mostly concerned about whether or not we carried guns with us.

This is the old suspension bridge over the Columbia River.  Our campground is in the trees on the right.

We headed for what looked like a nice area around Christina Lake in BC-Gladstone Provincial Park and camped at the Texas Creek Campground there.  It was spotless!  The hostess was very nice and showed us the best available spaces and we chose one with a large forest of pines surrounding it and just a short jaunt to the beach and to trails.  This park had wonderful showers, flush toilets and immaculate campsites.  We were impressed but not happy with the price-$27/night.  We stayed for 2 nights, thinking about a third......

He was ok until a boat went by and made big waves.  Then he acted just like
he does at the ocean-barking, biting the waves and running back and forth
like a mad man.

We took the most beautiful hike through this
fabulous forest-everything so green, many
butterflies and dragonflies....

Eventually crossed Texas Creek-wondering where that
name came into play.

It's Father's Day weekend and I was determined to make it a great one for Jim-coffee in bed, eggs and sausages for breakfast, napping, a few little gifts......Boo and I checked out the beach which is just fabulous and only a short walk from our campsite.

We had cocktails and an Indian dinner.

Took a beautiful walk through the forest after a great breakfast (-pictures above)  A lovely evening reading under the awning in a gentle rain.  Temperatures really nice-70s, partly cloudy.  That night we decided to push on the next day.

We got up early and took a gorgeous drive through mountains and small towns-lots of hilly ups and downs, forests, lakes, green everything!  I was driving a lot (I'm not as nervous that way-I'm embarrassed to say that I am probably a bit of a control freak!)  I was a little white knuckled as we went driving along Route 3 to Osoyoos.  Jim decided we needed to change course to go to Penticton because he was worried about something maybe being wrong with the auxiliary batteries.  So, we did!  AND, the driving there (Jim driving now) was pretty crazy, too-lots of traffic (bigger town) and we were trying to find the Walmart.  Long story short-lots of snappy talk to each other, some long moments of not speaking and we were not happy campers.  Jim thought I was insane and I thought he was crazy!  Then the good news, that nothing was wrong with the batteries and we headed north along the gorgeous Okanagon Lake and wine country.  We didn't stop at the wineries-we had done that last time-but did stop for fresh cherries at a place owned by some Indian family who had a special Sunday treat-pakora.  I bought some of each for Jimbo as a Father's Day treat (he still was not in the best of moods) and we started being able to talk to each other again.  I left a silver heart on his pillow and he woke up, presenting it to me all warmed up by him.  We were ok again.  The best part of this night was that we remembered about overdrive on Maxine.  We had forgotten that by pushing a button, Maxine's engine could brake herself.  I can't tell you what a relief this was-no more careening downhill into oblivion.

We decided to look for an RV camp with WiFi and found one.  However, just to add to the bad karma of this day, the WIFI didn't work, it was a horrible place (we shut all the curtains and tried to pretend we were somewhere else.)  AND, it was $50/night!  AND, the battery on our CRV was dead and we had to give her a jump before parking her next to us.  Sleep is a great gift for the weary!

The next day, we drove from Kamloops ( a pretty boring looking town with a gorgeous lake).  We settled on Lac La Hache Provincial Park between 100 Mile House and Williams Lake.  It was a beautiful little park, nice big campsites and beautiful trees, flush toilets--what more could you ask for?  Well, MOSQUITOS were the first problem-eaten alive just looking at campsites.  Second problem was the CRV had a dead battery again and we were on a slight incline and not perfectly aligned with Maxine.  While we were being bitten, we had to come up with a solution.  I called Good Sam but they were taking forever, a few people who were trying to get up the road and couldn't ,because we were in the middle of it, didn't have any ideas.  Jim found a camper on another loop (not many people here) with a small enough car that he could pull up to the CRV and give us a jump.  It eventually worked (his was a VERY OLD CAR!)  Then Jim had an idea to move the CRV an inch to get the bolts to release.  MIRACLE-it worked.  So, we got Maxine in and kept the CRV going for another 1/2 hour to charge the battery.  Needless to say, it was sandwiches for dinner and sleep asap.

Next day, miraculously, we got off fine and I drove the CRV for a few miles til we could find a spot to hook up to Maxine.  When we did, we found that the pins (bolts?  whatever you call them) were not in the box with the rest of the things that are needed to hook up the CRV to Maxine.  A moment of panic but Jim went back to the campground to see if he could find them on the road-no go.  This has a happy ending though-we went to the next town, Williams Lake and there was an RV store that had something that would work.  Hallelujah!  We even got some other things we needed and off we went for Quesnel, where we decided to spend the night.  A friend from San Carlos, Marjorie Carlson, had suggested an RV resort, right on a lake, with all the amenities.  We found a great site, right on the water and they have a laundry, showers and hookups.  We so needed WIFI and they even have a technical support number to help with problems.  Only problem-the CRV was dead again.  So, we hooked up; I organized Maxine and Jim went into town to see about the CRV.  It needed a new battery-and here we thought that it was something that we were doing wrong with the hookup!!!!  Luckily we have air conditioning, lights, a beautiful view, a pizza from the pizza restaurant here and a few glasses of wine.  We will survive!

Onward to our friends' cabin in Fraser Lake and on up into the North Country.