On monday we picked up our RV for the trip around the Rocky Mountains. The rental company is actually located in Langdale, a ferry ride away from Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver. They paid for a taxi to pick us up from the hotel and they also paid for the ferry. Upon arrival on the other side they greeted us and were there with our RV ready to go. After the usual intro to the RV we then turned around and got in line for the next ferry back to North Vancouver, as that's the only way back.
The ride back is always free, and the ferry took about 35 mins to bring us back to the other side. Our destination for the day was a town called Hope, only about 3 hours away. After being in the RV for a day we found a few things that either don't quite work the way they should or could be better, but I guess that's to be expected when the RV isn't brand new. This one I reckon is 2-3 years old, it has over 100000km on the clock. I think the biggest difference is that this one does not have a generator on board. That means that without a power hookup, the powerpoints inside don't work. Only the lights will stay on. For us technophiles that means no gadgets, no blog updates, no internet.
During our stay in Salmon Arms, which was our second stop following Hope, we actually had a power outage at the campground following some rain. So it was a game of cards and using the laptops until the batteries went out. Thankfully after a couple of hours the power came back, just as we prepared to go to bed early :)
That particular campground had the best bathroom/showers I have seen so far in any US or Canadian campground. Super clean, everything looks new, the showers are big and the toilets are roomy and actually flush properly. They even provided us with an ethernet cable because we were located right between two wireless access points so the reception was very spotty. The cable just hooked up from the outside point, through our window to my laptop, which I then set up as a wireless hotspot so Simone could connect.
Today we drove on to a small town called Golden, the campground I picked is actually located about 20 mins outside Golden. On our way we stopped at the Northern Lights Wolf Center (note: website is VERY average), we saw the sign on the side of the road and thought it might be interesting to check out. It was $12 per person to get in. They have 9 wolves there and a lot of displays with information about wolves in general and also the local issues they face. They also have 30 min talks throughout the day for the visitors that trickle in.
The information presented was actually quite good and the displays offered suggested solutions to the problems as well, instead of just listing the problems and pointing the finger. The people working there are clearly very passionate about the subject, however they can come across as being your stereotypical hippie/lefty with some of the comments we heard. I believe that with some training input in terms of how to deal with the public during the presentations, they can get their point across much better. Simone has more on the subject on her blog. It certainly opens your eyes in terms of what the wolf situation is like in Canada and it aint the rosy picture you might have in your head from tourism commercials etc. Canada it seems has a long way to go in terms of wildlife management and conservation.
Tomorrow we drive on to Jasper, where we will hang around for a few days to explore.
Photo of our lunch for today at Legendz Diner in Golden, which was very tasty. This was taken with my phone btw, came out really nice! I had a poutine with a mushroom/bacon/cheese burger and a caesar salad. The gravy on the poutine was yummy. Unfortunately they didn't use proper cheese curds, but rather a mixture of two cheeses. Was still tasty though and even Simone had some (she didn't like the first poutine I got).
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