Feb 22, 2021
A much longer than anticipated day!
Once we got our personal things into the Jeep it was rather full with just enough room for two munchkins. The drive was 812 km and was supposed to take just over 9 hours. We left at 6:30AM and arrived at 7:00PM our time. 12.5 hours on the road. We stopped three times for fuel and bathroom breaks. Breakfast was a cheese and egger from A & W at 9:00AM in Revelstoke. The next food we had was pizza in Lethbridge at 9PM. We were beyond exhausted. We spent hours making our final ‘lets go’ decision based on weather reports, storm info, etc. Today Monday was to be a bit bad but worse weather ( snow ) was incoming on later Wednesday evening. We will be home Wednesday afternoon so this really was our window to get the twins picked up or this may have to wait two or three weeks. Over all the weather and the roads were not as bad as we thought but other events created the long day.
Lovely to see the sunrise over Kalamalka Lake as we neared Vernon.
About an hour later we came across an accident. It took time for the police and ambulance to arrive. Had we been five minutes earlier we might have missed it.
The truck on the left lost his canopy but the car pulling the ( perhaps too heavy ) trailer faired much worse.
Oops! The ambulance did transport at least one person. This was our first delay of the day, just over thirty minutes.
We were next stopped thirty minutes later for snow removal. They did let the ambulance through. We were moving about twenty minutes later.
Finally we got to Revelstoke for my much needed bathroom break. We filled the Jeep @ 139.9 per liter but did get 8 cents off per liter. Fuel at home is currently 134.9. This is where we picked up breakfast which was tasty but didn’t keep us full for the next twelve hours. I made sure that Colin did have a protein bar and we shared a few slices of banana bread as it was getting dark out and the road seemed to be never ending. The other two fills we did were at 131.9 and 113.9. Again we got 8 cents off per liter.
Some neat things to see.
It was foggy, slushy and wet with the occasional patch of black ice. And the pooling water was quite something. Water was spraying several feet up above the car. A first for us.
However we only drove for 45 minutes when we were stopped. We were flagged down and were told that we had to stop at this point as they were doing avalanche control. So the options were to turn around and drive back to Revelstoke ( 45 minutes ) or stay put for two ( yes” 2 “) hours. So we stayed. We talked, we read a bit but did not go for a walk on the wet slushy mess of a road. It was either snowing or raining during this extended stop. When we started driving again we were already close to three hours behind.
Around the corner and yet again about a mile further, we saw how they were doing avalanche control, shooting shells up into the mountain. Serious stuff. We think they were doing this because a much warmer system was coming in softening the snow. There never was a winter storm as had been mentioned in the news.
However the roads really were a mess.
More ice sculptures.
Some blue sky around Banf but then it got messy again.
At times we saw snow banks that were much higher than the Jeep and many signs were covered in snow. One of the worst things was the gravel on the roads. As cars passed on the left they sent grit flying everywhere. We have a few new chips in the window. Wonder how the front of the car made out. Alberta roads and Alberta drivers! May be time for a new front end paint job? Each time the gravel hit we thought that the windshield would crack. Not yet 😯 The Jeep has never been so dirty. Even the door handles are filthy.
Finally we have arrived in Lethbridge, Alberta for the night. It is late, we are tired but ordered pizza to fill the gaps. Tomorrow is a huge day for us so with no further adieu, goodnight.
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That has been quite the trek. Thanks for posting the names of the cities. I tracked your route, but not sure of your destination.
Whoot whoot – can hardly wait to meet the girlies! I am sure you are having a wonderful day. You have so much love to give them. They are about to start living their best lives!!!
Boy that drive looked stressful.
Times like that you miss travelling in an RV.
So glad you made it okay, I was worried for you. You did get some great pictures though 🙂 I’ll bet today was a pretty exciting day. Safe travels home.