Beaut Aye

"The tomato will have to go." He says.
"Oh, really? I can eat it now." I offer as a compromise.
"It is too late for that." The uniformed man regretfully advises.
The tomato must go.

   Our ferry ride across the Kokanee, into Balfour was delightful. Partly, as we were on the move again, also, to fully appreciate the size of this lake.
   A short drive North, we drop into the Ainsworth Hot Springs. A Sunday afternoon looked a little too busy for us, a quick conversation with a host, we decide Monday morning would be better. A brief scour of some camping spots, we nestle in a mile further North to a pleasant park overlooking the lake. Some chores and dinner, we enjoy our evening. In the morning, preparing porridge for breakfast, Jamie spotted him first and gave a brief yell. Another black bear. This one a lot closer, enough to make us both a little nervous as he didn't seem to spot us, or mind us. Just walked through, as though we were near a trail of his and he had other business to attend to. We say 'he' as we chose the name, Bertie. He was smaller than Black Betty. We packed up camp shortly after that and decided to calm our nerves in the hot springs.

    Ainsworth Hot Springs was geothermally relaxing. A unique natural cave half flled with water that has been moulded over the years, now a warm 45 degrees celsius, was enough to keep you in there for no more than 10 minutes, before you rested in the outside pools, of 35 celsius. Plenty of minerals, but minimal odour. We absolutely adored our two hours, turning into giant human prunes and getting a deep cleanse we hadn't had for a very long time.
   A short drive South, we lunched at a beach near the Kokanee Creek Provincial Park. Still marvelling at the beauty and scale of this lake.
   A moment in Nelson, then a thought of making it back into USA by the evening, but agreeing that Canada definitely deserved one more night. We put down pegs along the No.3 Freeway near Stagleap Provincial Park. We were thankful to find a small cut away, maintained by a snow mobile member group. Built a fire and gave our thanks to Canada, a breathtaking visual splendor, Aye.

   The following day, we crossed the border at Porthill. We hadn't seen a car on the road before us, nor behind. Seemed a nice quiet place to cross a border. Handing over our passports, the Officer greets us, "So, you're New Zealanders Aye."
"Um... no, we're Australians." Ian replies, a little perplexed.
"Yeah I know," he says, "I have your passports." He holds them up to confirm they are indeed in his hands.
"Sorry, sometimes I can't tell if you are being serious or not." Ian offers.
We exchange a few formalities, then the Officer says, "You have been randomly selected for a vehicle inspection. Please park over there and come inside."
We park the vehicle, look back into the van and make sure our hard drugs are hidden securely. Then walk into the Border Office. Inside, we find 9 Border Patrol Officers relaxing around their desks, some sitting on the edge, others behind, and a couple standing. All chatting about the weekend, some talking about the coffee. We make our way to the front desk, we fill out a customs declaration form and we are asked what fruits and vegetables we have. We explain we have one banana, two apples, some grapes, a lettuce and a tomato.
"No citrus?" The Officer asks us.
"No citrus." We reply.
"But a tomato, aye?" He enquires.
Turns out, everything is fine, except the tomato. He explains, that when they inspect the vehicle, they will remove the tomato.
   While we sit inside, two officers inspect our vehicle, we listen to the conversation of the other seven officers, they're now talking about pistols.
   The two inspecting our vehicle return, call us to the counter and say, "We didn't find the tomato. So if you are to find it, we recommend disposing of it." We promise to do that, with our fingers crossed.
   We thanked them for their time, we wished them all well, it must be a busy border crossing at Porthill on other days. 

   Back on the road, and having returned to the US, we said 'Hello' to Idaho, if only for a few miles of its skinny 'pan handle'. Searching for a nice quiet spot to stretch the legs, we pulled into a camp site near Troy. Unfortunately, we drove down a small loose gravel road, realising there were some road construction vehicles at the end, attempted to complete a U-turn, and got bogged. Well, technically, not bogged. But stuck. Ian was the culprit, he let the front wheels drop slightly off the edge of the gravel and was surprised to find the loose dirt on the edge of the road, considerably soft. Enough that the rear of the van lifted ever so slightly to lose its grip. Being rear wheel drive, when he stuck it in reverse, the wheels just spun. Jamie laughed, Ian was a little embarassed. Another vehicle had pulled up and we asked the kind man to assist with a push. Jamie took control and got in the drivers seat, Ian and our volunteer on the front, gave a push, Big Bird rolled back and caught onto the newly laid gravel and returned to the road. A brief reminder of the predicament you can easily find yourself in. Fortunately, we had the road construction crew staring at us the entire time with their grading and bobcat vehicles only 50metres away. They were amused, and probably a little annoyed we put a small skid mark in their new road.
   That evening we camped near Thompson Falls, another gorgeous creek and we were continually amazed at the red evening sky. We had the campsite all to ourselves, a reminder that school holidays had well and truly gone.
   The next day we covered some extra miles, cruising on the I-90 towards Butte, 80 miles an hour gets the van moving. As the locals pronounce it, 'Beaut', we have always preferred the Australian version, 'Butt'. It is an old mining town that has been through the ups and downs. We checked out the Quarry, 'Berkeley Pit' alongside the town and essentially the heart of what had created the town. A bit like the Super Pit at Kalgoorlie, same type of town, with plenty of pubs and historic brothels about. We dropped into the Butte Brewing Company, it was making a small revival after being out of business for the last decade. We enjoyed their Ales, so much so that we took home a 'Grunt'. A takeaway vessel, slightly smaller than its more popular brother, the Growler. We also took the opportunity to catch up on some Wifi and see how family are doing back home.
   With a swing past Walmart, we gave our farewell and headed towards Yellowstone National Park. We pulled up just 100 miles on the North West side at a town called McAllister. A delightful lake looking towards the West range of Yellowstone. Enjoying the view, we will plan our path on Yellowstone tomorrow and hopefully for the next 3 to 4 days.
  
   So, we now say Thankyou to Montana, and tomorrow, into Wyoming! The United States sure has some small states!

Osprey Delay

"We only have the little one going, Osprey, the bigger Balfour is in the shop for its maintenance time. Osprey takes 26 cars which is usually two lanes. But nowadays we get these big campers. You will definitely miss the 2pm, my bet, you will be on the 3:40pm." The Ferry Traffic Controller advises. He continues his strut between lanes of parked vehicles, ushering in new ones and calling out miss-behaving queue jumpers.

   It is 1pm, we have chosen the scenic route along the 3a, North from Creston, on the East shoreline of Kootenay Lake. Making our way up to Kootenay Bay, where we now wait for the 'smaller' ferry to finish a couple more passes of the lake between here and Balfour. Two and a half hours wait for a free ferry ride across the lake might seem bothersome for others. We see it as a sign, to slow things down even more. We open our doors, gather some nibbles, lay on our couch and write/draw while overlooking a beach, forest and lake. Maybe we should offer our spot to other more eager passengers.

    Let's take you back to where we last left off. Camped at Two Jack Lake near Banff, our plan was to prepare dinner, then head into town later that evening to get some updates on the game. Fortunately, we opted to ignore the game being payed in Australia, instead, enjoying a cosy van as the temperature dropped and deciding to stay the night at the campsite.
   As has probably happened to many of you before, falling asleep, then waking up, in what appears to be an entirely new setting, is a somewhat surreal. Knowing the temperature was expected to be -4 that night, we were somewhat surprised at how warm we were. It wasn't until we pulled the curtains back that a glaring white light on the windows confused us. This wasn't ice, this was snow! What turned out to be a heavy snow fall overnight, kept Big Bird rugged up all night.
   We carefully opened the doors and were spellbound at the white carpet across the ground and cake like icing sprinkled on all the trees. Through sheer excitement, we were somewhat oblivious of the cold. Jamie did an amazing job shovelling snow from Big Bird as though Big Bird herself was stretching and ruffling her feathers ready to fly.
   Taking our time to enjoy the scene, we waited for several other vehicles to pull out on the snow covered roads to clear us a path. The drive back into Banff simply exquisite at the stark contrast from the day earlier. Also being delighted at the deer stepping through the snow, searching for grass underneath.

   Now making our way into Banff, a slow Saturday morning, we were looking for a place to park and explore the town. As it happens, parking spaces were limited, we were in no rush and ambling about the streets when on the main stretch, we pulled up at some lights. Before we knew it, some barricades were pulled across and a marshall wearing hi visibility clothing calls out to all of us, "At least 30 minutes folks."
   We had stumbled upon a town centre fun run. We looked at each other, then at some other vehicles, people were exiting and walking off. We had just uncovered the best parking spot in town. So we switched off and proceeded to walk up and down the main street enjoying ourselves. We had enough time to pull into a coffee shop and enjoy a waffle together. Runners came down the main street so we wished them well and thanked them for their timing.
   Shortly after, a time well spent, we return to Big Bird just as they begin removing the barricades and off we go. We continue to explore the town, however, come upon the race in a few more palces, which slowly becomes less enjoyable. So we decide to opt out and wish Banff farewell. We head out of town, towards Kootenay National Park.

   We say our farewell to Jasper and Banff National Parks, they were simply stunning. The weather retreats from snow back into rain as we drive through Kootenay National Park. We ended up choosing our National Parks Pass to accuracy, 5 nights was perfect. We were now in search of some slightly warmer weather, despite Banff forecasting back into 16 degrees celsius later this week!
   A brief stop in Radium Hot Springs Info Centre and we are recommended the Ainsworth Hot Springs, 4 hours drive, but along a scenic route. We say yes to that, and pick a camping spot 2 hours away near Yahk. We ended up finding a lovely hideaway slightly North of a small town called Kitchener. Provincial camping options are far greater than the National Parks, particularly the free variety that we are seeking.

   We enjoy our evening and make it slow morning. This may be another prompt reminder that we are putting in some impressive sleeping hours while in holiday mode. This night we ended up falling asleep at 8pm and rising somewhere after 9am. One can only expect our beauty looks are through the roof.
   Our Sunday morning drive takes us back to the start of this blog, along the scenic 3a North of Creston. We make one stop at a historic glass house, constructed by a Funeral Director as a retirement home in the 1950s. He used small glass jars that used to hold embalming fluid. Jamie found it to be a gorgeous little home, I was somewhat put off by where each of these glass jars had once been. Back in the 40s and 50s, on a table, beside a corpse, with a tube connecting them, slowly sucking, 'schluuurrpp... pump...pump.... schlluurrrrpp.'
   Well, that's how I imagined it anyway. Historic, nonetheless.

   Continuing on, we now find ourselves at the ferry dock, waiting. It is 3:22pm, we are now the 1st lane ready to board, when Osprey arrives. I look behind, through our window, our Traffic Controller is filling his 5th row after us, that must be for the 7pm or 8:40pm timeslot. Crikey, I'm not sure I could wait that long!