Category: Canada

The Last Three Days Coming Back Home – Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

We have been gone for a month. The last blog page should have been dated for Saturday but it was posted as Sunday because I didn’t get it written until after midnight. Sunday morning we get up and have breakfast and say good bye to those that haven’t already left for home.

Then after packing up ourselves we leave to go see if we can find the gas cap to Tin Lizzie as well as the cap to the Radio Flyer. In our hurry last night to get gas and get to the boat before it left for our farewell dinner, both of our gas caps ended up coming off on the way. It was a shot in the dark, but we thought we would try anyway. No luck at the gas station where we got gas, but a couple blocks down the road in the gutter we find the cap to Tin Lizzie! It is not hurt. We go another mile or so to where I thought I saw Terri’s fly off and as we are stopped at the signal we find her’s in the middle of the road. It had been run over but it is salvageable. What a stroke of luck!

We are the last ones to load  our car on the trailer and leave, with many thanks to Mike and Lil for letting us leave the van and trailer at their place. Then we are on our way. It ends up being a very easy border crossing. We travel via Steven’s Pass on Hwy. #2 through a forest fire and on to Toppenish just before Yakama and stay at the Yakama Nation RV Park.

Monday we get up and travel via Hwy. # 97, taking the scenic slower route home. We decide to make a stop at Crater Lake and spend the night there.

Vidae Falls

Phantom Ship Island

Tour Day # 21 – Last day of tour with Model A Group – In Langley, Canada

We get up and the guys go to Mike and Lil’s place where the tow vehicles were left to see his garage and also to check Jay’s car. They think it is the U-joint and will change it before heading home tomorrow. The girls decide to go shopping in the cute shops in Fort Langley. When we get back to the motel we get the bad news that Jay’s car needs a new drive line and it won’t be fixed today. He is going to leave it here for Mike to work on and come back for it at a later time.

Tour Day # 20 – Harrison Hot Springs to Langley

We get up at 8:00 and go get into the hot pools-it feels really good. It is overcast today with possible showers. We have breakfast and Jay takes every bodies picture with their car with Lake Harrison in the background.

Tour Day #19 – Kelowna to Harrison Hot Springs via Hell’s Gate on the Fraser River

We start today by getting up at 6:00, so Rick can go load our new prize-a new “old” B block! (hopefully with no cracks). Jay is good enough to go with Rick and they put it on the back of Jay’s car until we get to Langley and then we will put it on the trailer with Lizzie to get on home.

Tour Day # 18 – Touring around Kelowna/Vernon/Lake Okanagan

We start the day by getting up at 6:00 so Rick can go help change Roger’s transmission at Bruce Fosbery’s garage. He has a car lift that he offered to let the guys use, plus a transmission.

Tour Day # 17 – Revelstoke to Kelowna

We wake up to rain, the first weather we have had on this trip, but after breakfast it is clearing and we do a group photo of all the cars together.

We head out of Revelstoke and before we know it we are stopped to help Gyndon with his car again. No towing required this time.

We are on the road again and make it to Three Valley Gap Heritage Ghost Town, Antique Car and Railway Museum. A very interesting ghost town with a lot of authentic original things.

                                                          House made out of barrels

                                                            Antique wedding dresses

                                                              House made out of bottles

                                                          Rick enjoyed the pharmacy

Tour Day # 16 – From Lake Louise via Rogers Pass to Revelstoke

Well, today was a nice day, but I am going to try to make this short. (I am told I am putting too much time into doing this blog!)

We leave Lake Louise this morning and our first stop is too view the Spiral Tunnels for trains-it is where the train circles over itself in gaining elevation when the mountain is too steep to go straight up. We have the same thing at home down the canyon. We luck into a long train coming just as we arrive.

Tour Day # 15 – Lake Louise

We opt to stay at Lake Louise, rather than going to Banff. We get up and watch sunrise over Lake Louise while walking the length of the lake. What a gorgeous sight!

Tour Day # 14 – Jasper to Columbia Ice Fields to Lake Louise

We start out at 8:30, hoping to get a jump start on the day. It is another beautiful fall day.

Our first stop is to Athabasca Falls.

Tour Day # 13 – Jasper, Maligne Lake

We almost over sleep, could the remedy for the two bee stings have anything to do with it? I have no excuse.

We have breakfast and look around town and want to head out early to see the waterfall on the way to the boat tour. But not to happen, we get two blocks out and Terri’s car won’t run again. We tow her back to the hotel, unpack the back of Lizzie and pack in the three girls and are on our way again.

We have a pretty trip up and then take the tour on Maligne Lake, it is surrounded by the Queen Elizabeth Range. We stop on Spirit Island for 15 minutes.

Tour Day # 12 – Prince George to McBride to Jasper

We get up at 5:30, shower, pack and have breakfast at 6:15. Rick calls the welding place at 7:00, but they say they are too busy to help us and refer to another shop. We call and they are not open yet. We check at the hotel desk and it ends up the desk receptionist’s husband is the shop manager at the Ford Agency and she calls him and Rick meets him at the Ford Agency. They weld the trunk rack back together and charge us nothing! They were great. We get on the road by 10:30, only two hours later than the rest of the group. Jay and Pat and Terri, Cammie and Sally wait for us so we aren’t traveling alone.

Tour Day # 11 – Quesnel to Prince George

Well today is our shortest day of driving and suppose to be rather boring. It turned out to be far from boring. We start out in Quesnel and I take some pictures of their painted fire hydrants, all different.

The Chinese Man

The Indian

The Newspaper Boy

Tour Day # 10 – Barkerville

I will start out with a photo of how last evening ended. I thought it was a pretty sunset as a group of us went to dinner at a steak house before retiring for the night.

 This is logging territory with fast moving logging trucks versus slower moving Model A’s! Again the fall colors are showing with yellow aspens.

Today was a day spent in Barkerville-once the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. It was named after Billy Barker from Cambridgeshire, England, one of the first to strike gold at this location in 1861. His claim was the richest and most famous and would eventually yield 37,500 ounces of gold. The history of the town was presented in various settings with actors playing different roles and people of the times. It was very informative and fun to watch.

We went to the presentation about the Cornish Water Wheel first. The actor and actress were very fun and you came away understanding how the water wheel worked and why they needed it to run the mine.

I mail a post card to Mom and Dad from the oldest working post office, everything is hand cancelled.

Tour Day # 9 – 100 Mile House  via Williams Lake to Quesnel

Not much to report today. We get up later at 7:15. Get ready to go and Terri’s car the Little Radio Flyer won’t start. So, How many guys does it take to fix a Model A ? They try a lot of different things and by 10:30 she is running and we are off. (It ended up her distributor points weren’t closing). We don’t get but a couple blocks down the road and Tin Lizzie is just chugging and not running right at all, so we stop. Rick checks her and finds out the coil wire was loose from him trying the coil on Terri’s car. Quick and easy fix and we are on our way again.

Tour Day # 8 – From Whistler to Lillooet to 100 Mile House

We leave Whistler at 8:30, ahead of most of the group. We make our first stop at Nairn Falls, I think we are the only ones of the group that actually hike the half hour to the falls. It is really pretty along the glacial waters in the river through the trees.

We then do the steep climb up the pass and down the canyon over 11-13% grades and Tin Lizzie does not sputter or spit once! The peaks are pretty, a big deep canyon and really pretty lakes.

At the base is the little town of Lillooet. They have huge pieces of jade there.

Next we drive to Hat Creek House, still by ourselves and wonder if we are going the right direction. Once we are out of the canyon at the base it is dry & arid, a big change from what we just drove through. We meet up with the rest of the group at 2:00, just in time for the planned lunch and tour. The ranch and buildings are 150 years old.

This is 150 year old china shipped over from England. To keep it from breaking they shipped it in barrels of molasses!

This is the original wall paper that they hung on sheets of linen so it would move with the wall boards.

                                                           I liked this wash basin set.

Next we were given a tour with demonstrations of how the local tribe of Shuswap people lived back then, including their food, homes and clothing.

Tour Day # 7 in Whistler/Blackcomb, staying at the Pan Pacific Whistler

We get up and have breakfast. Jay and Terri are both not feeling well so Rick and I end up taking their reservations for the zip line! We neither one have ever done it and Rick has a fear of heights, but no time like the present to start checking things off our bucket list. We end up having a great time.

Rick on our trial run

Am I really doing this?

All of the zips are over the Fitzsimmons Creek way below us

Rick on the suspension bridge

Rick is off and away!

I always seem to come in for a landing backwards We come back and have lunch and then head out on the Peak 2 Peak gondola. It is the world’s longest unsupported span for a lift of this kind in the world as well as the highest lift. We take the glass bottom gondola when we get to the top. The view from up there is beautiful.

Tour Day # 6 From Sechelt, on the ferry from Langdale to Horseshoe Bay, & onto Whistler

Rick gets up early and tightens the head on Tin Lizzie and changes the headlight bulb, so hopefully that will solve the fuse problem.

 We have breakfast and are on our way to take our last ferry ride from Langdale to Horseshoe Bay. It takes about 40 minutes and is a pretty ride.

When we get off the ferry I want to take the mine tour so we head to Britannia Beach. It was the biggest copper mine in all the British Empire. We don our helmets and go in the mine.

I couldn’t let Carrie out do me by sitting in the wheel well of one of the monster mine trucks!

Then we go up the Sea to Sky highway. Very pretty with all the rivers, lakes, mountain peaks and glaciers. It was hazy today though. I guess we are spoiled with Lake Tahoe’s clear blue skies and lake.

 We stop in Squamish and eat at a place the locals recommended right on the Squamish River, called the Watershed Grill. Here we run into a local with a Model A.

Then it is on up the highway, x 2 over the summit to Whistler, because we turned around to see if the Thieles were O.K, they had a broke wire to their fuel pump. We end up going all the way back to Squamish and getting gas. This time around we stop at Brandy Wine Falls.

We end the day by checking into the Pan Pacific at Whistler Village, very nice. It is like around Squaw Valley or Heavenly. We have to remember what a beautiful area we live in.

Tour Day #5 – Port Alberni to Sechelt

This is an early day-up at 5:30. Did I say we are on vacation? This is getting up time for work not vacation! We have breakfast at 6:00 and we leave at 6:50, because we have to make the first ferry by 9:30. We blow a fuse and have no power, Rick changes it and we are on our way and make it to the ferry dock at 9:25. In time! Only to have the fuse blow again as we get on the ferry. Rick changes it again and discovers it is something to do with the headlights, so we will just leave them off for now.

We stop and pick up picnic things for lunch and eat at Willingdon Beach at the park.

Most of us end up stopping at this overlook. It is a pretty drive with the bay to our right side.

We all end up in Sechelt. And have this scene at the end of the day looking out of our room.

Tour Day #4 in Port Alberni, BC

It is another sunny beautiful day. Up and had a buffet breakfast at 0730. We leave at 1020 to go to the train station. We take the Alberni Pacific Railway on a 100 year old steam engine for 30 minutes up to the McLean Mill.

The mill is a restored steam driven sawmill and is still in operation. It was very interesting and reminded me of when Dad took me through the Meadow Valley Mill when it was still operating.

                                          McLean Mill with the finished lumber to the left

                                          The mill pond

                                          Setting the log before going into the saw

                                          The saw blades

The finished timber

We get back on the train and go to C & W Estate Winery and get off to do wine tasting. Then it is back to the hotel for dinner and to bed. It will be an early morning tomorrow getting up at 5:00.

Tour Day #3 Victoria to Port Alberni

We get up at 6:15 and get ready. Breakfast at the  “Vista 18” again. Pack and on the road at 9:30, we pair up with Jay & Pat and Terri, Sally, and Cammie in the “Little Radio Flyer”. The Millers from Hawaii join us. We get gas at $1.21/liter.

Next stop is in Duncan where we stop and look around at all the totem poles and do some shopping.

We leave the group and go onto Nanaimo to catch up with Bruce and a fishing buddy Guy to have lunch and let Bruce and Rick catch up on old times. Bruce leads us out of town and we are on our way to Port Alberni. We decide to make a stop at the Big Tree Grove. I am more impressed with all the big maple trees and all the moss and ferns.

When we get back from the walk there are all these Model A’s in the parking lot. We thought we were the usual last ones to be coming in. It ended up that the Knudson’s A400 is putting out steam in great big clouds. Blown head gasket? Ends up Rick’s putting in the tow bar saves the day. He undoes it from under Tin Lizzie and we tow them up the hill and down into Port Alberni!

We made it in safely. Had dinner at Chance’s Rimrock Gaming Center. They presented Rick with a brake adjusting tool for being the “Hero” of the day. So a good end to another day of adventure with new and old friends.