Relatives & Road Trips

Chapter Two - Vancouver to Revelstoke


On Tuesday 21st we arose early (I breakfasted before 6am) and headed to the airport to pick up our transportation for the next 5 days. We must have wronged them somehow, because the folks down at Alamo had decided we were in some way deserving of a PT Cruiser. We named him Phelps- it seemed fitting. After a bit of introduction -and Gaby having to enquire as to what Phelps prefers to drink, petrol or diesel- we were on the road to Chilliwack.
Despite my arguments that there's nothing good in Chilliwack, the comedy value of the name won and we stopped off at The Minter Gardens, where Ritchie paid nigh on $50 to drag us gals round some distinctly average gardens. Considering we had just been to the Sun Yet Sen Classical Chinese Gardens, I left unimpressed.
Back on the road and the road in this case was the Coquihalla Highway which, as well as being fun to say, had some sort of Shakespeare theme going on - Othello, Shylock and Lear appearing on road signs along the way. This took us to Merritt which was the designated lunch stop for day one. Please don't go to Merritt; it is a nasty little redneck town covered in gaudy spray-painted portraits of country music stars in a piss-poor attempt to lend it's title as "Country Music Capital of Canada" some credibility. We ate our sandwiches in a McDonalds parking lot then got on our way.
A theme was emerging as we neared Kamloops which was susposed to be another stop off point, but it was pretty much just a dull mixture of the industrial and the retail. We just drove through and on to Salmon Arm, which I had been told was nice. Apart from a slightly scenic pier and beach, Salmon Arm conformed to the day's disappointing tone.
On to Revelstoke, which wasn't disappointing- hurrah! It is a quaint little town that gets most of it's business from the ski hill during the winter season and (I'm assuming) people like us in the summer months. It is cradled between some mountains which, coupled with the old Western town-style houses makes it a pretty little place. Our accommodation was Poppi's Boutique Hostel, which we found easily, unlocked and empty with a note saying she'd be back soon or we could call her cell (from her house phone). We figured we could go explore the town and get some food for dinner then head back, which we did and caught her just as she was on her way out for dinner. It turned out we were the only guests that night and we had the run of the place. It was a 3 floor detatched building with the top floor reserved for Poppi. All the rooms slept 2 and were very clean, light and airy, with blown up photos of cultural scenery on the walls, for example there was a Taj Mahal room, a rainforest room and mine was a Greek street scene. All in all it was a great place to stay and I'd definitely recommend it. I thoroughly enjoyed a night in a proper bed with a feather duvet.
In the morning we had some breakfast and then went for another walk round Revelstoke with the intention of going to the museum. The museum didn't look worth the admission so we didn't bother and got some tea in another Secret Garden tea shop (of no relation to the Secret Garden Tea Co. I went to for my birthday) instead. Then we were on our way once more.

A sight I wouldn't wish on anyone

I wouldn't be too thrilled to see this again either

Some Canadian highway scenery

Merritt

The Coquihalla Highway

Roger's Pass

Roger's Pass again

Salmon Arm's greatest asset

Poppi's Boutique Hostel

My room in Poppi's

And that concludes Chapter Two. Again it has become time for me to feed so you can find out about the Revelstoke to Radium adventure when I think you're ready.