Mileage today: 318 miles Total Mileage: 5,564 miles

You’ll have to bear with me for a few days. Last night my laptop charger burst into flame and it’s going to take me a few days to get a new one. Until then, it’s the phone…. And the blogging facilities are a bit more limited.. So no map… I’ll add one later but it was Rt. 1, and Rt. 99.

Anyway, today’s journey was very long: 8 hours including various breaks, but very beautiful. Quite stunning in fact. Especially the initial sector and from Kamiloops onward. In particular Rt. 99 was one of the most spectacular roads we have ever driven on. The weather was perfect for us too. Blue clear skies and temperatures between 65 and 75 all day.

The route started with familiar thickly forested hills interspersed with lakes and rivers. Then we went through country that was straight out of a cowboy film, all craggy hills covered in sage bushes, then we entered some of the deepest River canyons we have seen thus far, Hells Canyon excepted. It was all quite unexpected. I hadn’t seen mention of how amazing the route was anywhere.

After Pavilion we saw the unmistakable red smoke of wildfire in the hills ahead and sure enough we could soon see the trees burning very close to the road. I think we were probably lucky to get through. I would think it was near to being closed. No sign of firefighters as yet but we saw a fire helicopter overhead so the operation was no doubt underway.

Fabulous snowcaps ahead as we approached Whistler. There are over 200 ski runs here and a number of lifts in the season. We had hoped to ride the Peak to Peak lift but it is only open at weekends this time of year. There’s plenty to do here though do no worries.

Checked into the Marriott Delta Suites where we are staying on points. We’ve had as many nights on points as possible this trip. They have very nicely upgraded us from a queen studio to a king one bedroom suite with full kitchen and even a washer and dryer. Fantastic!!!

Tomorrow Stuart and Fi are driving up from Vancouver and we are excited to spend the day with them. The forecast is not good. Rain and a bit cold before clearing back up on Saturday. Well…. They do say there’s no bad weather only bad clothes so maybe my rain mac is coming out of the case.