Barry and Dana on the Road, and more......: Take the road least traveled for surprises.....

July 5th. For 20 days we have travelled roads least, or is it less, traveled. We were travelling the back roads long before it was classified as a "style" of travel. Rick Steves coined the phrase "through the backdoor" and voila, this style of travel has become all the rage. Call it what you want but the reason we prefer this style of travel is that you frequently get to see some authentic places, meet the nicest people and have some great, and not so great food experiences. Today we had one of the great ones. But I digress.....

Dana and I decided to sleep in this morning so when the alarm was set last night it was moved ahead to 6:30 a.m. Lights out and lights on, pack, eat and we were on the road from Red Deer to our next destination, Castlegar, B.C. Say what? We have put in many long days on the road over the last 20 days but those were just hours not miles/kilometers. Today we decided to go long. The reason being is that we are hoping for one more life bird to close out our latest adventure. The target bird is the Lewis's Woodpecker. We have on good authority that there are several in Grand Forks, B.C. Getting to Castlegar will mean a short drive tomorrow morning to Grand Forks to, hopefully, find our bird.

We broke our rules today and opted for the shortest route between Red Deer and Castlegar. We drove straight down Hwy 2 from Red Deer to Calgary and connected to the Trans Canada westbound via the 210/1A bypass. As soon as we pointed south on the #2 we knew we were "bushed". The traffic was heavy all the way to Calgary. Driving was uncomfortable. When we hit the #1 westbound we found out what "heavy traffic" really was. Westbound on the Trans Canada was a grind. There was so much traffic I wondered to myself if there was an evacuation order in Calgary. Or, heaven forbid, Calgarians were moving en mass to British Columbia. Turns out neither was true, thankfully, and everyone was just heading to the mountains for holidays.

We first started seeing the mountains about halfway to Calgary on the #2. The further west we got the bigger they became until before we knew it we were surrounded by mountains, trees and rivers. Ahhhh.....it felt good to be home. Not that we did not love the flat land. There is something magical about standing still, doing a 360 and being able to see forever in every direction. The sky just seems so much bigger in flat land country.

After a few hours in the mountains we were ejected into the Columbia valley. We stopped for ice-cream in Invermere and thought about family and friends who once lived in the valley. From there we were southbound to Hwy 3 for our trip west. We went through Creston where the temperature was 32C. It was a quick trip "over the hump" to Salmo where we made a quick decision to travel to Trail rather than Castlegar. Recalling our collective memory of Trail we were understandably hesitant. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and off we went to Trail.

We hast visited Trail back in the 1970's. If any of you were there during that time you will know that when you travel westbound from Fruitvale down the hill into Trail, the first thing you noticed was the barren landscape. It seemed nothing grew in the Trail valley, not grass, shrubs or trees. Time for a reality check. Today the valley is green. Not just green, but green - green. There are trees, shrubs and grass. We were shocked. We got into Trail checked into a very nice hotel and walked into the downtown area in search of the one and only "Colander Ristorante". Like so many towns and small cities, Trail has fallen victim to Walmart, which is perched like a praying (preying?) mantis on the outskirts of the city. None the less, the downtown is clean and tidy. There are hanging baskets hanging from posts throughout the downtown. You would not have seen any of these back in the 60's or 70's. I should mention that Trail's main employer is Teck-Cominco's lead smelter. It was a major polluter until it was forced to clean itself up. Since that action the environment has recovered.

So, lots has changed in Trail. Fortunately one thing that has not changed is the "Colander Ristorante". We last ate there nearly 40 years ago. They have made subtle changes to both decor and food but the ambiance and experience is the same. While we knew that we would be taking food away with us we both ordered the Colander Special. This is a shared garden salad to start, shared platter of spaghetti, 2 golf ball size meat balls each, 2 pieces of chicken each and a generous portion of grilled baby potatoes. We washed it down with some house red wine which I think is a requirement. What a delightful dinner. One of those good surprises.

So, we are in one of the nicest hotels that we have stayed in on our adventure; the city is clean; the people are friendly and the food was not only great but the food experience will be a lasting memory. We are in Trail, B.C. If we had not made that last minute decision to come to Trail we would have missed this experience. That's what traveling the roads least, or less traveled is all about. Often you get a memorable experience. Sometime it is a great experience and a great memory.

Tomorrow we search for Lewis's Woodpeckers. Wish us luck. Here are a couple of pics from the day.