Rowkin Rovings Blog

Calgary to Vancouver – 17-18^th November 2023

As we are now going to stay in Canada whilst we still have Toque around, we have been scratching our heads as to how to cope with the long and dark winters. So, we have decided to try the experience of being a snow bird and follow the huge number of grey nomads who head south. Our North American friends will be very au fait with the term “Snowbirders” but for our Antipodean friends and family an explanation is in order. A Snowbird is a rather smart feathered species that heads down to the warm climes of the Caribbean or South American land mass during the northern winter months. Snowbirders is the term used for the human form who are just copy cats.

So, we secured ourselves a “Park Model” in a trailer park for the month of December in Mesa Arizona. Basically, we are going to be white trailer trash and wear MAGGA hats for 31 days to see if we like the experience. We are going to a gated kind of community which is really a summer camp for retirees. We will explain further about this unique set up once we get there but we are going to start off with our trip from Calgary to Mesa.

We made the decision to take the rather long route down there as we wanted to drive down the west coast road from Vancouver to just north of Los Angeles then take and sharp left and drive 8 hours to Phoenix. We are going to take approximately 12 days and hit as many sights as we can along the way.

 So our first task was to get our 13 year old Subaru Outback up to speed with snow tyres and a thorough mechanical inspection done – she did pass her MOT but not without some minor surgical procedures needing to be carried out. As you can see by her speedo, she is getting up there and we are about to add possibly another 10,000 to 13,000 kilometers on her clock.

She was filled to the gunnels with all necessary paraphernalia for a two week road trip and other comfort necessities of living for a month in Arizona.

Next, it was load Toque up and her stuff which took up the entire back seat of the car.

Our plan was to head off at 9.00am from Calgary and we missed that goal post by 30 minutes – oh well, as they say, you can move those goal posts. We have had an amazingly warm autumn and to have had only our second dumping of snow the night before we left indicates how late the winter was arriving.

Our trip from Calgary to Vancouver which takes us right through the middle of the Canadian Rockies will take us two days and almost 1,000 kilometers. You can do this in one day during the summer months but with such short days in winter it is very advisable to split it into two days. Somehow, we have just fluked the weather. Our first day saw us experience sunshine and blue skies from Calgary to Kamloops and dry roads making it a lot less hazardous.

We dropped in at Lake Louise (or as the Quebecers would say Lac Louise) to see if the lake had frozen but as the start to winter has been so mild, that has not yet happened. These two photos show you just how magnificent this spot is. We were very surprised to find how many tourists were down at the lake front for this time of the year. We were expecting to have it to ourselves.

The canoe shed wasn’t doing a great trade whilst we were there. It was back in the car to continue our trip over the mountain passes of Kicking Horse and Rogers Pass plus going through the snow sheds to avoid avalanches. Luckily the army weren’t out in force with their howitzers blasting the snow to destabilise the avalanche build ups which can cause major delays on Highway 1. We travelled 650 kilometers in total today which took us nearly nine hours. Have holed up in a very mediocre hotel for the evening.

18^th November.

Back on the road at 9.00am to another day of sunshine. Our progress from this point was very quick as it was a twinned highway all the way into Vancouver. The sky remained blue until we got 100k out of Vancouver and then it became grey which is pretty typical of a northern west coast city.

Prior to arriving at our friends Sue and Darrell’s home in North Vancouver it was imperative to wash the car and she had turned from British Racing Green to vomit grey – certainly not a good look. It is bad enough that we will be driving around BC with Alberta number plates but for her to look so grubby was just adding insult to injury.

We drove across the Three Bridges Crossing which goes over the might river in close proximity to the city. We arrived at Sue and Darrell’s just before 3.00pm and according to the speedo, we had done 1014kilometers, so we are one fifth of the way there.

Sue is our good friend Patti’s sister who lives in Calgary. Her other sister Wendy was also coming over tonight to have dinner with us and have a catchup as have not seen her since July when we stayed with her prior to heading off on our Alaskan Cruise.  Unbeknown to us but known to all the sisters, Patti had flown out from Calgary to Vancouver the day before and very nonchalantly walked into the house giving us a wonderful surprise. It was a very animated evening.