A Police Escort in Kelowna

The drive from Eastern Washington across the border and up to Kelowna was probably the easiest part of the drive so far. It was fairly flat and basically followed the river with scenic views. The border patrol were the nicest I have ever experienced. They just asked a couple questions and then told me to have a nice vacation, which for the record is not my typical experience. I was thrilled. As I approached downtown Kelowna I realized that I had simply put “Kelowna” into google maps and not my cousins address, and that I was literally headed to downtown. You don’t want to head to the downtown area of a city while towing an airstream, as the streets will be crowded, narrow and hard to maneuver. Plus it was rush hour. Well, I lucked out, I saw an area of the current block where nobody was parked. There were just people hanging out along the street. I pulled over to figure out my next move. How would I find my way to my cousins’ home with no internet or phone service?

So one of the guys on the curb says to me from outside “nice trailer!” (You’re going to have to imagine the tone…. um… yah… I probably shouldn’t be parked by this group of folks hanging out.) Well, I figured it can’t be that bad. I mean this is a common scene in LA. All of a sudden this guy rolls up next to me in his car and starts to ask me if I’m lost, then changes his tune to “you must be lost.” He tells me I picked the worst neighborhood to pull over in. (I don’t think he knew I’m from the LA area and have seen a lot more than what Kelowna has to offer. ) He asks if he can help me in a tone, that makes me realize he is an under cover cop. I explain what I was trying to do and he simply says.. follow me. Apparently I was way over on the wrong side of town because he took me completely across town. I got to drive in all of the commuter lanes that normally I wouldn’t be able to drive in. He drove me right up to the house. Talk about service.

I spent a couple lovely days at my cousins with her and her boyfriend who has quite the green thumb and a lovely place. We also got to hike about a bit in Kelowna where there were lovely parks around the lakes. Dudley even got to go for a quick swim in an attempt to chase down some ducks, or maybe they were geese. If you have never been to Kelowna I highly recommend you check it out. It really is a beautiful place.

Now that the Canadian Rocky Mountains were the next part of my trip you’d think I would really be freaking out, especially since rain, snow and construction were in the forecast. I did feel a bit responsible knowing I had another life to bring safely through the mountains. Apparently the last rock slide was cleaned up and the highway was open but they had built the Kickinghorse Bridge about one hundred feet above the old road. Somehow that did not make me feel better, yet, I was not freaked out. I had a calm sense of peace about this segment of the trip. I realized, what ever was going to happen would be what happened and there was no need to worry about it ahead of time. I did text a whole bunch of friends asking for prayers for our safe travels.

The trip was beautiful, and even though there was rain and snow and an occasional mud puddle that rendered our windshield view blind, along with construction in places, all was well. I stayed in the moment and enjoyed the ride. Because of the rain alternative speeds were posted…. NICE! and contrary to what the internet says there were plenty of nice safe pullouts along the way.

One sad note that left us both a little rattled was that just after we made it through the mountains, we learned someone behind us had a fatal accident in Revelstoke, closing the highway. A sad day for them and their family. For me, I felt immense gratitude that we were delivered safely.