Val here.
There are highlights as we've travelled across Canada. The scenery is spectacular. Nothing is comparable with north of Lake Superior in September. The sun shines on silent lakes in empty campgrounds. Provincial parks are almost deserted except for diehard campers more often in campers than in tents. The prairies - no longer covered with huge Canadian Shield flat rocks, now resplendent with yellow fields, huge skies, little surprises in charming gift/gallery stores and lone coyotes travelling at the road. Wonderful eggs and pies cooked with friendship. And then the mountains appear with their vertigo-inducing canyons.
But the real beauty of travelling across Canada is the people you meet. We encounter two friendly women from Marathon, each with a small child in tow and a friendly, black sand covered dog. They greet us warmly, telling us that they spend their summers and September weekends at White Lake Provincial Park until it gets too cold. They've parked a shared trailer and laugh and sing and babysit into each evening.
We picked up our only hitchiker just north of Superior in a beautiful area! He looked totally benign, a tall, clean-cut windblown fellow in his thirties, holding a kayak paddle. We drove him to his car so that he could return to pick up his three buddies who had been kayaking with him for the last five days. Lake Superior, he informed us, is known to be as good as the oceans for kayaking. He is a lawyer from Chicago who recommends that we stay at a resort down the way and take time from our trip to take kayak lessons. We are sorely tempted, but leave him with his map and paddle and drive on.
We stop to stare at another gorgeous lake and meet an elderly couple from Nova Scotia. They are driving to visit their daughter in Edmonton, explaining that most years they go all the way to the Arctic for a month or two. Her husband loves driving, she explains. They happily invite us into their camper van and extoll the virtues of the toilet and showernf facilities. They point out the little shelves they have constructed to make their camper lives more comfortable. Shirley, (she introduces herself), is delighted with her special email retriever, that captures or displays and sends emails from a public telephone for free.
We were having a quick lunch in the back of our van in the parking lot of the Lake Louise Hotel, when a German woman, a tiny dog shivering in her vest, comes to chat. She and her husband are moving from Fort St. John to Duncan, B.C. to continue farming. I go with her to inspect her other three miniature Domermans in their pick-up truck. Her husband joins her and they get in the truck to continue the adventure that is their life.
The hosts at Bed and breakfast stays greet you like they'd never had guests before. They are warm and welcoming. A young couple in Indian Head, Sasktchewan took time from their busy life to tell us a bit about themselves. The husband is a banker for RBC - but his first love is definitely golf. Hence the name of the B and B - The Golf View. His wife had just been appointed principal of a K to Grade 12 school of 63 students. Needless to say, they were having difficulty finding a Science specialist to work a part of a day to teach the senior students. We were greeted by husband and wife in Golden, B.C. The husband was off with his son to paint new houses in Inverness. In Sorrento, B. C., an older couple own an extraordinary house with a gorgeous view overlooking Shushwap Lake. They do missionary work in Africa each year. "join us for tea and telebision this evening, if you wish", they intone. We join them and are delighted with their open, accepting view of the world. In the morning we eat breakfast in a gorgeous atrium with a yellow canary freely flying around the Italian wrought iron tables and chairs while we look out the window at chickadees at the feeder.
At one of the B and B's we met a couple from a tiny university town in Wales who had travelled extensively and worked as Librarians in Baltimore. They told us of their travels in Europe.
We moved into the States. In a campground near Port Angeles, Washington, evening was approaching as we saw a youg couple standing beside their van looking rather confused. They are a Swiss couple from Zurich - he, a plumber of 23 years old, she a possible student at the cusp of choosing her future. She is 19 years old. They were looking for somewhere to pay their campsite fees. Many campsites at this time of year are on an honour system and have little or no staff - so you leave money in an envelope. Martin and Melanie join us for their first Indian meal in a rathe good restaurant in small Port Angeles. They explain that they are afraid to cook because they had encountered several bears and bear cubs in their campsite the night before near Cowichan on Vancouver Island. He also explained that he was travelling for 6 months. He had already spent 10 weeks in a language school learning English in North Vancouver (his English was remarkably good!). He'd stayed with a homestay family. Melanie was travelling with him for only three weeks and then returning to Zurich from Seattle. Martin had bought the car from his host family and planned to sell it at the end of his time in North America. What a pleasant time we had with them!
There are also those wonderful people who we know and love - they are the friends and family who have nurtured and fed us after nights of camping in our van. They take us touring and hiking in Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria. Give us clean sheets and lovely wine and desserts. We are treated like royalty. We move down to the U. S. and have more wonderful hospitality in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego. These are the priceless coterie of individuals and families who envelope us in hospitality and warmth! Thank you!
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