Look out Seattle here I come

Well not next week, but I'm thinking over the summer sometime.  I took a look at Google Earth and its about 1100 km (700 miles for you non Metric people).  I figure I can do Calgary to Spokane in one day and then have a relaxing 2nd day drive. 

I'll be honest with you I'm more than a little nervous about the trip.  I've had the old girl out 2 or 3 hours on the open road but never so far from home.  I guess you have to kick them out of the nest at some point right?  I just worry about having a break down in the backwoods of Idaho and having to depend on Cletus to get me back on the road.  Friends are telling me not to worry because everyone loves a VW bus.  I'll remember that when i am creeping up a hill at 60 kph (40mph) and i have a line of traffic behind me a mile long.  I'll just flash them a smile and a peace sign as they go whizzing by me honking their horns in appreciation of the Green Monster. 

The tentative route so far is South out of Calgary (duh) through the Crowsnest and down through Coutts/Kingsgate on to US95 to Spokane.  Over night somewhere in or around Spokane and hope I don't get killed in my sleep (thank for the mental images Kel!) then onward on Seattle.  The other option is to stay in Canada and head West on the #1 right to Abbotsford and cross at Sumas.  Either way I have to make it from one side of the rockies and back again... maybe out one way and back the other?

Any comments?  Suggestions?  Things to do and or see along the way?

Snow, snow and more snow.

Well it's January 14th and it's snowing in Calgary.  Again.  I think it was about this time last year that my thoughts started to turn to camping and heading out in the Westy.  I keep thinking that mid-march / early April I'll b able to fire up the old bus and take her out for another season.  I'm actually thinking of making a couple reservations for the May, July and September long weekends. 

I think the reason I'm excited to head out is one of the problems I had camping last year was that I never seemed to have enough kindling to start a fire.  Problem solved this year.  I was in Naton, AB and stumbled into a blacksmith shop.  they had this cool device for splitting wood and making kindling for your fire.  You can bolt it to a permanant structure (for your fire pit in the back yard) or you can strap it to a tree for when you go camping.  The guy actually appeared on Dragon's Den... I won't ruin it for you but here is his pitch. 

http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/2012/11/mr-quick-split.html

I'm also keen to try a new method of building a fire.  I got tired of having to constantly add logs to my fire and found myself  burning though a lot of wood (pun intended).  So this year my ifres are going to be build "upside-down".   Check out the handy link.... I'll let you know how the trials go. 

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/02/02/how-to-build-an-upside-down-fire/


Well that's about it for now.  I'll let you know if I make reservations so soon.  Right now however I'm dreaming of my Cuban vacation in a couple a weeks then another trip to Bonaire for some scuba diving shortly after. 


PS  Just a quick note... apparently you cant make camsite reservations more than 4 months in advance. I'll have to set a reminder in my calendar.