Wow, what a week this has been, what with negotiating the twists and turns of the journey out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains out of Yosemite, including several 6 mile drops, with the engine breaking going full belt and the equally long and arduous climbs out of the valleys.

After some 70/80 miles, we found ourselves back on the valley floor and turned North for the start of our 1000 mile journey to Canada.

Driving through beautiful fruit, nut and vineyards, that stretched for miles of the Northern Californian countryside.

Then just north of Sacramento, we came upon mile after mile of ‘flooded’ fields, that we could only assume were dedicated to Rice Paddies – not sure what else they could be?

Then, as we neared our destination for the day, the Mountain Gate RV Park, at, well, Mountain Gate, where else?

We came upon signs for the Whiskey Town Lake and excitement started to build.

In fact, tensions and excitement started to build so high with the RV driver, that the Navigator, had to keep reminding him, that there was a speed limit on the road!!!!!! And for goodness sake ‘slow down’!

After we had pulled into the RV park and set up, the Driver still could not settle and tossed and turned all night, to the point where he came close to getting a ‘Clip’, for all the tossing and turning he was doing.

Eventually morning arrived, well 6:00am did, and both parties decided that stopping in bed any longer, would not result in any more rest, so up we got!

After a gobbled breakfast, our intrepid RV trippers jumped into the car to set off for Whiskey Town Lake, where our Driver (or Hunter, you pick), hoped to fill a large quantity of plastic water bottles with the Whiskey from the Lake!!

Which was a surprise for the car driver (RV Navigator) as she didn’t realise he had brought the empty water bottles to fill !!!

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Whiskey Town Lake, we found that the Whiskey was diluted by the water in the lake, so much, it just tasted like Water – Grrrrr!

Not put off, we searched around and soon found signs to a ‘Whiskey Creek’ and a ‘Brandy Creek’, which we were sure that at least one of them was the source of the Whiskey for the Lake.

But once again WE (Royal We) were disappointed, to find that both the Whiskey Creek and the Brandy Creek only had water in them and our intrepid Driver/Hunter was almost inconsolable, until our Navigator/Gatherer suggested that we find a Liquor Store and buy a bottle of Whiskey, which buoyed up the spirits no end (excuse the pun)

Ok, the next day, off we went to continue our North Bound trip through Oregon, with once again, beautiful scenery all around us.

Logging is obviously a large industry around Oregon, as there was extensive deforestation all around us on some stretches of the road – hopefully, it is being done sustainably, with replanting taking place as the woods are cut down.

After a couple of days, we stopped at an RV Park, from where we could do a short drive to take our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, but the wind was blowing so hard and cold, that we changed our minds about dipping our toes in and just limited ourselves to walking the beach and enjoying the sight and sound of it!

With our tight schedule now, we had to press on and we passed through both Oregon and Washington States far too quickly, to really appreciate the diversity and beauty of them, instead of just a few days, we should have tried to alter our time schedule to spend a few weeks here.

Passing along the way the 45^th Parallel (see below)

But Canada beckoned and we had to be over the boarder by early June, so Northward and onward we kept going.

The traffic around Seattle was horrendous, but fortunately, most of it was going South and we were going North, but we still had a few delays.

Eventually, we pulled into our site for the night, Lake Pleasant RV Park, just 100 miles short of the Canadian Border, from where we planned an early start the following morning to cross the border.

Over the last few days, we had eaten all the Fruit, Veg and Meat and managed to drink all the ‘Booze’, apart from 6 bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale, from our extensive stocks, so we were fairly confident that we would cross the border without too much hassle.

The Canadian Border crossing went well, apart from the space to drive through, being about 2” wider than the RV, causing a holding of breath, as we eased our way from the Border Post, with a sigh of relief.

We pulled into the Pacific Border RV Park, rather early, as we had made good time and set up, ready for our trip in the car the next day, to spend a few days on Vancouver Island.

However, that night the heavens opened and it rained Cats and Dogs (well, not really, Cats and Dogs, that’s just an expression for rather heavy rain!!).

Looking at the weather forecast the next morning, we saw that this heavy rain was set to continue for a couple of days, so that put the kybosh on our Vancouver Island trip for now.

We decided to have a few days ‘Chilling’, especially as this RV Park has an Indoor Pool, Hot Spa and Sauna – Ahhhh.

Ok, that didn’t work out, after a day of being cooped up in the RV with the rain bucketing down, we decided that rain or no rain, we were going out, so we set off to discover what Vancouver had to offer.

Well, we were not disappointed as on street after street, we found Pubs and Liquor Stores all over the place!!

However we shouldn’t have been surprised, as when we looked at one of those tourist maps that cities place around, we found that we were in the ‘English Bay’ part of Vancouver!!

Then at the north end of the City, we found a place called Stanley Park, a 1000 acre of woodland and it was completely surrounded by the sea, with great views across the water on each side.

Right, let’s have a drop of that Whiskey (ok and Gin) we bought as a consolation!!!