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Hello again .... When you left us we were leaving Chilliwack and heading for them thar hills... After breakfast at McDonalds (we didn't want to risk The Pantry again) we headed off East. The heat was incredible, high 20's easily, maybe into the 30's. (can't really tell because we can't figure out how to get the temp to show on the car !!!). Our first stop - about 1.5 hours out of Chilliwack was at Hell's Gate - the narrowest point in the Fraser River where a cable car (not just a cable car - but "North America's Steepest Declining Airtram") and suspension bridge were built. It's a fascinating place with great views. Went gold panning and ate Salmon Chowder for lunch. Headed off again and the scenery just got better and better. Around every corner we were presented with a view more amazing than the previous amazing view. The scale of everything is just enormous, most of the time we are travelling besides huge rivers or massive lakes the size of small oceans. We've tried to get the balance right in terms of stopping regularly and ploughing on - Chilliwack to Salmon Arm is 450km - about a 5.5 hour drive in total. Shell's been taking photos out of the car window and I've been pulling over at the side of the road wherever I can. We stopped next at Kamloops and surprise surprise were drawn almost immediatley to Starbucks - it's the free wireless not the coffee of course but they still manage to rob you of your cash. (Did I tell you I saw a T-Shirt in Uclulet with a fake Starbucks Logo with the words - "Arrbucks - Pirate Coffee" - I wanted it but unfortunately they didn't have my size). Anyway, after I had checked out BBC News, Shell and Clara had Facebooked, and Joe had checked out his Farm ??? we headed off for the last leg of the Journey to Salmon Arm. By this time the sun was coming down and the views were even more fantastic. We stopped off at Shuswap Lake and wandered down to the waters edge to skim some stones and generally stretch out as the sun went down. (We took a quick video saying hello which you can see somewhere on this site - maybe under Videos ??). You will hear mention of my foot - I can't go on holiday without some sort of incident or injury - well this time it's my foot (not my manky leg that has actually cleared up now) - it's the other one, my right foot, my driving foot at that. No real reason for the pain - no incident - just throbbing - we reckon it's the seating position in the car and the way my foot lies. I'm doped up on Ibroprofen most of the day - driving is no problem - it's walking on it that really hurts. As usual I'm hoping it will go away over the next few days. We got to Salmon Arm at 9pm last night and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. The room is fantastic. Shell and the kids went straight to the pool and they even dragged me down to sit in the Jacuzzi. By 10.30pm we were all ready for bed - the kids drifted off - but Shell and I hovered over the computer. We are at that stage in the journey where we are making hotel reservations at the last minute so it's a case of searching everthing - looking for availability within the right price range. By midnight we still hadn't found anything so gave up and headed off to sleep. Early this morning I resumed the search and decided the best approach was to phone them up - amazingly I phoned a hotel we had been looking at last night and got a rate that was almost $50 a night less over the phone than on the internet. Booked up immediately. Headed off for breakfast (deluxe continental included pretty much everything)....
Shell: Breakfast all done and Joe couldn't wait to get back into the pool, spent a long time at reception waiting for a pool towel whilst the receptionist tried to explain to the Italian guys who were checking out that NO they hadn't paid for their room only reserved it with their credit card, it took forever until I piped up that the credit card 'guarantees' the room and that seemed to shed light on the whole matter, aha, 'guarantee' now I get it!! So whilst Joe got a pool towel I got a packet of washing detergent and headed off for the laundry, yes even on holiday the daily tasks call and we're all running out of undies, I know, i know, too much information. Joe was excited because the slide in the pool opened so he was in there for ages. Once again we had off anticipating sights to behold, at times it's like being in an episode of Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons as we drive along past remote farms all clapboard houses painted blue or white, I'm sure at some point we will all be turning off the lights at night with a "Good night John Boy"..................
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