Friday, August 16 - At last we have wifi. So this may not be too long, as one never knows when the wifi signal might disappear. We are camped in Lillooet on the shore of the mighty Fraser River, which is flowing along with great swiftness right below us. We're told we might see salmon jumping, if we're lucky.

This is day 10 of our trip, so there's a lot to tell, and not enough time to tell it. Perhaps when we have more secure connectivity we'll provide some details, but for now, suffice it to say we had a very fine 4 day trip on the VIA Rail Canadian, train number 1. Met a lot of interesting people, enjoyed great food, and got to see once again the wondrous breadth of our country. We were outnumbered considerably by folks from other countries, which added to the interest. Some of them we'll tell you about in another post.

We were met at the station in Vancouver by Gail's sister Diane and her husband Dan. We had time to see their daughter Allie, then went to Granville Island to see their other daughter Shannon and her partner Stephen. A bonus to see both girls in such a short time. Shannon looks great in her fifth month of pregnancy. Lots of changes in their lives come January. Then we were on the ferry to Pender Island, to catch up with our r.v., and to spend a few lovely days lazing around. We were also lucky enough to get to see nephew Kevin, who by coincidence, had to go to Pender for a work project. He's an engineer specializing in hydrology, so is working with local authorities to deal with a problem being created by a bunch of beavers.

Thursday, yesterday, that is, we got the r.v. serviced, including checking the front end alignment, which fortunately is in good shape. We'll have to get new brake pads at some point along the way, but other than that, we're pretty much good to go. So that's what we did. We took the 5:15 ferry from Pender, and were in Tuwaassen by 6:40. We had lined up a campground in West Vancouver, which we reached after more than an hour's drive. The r.v. park is right below the Lion's Gate bridge, so it was a handy location for the start of our trip north.

Start we did this morning. First stop was at Shannon Falls, where we met Lauren, Kevin's wife, and their two neat kids, who live in Squamish. We wandered about below the falls, watching the young ones run and jump with great energy. Then on to lunch with them at a local Mexican restaurant. Fond farewells, and then a fairly major grocery shopping to fill the larder.

Up to Whistler, which was absolutely packed with cars, bikes and people. We did a quick turnaround and got the hell out of there. On to Pemberton, where we couldn't find a campsite, so we managed to book one here in Lillooet, another two hours away. A fine drive it was, up, up, and up some more. Then down, down, and down some more. Beautiful mountains, steep sloped, sheer cliffs, rockslides amany, lovely lakes and a vigorous creek that we followed for miles. First time through this area, and well worth it. And we finally got away from the hordes of tourists thronging the area from Squamish to Pemberton.

I'll stop there for now. Dinner awaits. Some more details about some of the folks we met on the train may tempt you to consider doing the trip. We'll see! So stay tuned. More later.