Home again and over the Rocky Mountains

We left our nephew John's ranch in Alberta after Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and had lovely weather to cross over the Rocky Mountain range, drive up the trench in between the ranges, to Jasper,  and over the Rockies again to Golden.  We had a golden autumn evening in Golden in a very friendly camp ground that also had cabins and mobile home spots for rent and sale.  They still had marigolds and petunias and other flowers blooming, which we hadn't seen across the prairies.

The last stretch into British Columbia (dark green on the map) means going under/through many snow slide/avalanch area tunnels in Rogers Pass. 

We then came home to Barnes Lake to camp and fish for a few weeks while deciding what we should do to be warm for the winter. The fishing was great and the fish were delicious as they had grown since spring and were feasting on lake shrimp so their flesh was pink and sweet.  But the nights were starting to get cold although still above zero.  We wondered what our next step would be when a friend who owns a B/B offered us the ground-floor suite which has two bedrooms and a large kitchen and back sunroom.  It is the same rent as we get from our cottage renters so we went for a looky-see.  

It was a mutually good deal as we offered some help perks and they have a hard time getting away for some free weekends.  Our suite is seldom rented in the winter so they gave us a deal for 5 months.

We are home.Ashcroft is actually 10 minutes from our village up the Highway #97 and down in a valley along the Thompson River, so has an even milder climate and shorter winter.     The suite is clean and within walking distance to all we need.    This suite has heritage character and is comfy.  We booked in for a month to try it out.

The bedrooms are a little 'fluffy' for us but the beds are very comfortable and internet and cable TV is free. 
It was a great summer and early fall, but Old Man Watching is ready, at 75, to quit RV-ing as a life style.  We have done that for 5 years since a year after I retired, and it has been a delightful time.  Now we want to settle in for a quiet winter and not drive thousands of miles to find heat along the Mexican border.  We enjoyed it all while it was happening and we have wonderfrul memories of interacting with the very friendly American citizens.  It is time to sell the motorhome and settle down for real old age.  We were running away from all responsibilities except on-line banking chores.  Now it is time to be Canadians again for a winter.  This is the living room view with our RV on the street with a FOR SALE sign on it.

There is an element of stoicism about facing winter.  Just as there must be with folk who live in hurricane zones.  The weather really is unpredictable but predictable that it will be bad, in a Canadian winter. 

Yahoo....... as we are home and we did settle in here at this B/B after we did runs to Vancouver (4-5 hours) for medical checks and prescriptions for meds.  We also took the ferry to go to Vancouver Island for 4 days after the eye cancer was cleared for 4 months, and stayed to babysit while the parents organized and attended a Diabetes Gala further up the Island at Parksville.  The weekend dance, dinner and auctions raised $250,000 for Diabetes research.

We are almost settled in here.  I need to take some pictures. We went to 2 local events today and I didn't have my camera.  Now I can just blog about village life and catch up with all of you.