World's! Largest! Truck!

Yesterday afternoon, we left our home on our latest motorhome adventure. It was a driving day across Washington state, so we had little to report. We reached Sandpoint, Idaho just before dark and "camped" in a city parking lot. We walked around the downtown, which was fairly quiet on a Monday evening. Sandpoint seems like a cute town; we may try to return someday.

This morning, Greg went for a run along Lake Pend Oreille while Amy got coffee at a local shop that roasts their own coffee. (If Sandpoint has a knitting shop, Phillipa would be all-in). Soon after crossing the border into Canada, we saw a coyote cross the road (to get to the other side?) and a moose run alongside the road. We've heard that moose can run fast - this one was practically keeping up with our vehicle! Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance for pictures, but we can report that our moose count is now 1.

As the road climbed into the Canadian rockies, we saw a sign for the World's Largest Truck in Sparwood BC. Of course we had to stop! It is indeed huge. It was used to haul rocks from the local mine. However, after checking the internet, we read that it is no longer the world's largest truck. Nevertheless, it was worth the brief stop, at least for the chance to act like silly children.

As we crossed Crowsnest Pass in Alberta, we stopped at Frank Slide, the site of the deadliest rockslide in Canadian history. In 1903, a rockslide devastated the town of Frank, killing nearly 100 people and cutting off the road and rail. The destruction remains visible; vegetation has not filled in the mountain or slide area. And it was definitely not comforting to read that the mountain is still at risk for future rock slides. They cleared part of the slide to build the highway, which we took immediately after surveying the damage.

The drive through the Canadian Rockies was stunning! We compared the drive to some of our drives last summer on our way to Alaska. As we continued to drive east, the mountains suddenly gave way to prairies.

We reached our campground near Waterton Lakes National Park around 4pm, where we met our friend Sandy and her dogs Niko and Cindy. We haven't seen them since our RV trip to Baja, nearly a year-and-a-half ago. It was extremely windy, so Greg cooked indoors and we visited for the evening. It was great to catch up!

Finally, don't forget that you can track our progress on the live map!