Staying in Golden, BC worked out best for our distances on this trip. It sits about one third of the way between Jasper, AB and home.
We're not long-haul truckers and have no need to put on a lot of miles in a day. In fact, we like travelling about 350 km or around 200 miles per day. We don't have to hit the road too early and we can stop for a leisurely lunch. More importantly, it allows for travel off major routes and frequent stops to see roadside attractions. Lastly, it allows us to find and check into a hotel early enough to see the town it is in.
We took a half hour to charge before leaving. That gave us enough time to walk around the town near the river. We got the whole Golden experience!
Our goal was to come back a different way than through Kamloops again. We stopped for a nice 'stop and gawk' in Revelstoke, BC. We plugged in again in Revelstoke because the Visitor Information Centre is right near the walkable center of the community.
What a great little town! It doesn't take a lot of money to create an inviting atmosphere. It does take creativity and inspiration. I sort of this our city could implement some of the infrastructure I saw during our short visit today.
We continued to Sicamous where we ate lunch and turned off Route 1 to head down 97A towards Kelowna. That took us through and area of grass and farmlands. Our goal was to stay in the Okanagan region.
We didn't have reservations, but I wanted to stay in a historic but supposedly nice hotel in downtown Kelowna. I'm sure we stayed in the city before but just along the corridor of the highway with fast-food restaurants and well-known highway hotels. Several trips in our EV have been to Penticton further south in the Okanagan. I used to think Kelowna was a bit pricy and less authentic.
However this afternoon has definitely changed my mind.
Jay went directly into the hotel while I parked in the rear alley. Sure, the Royal Anne had place for us, even on a Market Thursday in the waterfront. It was nicely updated and exceeded the comforts of most of our stays along the trip at a comparable price. And when one steps outside, the lakefront is a hop/skip away.
We have thoroughly enjoyed staying right in the downtown. This city's beach and marina are a perfect. Because of the rain shadow effect from the mountains to the west, the area is arid and warm. That is one reason the region is growing so fast. A wide angle from out hotel window only hints at the population growth of the region. There's a lot of space here and large, traditional home sprout up in developments along the glacier-carved lake.
This is our last night of the trip and we plan on being home late tomorrow afternoon in New Westminster.