My Car is Powered by Water

Our provincial power company, BC Hydro, operates 82 dam sites. Around 90% of the electricity provided by the utility is generated from hydro sources. They're doing a pretty good job of ramping up fast DC charging in the province. There are a few geographic areas that need increased infrastructure, but planning a road trip is not terribly stressful even though there are a whole lot of extraordinarily high mountain passes around British Columbia. 

Our recent six day trip to Jasper, Alberta and back from Lake Louise was pretty easy. After a bit of experience in learning one's vehicle, getting around can become second nature. I do hope more options become available in that stretch of BC Highway 5 between Merritt and Kamloops. Merritt had wait times, so we continued onwards.  And come on, there's a single charger in Kamloops? That clearly insufficient for road-trippers in the area! 

I have not purchased gasoline since 2018. I haven't a clue as to how much I would have spent on the 1850 KM trip with an archaic internal combustion engine. However, my 'fill up' prices as shown on my BC Hydro app seems pretty reasonable to me. I had to have a/c running on the majority of the trip but cabin heat when in the mountain passes. Most of the trip was at speeds higher than 100 kph.

 

Kelowna to New Westminster

Today, was the last bit to get home. I knew we'd end up travelling closer 400 km than 300 km today. 

The hotel had a much-more-than-adequate breakfast buffet. We will have to make the Royal Anne Hotel part of future summer plans. We'd not charged since the the morning yesterday, so we went to top up to 80% at the chargers near the Kelowna museum.

 

So, we really didn't head out of town until 10:00 am. It was somewhat overcast this morning but it sort of depended which direction one was facing. The night temps do not go down to 12°C here; I'd venture it was close to 20°C.

Of course we'd travelled these 375 km (235 miles) many times.  Doing so in this car is easier because of cruise control.  It is much less tiring only having to keep a car between the lines over long distances.  Actually, the Hyundai Kona, nicknamed Kimchi, helps with that by nudging one toward the center of the lane if one ventures to close to the middle or edge.

We took the 97 connector back to Merritt and sailed over the passes along BC Highway 5.  Jay and I stopped in Hope for a Subway sandwich.  It was very crowded because people going east from Vancouver must all pass through the same town to continue on only three highway choices from there!

I saw eight new fast chargers on my BC Hydro electric charging app in Chilliwack, BC.  I wondered how easy they'd be to access on future trips.  It turned out they were actually in downtown Chilliwack, a place we'd never really seen.  The DC 120 kWh chargers were beside a big multiuse development. It was stunning. I'd heard that shopping malls were on the way out in North America.  However, these outdoor structures were all new and work perfectly as a place for both housing, restaurants, and shopping.  I definitely think there's a future designing environments such as this.

 

One of the very last hours of our trip was the worst for driving experiences.  We got caught in the daily Highway 1 commute troubles.  There is major work upgrades between Chilliwack and Langley.  The work should have been completed decades ago in order to move the four lane divided highway to six.  It took us nearly 45 minutes longer to get home than we'd anticipated.  I do have to vouch for Google Maps accuracy though.  The maps feature in Android Auto were flawless, even when coming upon highway construction locations and details.

We didn't park downstairs until 5:20 pm.

Golden to Kelowna

 

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.

Jasper, AB to Golden, BC

 

From breakfast in the Smitty's Family Restaurant in Jasper, to a sandwich in the parking lot at Lake Louise, and ending with dinner at an Indian restaurant in Golden, BC; it was a fine 66th birthday!  Well actually, ending with an butterscotch ice cream sundae at a McDonald's.

Cruising south on AB 93, the Icefield's Parkway, was a bucket-list activity.  It was around 232 KM between Jasper and Lake Louise.  The drive was very relaxing in the Kona EV w/ adaptive cruise control.  In fact, I have seldom had my foot on 'the gas pedal' at all during this trip so far.

However, once Jay and I got to Highway #1 in Alberta, we turned right and headed back over the pass into British Columbia.  We're in Golden near the Rockies, so it'll take another night in the Okanagan before we can get back home.  We left Sunday and should get back on Friday.

 

 

Oh, and at 66 years of age, I joined a 6 year old on the waterslide at the hotel. It was the first time for both of us!

 

Valemount, BC to Jasper, AB

Jay and I woke up to a nice morning in Valemount, BC.  We only got 120 km north and east and decided we should stay in this city too.  We're in Jasper.  We arrived at around 11:00 am this morning and charged the car up to 90%.  We'll need the battery reserve to explore the Icefields Parkway, or AB 93.

While charging, we walked around the tourist city.  We asked at a hotel and decided to spend the rest of today here and head off down the parkway tomorrow morning.  I get to drive our EV southward along the top of the Canadian Rockies on my birthday!  Yay.

We checked into the hotel at around 11:30 am.  That was our time though, we forgot that it is an hour later on this side of the BC / Alberta border!  It felt like we had the whole day to walk around, especially since the sun just set behind the mountain and nearly 9 o'clock.

Quite a few of the tourists seem to be connected to the 'Rocky Mountaineer' train that runs from Vancouver.  Some arrive and others depart.  Of course there were hundreds of campers and RVs in town too.  We passed through here once but never really spent time.  It's fun.

This town was extraordinarily impacted by forest fires.  Exactly, a year ago, nearly one third of this place burnt to the ground.  That section is under re-construction.  However, it hasn't impacted the fun and inviting atmosphere.  I'm sure it'll be rebuilt better than ever.  

Kamloops to Valemount

 

We checked out of our hotel in Kamloops after a simple, but satisfying, start in their breakfast room. We spent the entire travels on BC Highway 5. All of our 330 kms were along the North Thompson River.

 

We stopped a few times at rest stops and found charging opportunities.  An EV isn't like a gasoline car; one shouldn't wait until it's empty to fill it up.  It's more like owning a phone and plugging in when there's a convenient outlet.

We reserved this room here before we left this morning.  It was good as construction companies for highways, rail, and the pipeline need a lot of space in the area.  Also, as one third of Jasper, AB burned in last year's wildfires, I expect the shortage in accommodations has been a boon for Valemount.  It's only an hour away,  We will go there tomorrow as one goal of this trip is to travel the 'Icefields Parkway' with views of glaciers along the Canadian Rockies.

New Westminster to Kamloops

 

Jay and I hit the road at about 8:50 am. I'm betting that will probably be the average for the whole trip. There aren't many ways to get out of our area as only two highways head east.  We joined Canadian Highway 1 at the other end of town. We switched near the town of Hope to BC 5 after about 120 km. 

We stopped once at a rest stop before Hope. We stopped at Britton Creek Rest Area also. That was not really for the rest rooms.  It was more to see how many cars were charging. Both DC Fast Chargers were busy but we did manage about 5 minutes just to check that our EV charging card worked. We did enjoy watching the greedy marmots that were hanging around begging food from visitors.

 

Our plan was to drive into Merritt to top up the battery while eating in a nearby Subway sandwich shop.  Both fast charging slots were again filled with a few people waiting for turns.  I figured that I had plenty of juice to get to Kamloops which was our planned stop for the day.

It was fine but I only had about 90 km remaining when we got into town.  So, our first goal was to find the town's charging stations.  It works out there is only one BC Hydro charger in this whole city.  We headed towards the Thomson Rivers University but ended up changing at a FLO charger nearer the strip of restaurants and hotels.  The next task was lunch.  This was when we ran into Tim.

I'd been WhatsApping with friends through the hands-free entertainment system.  One in particular.  Tim has been on a motorcycle road trip since earlier in the month.  He's on his way home and we figured we might be able to cross tracks this afternoon.  We did.  We met at a White Spot which is a BC chain of family restaurants.

We didn't finish up until about 2:30 pm.  He figured the weather was good enough to camp a ways up the road that we arrived on.  We had seen about an hour of on and off thunderstorms as we approached the city of Kamloops.

We went to find a cheap hotel just down the road and checked in.  We had a small nap but headed out later.  It's still clear and surprisingly hot.  Of course we are on the drier side of the mountains as the vegetation has changed.

In the evening we drove to downtown Kamloops.  It certainly is downtown as the highway hugs the top of the hills and all the newest developments have a view.  We ate at a Subway for dinner as we still weren't hungry after our late lunch.  The TV is on.  The channels are the same, of course because we are only about 340 km from New Westminster.