View of the Nicola River. You can see the pass through the mountains that we rode through today.
Short mileage today, but tough ride. We abandoned the beautiful Thompson River and began traveling upstream along the Nicola River. "Upstream" is the key word, as we seemed to climb most of the day. We saw bald eagles,
a beaver dam,
and then congregated in Lower Nicola (a small outpost---hard to describe it as a town, exactly) for a cowboy lunch.
We are staying tonight in an RV park in which the owners take pains to maintain beautiful grass that you are not allowed to walk on. Every RV has a little grassy spot next to their driveway, but no grass is available for tenting.
We are camped on hard-packed dirt.
Also, the bathrooms are locked here, and a combination code is no longer used since, apparently, young meth addicts used to watch and learn the combinations. Then they would sneak in and do drugs in the bathrooms. So we have to go to Bud to get a key any time we want to use the bathroom.
Silhouettes on the sides of buildings is a really common theme here in rural Canada. The first time I saw them, I thought it was interesting. Now, it just seems tacky.
Just as dinner was served tonight, the rain started. It was sunny, there was more blue sky than clouds, but rain fell on us. Barb and I huddled under a table. Then I remembered my journal, library book, map, and hanging laundry. I was too hungry to leave my plate behind, so I walked (eating) with my plate, back to the tents to retrieve my things.
I love the food on this trip. Tonight's dinner was Spanish Rice (vegetarian version, made with tofu). For dessert, we had this rich, chocolatey thing called a Nanaimo Bar.
This is a good place to remind you that most of our fellow trip-mates are Canadian. Of the 5 of us from The States, the 2 from Washington State have Canadian ties as well. Phil (from Bellingham) cycles with a B.C. cycling group and so hangs out a lot with Canadians, and Barb (from Wenatchee) is a Canadian. This explains why everyone except Karl (from Germany) Dean, me, and Clement (from San Jose)
knew what a Nanaimo Bar is. For my non-Canadian readers, I will describe it. It is a 3 layered dessert, coconut/graham cracker crust, then vanilla custardy thing in the middle, then a dark chocolate bar on top. All the Canadians raved about have Nanaimo Bars for dessert. It was okay. If I am going to eat something that rich, I would choose whipped cream over custard.
Tonight, we are sleeping next to the Nicola River. For the first time on this trip, there are no train tracks next to our campsite. But there is a sawmill close by that apparently operates 24 hours a day.
German tourists travel in a "Rotel", a rolling hotel. It showed up at our campground just after we arrived.
Merritt is big on country music. There are murals all over town of country music star photographs.
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