Home

It appears I might have jumped the gun just a little bit.
An hour after I wrote that post, one of the Tims employees who I had talked to a couple of times, a dear older lady, comes to our table and informs us that people had just told her they were opening the road soon. To say the least, we were out of there, in the car and on the way as fast as possible to avoid being stuck behind all that traffic. We drive for a couple minutes and then come to a line of stopped traffic. Listening to the radio we find out that they would be opening the road at 12 30 and be 'alternating single lanes of traffic'. So we wait for an hour, a wait that included a short snowball fight with soaking wet snow, meeting the people in the car behind us, and getting splashed from a car turning around.
Finally, a little after 1 (thats about an hour and a half of waiting in the line for those who are counting) they opened up and starting letting people through. I am pretty sure we were near the front of the line cause it sure wasn't to bad of a wait, but the drive to Golden was ridiculous. It took about 3 hours, driving 60 km an hour on roads that were slushy and it was snowing, on a road that usually is about an hour and a half(Revelstoke to Golden). On the way we had to wait at the accident for another 30 mins and Jack took over driving. As we passed the accident I couldn't believe my eyes. It involved several semi-trucks and what we saw included two trailers in rough shape and the cab of one of the trucks was crushed so bad that it looked like a piece of crumpled up paper. It was heartbreaking just to see.
From the accident to Golden it cleared up and no problems. After filling our tire(did I mention one of our tires had a leak, so on top of everything we had to keep that in mind to while driving) and grabbing some mac donalds, and cleaning the windows(no back windsheild wiper either), we were on our way and it didn't take long to start snowing. And wow did it snow. From Golden to just past the sign annoucing our arrival in Banff national park was one lane traffic, no one passing, everyone driving 60 or less, and the constant hope that the car in front of you would stay there so at least you would know where the road was going.
Just outside of Banff it stopped snowing and from then on the going wasn't nearly as bad. After filling the tire and cleaning the back window once more, we were on our way to Calgary where we spent the night. Our drive from Vernon to Calgary, usually about a 6-7 hours max drive, had become a 12 hour ordeal.
Spent the night at my aunts place in Calgary and returned home Tuesday. Those roads were fine too, until we actually got into Edmonton, where it had snowed alot over night and none of the roads had been cleared yet. Fun!!!!!
But I suppose, as my dad said, if nothing had happened there would be nothing to tell. At least now it is a story that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
And on the bright side, the time spent in Vernon (and kamloops and Kelowna) was definitely worth the drive to get back!
See ya