The Rockies! Day 1

Hi everybody!!
So you may have been wondering why I have not been posting for the past week.

Well, I have been driving to the Rockies and back. I have been on a road trip, and boy do I have a lot to tell you.

I guess the next few posts about my trip to the Canadian Rockies is going to be kind of like a travel journal/a travel guide. I will tell you everywhere you must stop, and places that you shouldn't.

Alright then, here I go!

The Rockies! Day 1

We left for Valemount in the morning, with everything we needed packed. We had packed so much stuff, mostly food to eat for 7 days. We brought along three Iceboxes and 4 reusable green bags filled to the brim with food to eat. Confident that we wouldn't lose our way what with the new GPS that we had, we took off and started our journey for the Rockies. We drove through Merritt and through Kamloops and throughout the entire first day, we were just driving, driving, and driving. By the time we passed Kamloops, the sun was starting to set, and we were desperately looking for an R.V. Park or a Campground to stay at. We were driving for what seemed like forever until we came across a campground called Blue River Campground. By this time, we were too desperate for a place to sleep to be picky about it, so we just went in the first campground that we saw. Thankfully, that Blue River Campground was very clean and it was quite cozy. The price wasn't too bad either. (I definitely recommend the place. If you're traveling in that area, it's a nice place to sleep.) So we set up our dinner, and ate quickly as the sun shined it's last and disappeared under the horizon. We were quite down that the sun had set quickly, but soon the stars started to appear one by one in the sky. The stars, -sigh- the stars were just... they were breathtaking. It was amazing. Remarkable. Sensational.

Staggering. Stunning. Phenomenal. Extraordinary. Prodigious. I could list all the words, but you have to see it for yourself. It was about as sparkly as.. as.. as Lady Gaga's sequin dress. If you live in the country, it's even more spectacular, since you can't see nearly half-ahem- let me rephrase that. Nearly one tenth as many stars as there are in the country, away from all the lights. And then we started a campfire. The flames wouldn't catch, and time after time the burning embers would die away. But then my dad brought over a burning log from a different campfire (Thank you neighbours) and that finally got the fire going. A word of advice: don't stand directly where the smoke is coming out. I learned the hard way. I know, it is common sense, but I didn't really realize that smoke was different from steam... Anyways, just don't do it. Your eyes sting. A lot.

After about an hour of sitting huddled around the campfire in our parkas, (yes, you read it right. Parkas. In August. It was much colder than we had expected, and by nighttime, I was frozen to the bone. I'm talking four layers. So if you go near the end of summer, PACK WARM!!) we got up, brushed our teeth, washed our faces, used the washroom, washed our feet, and ran back. We ran partly because it was cold, and partly because we had washed all the bug repellent off and the mosquitos were attacking every bit of bare skin there was on our bodies. When you go, bring bug repellent. You'll need it.

I even got a mosquito bite on my butt. Yes. That deadly little sucker pierced through my jeans and my underwear and bit me.

Anyways, when we ran back, we had a warm electric mat waiting for us. Don't know what that is? It's pretty much something you put under you when you sleep, and it heats up so you can sleep without freezing to death. We didn't go in an R.V., we just went in our van, so we felt the need to bring our electric mat. So finally, we slept on an electric mat all warm and cozy and slowly drifted off to sleep.

That's the end of day one, everybody, I'll be back soon with day two!!