Choosing The Wrong Fork In The Road...

So, when last we left this blog yesterday, I had been beaten in a stare-down contest by a mountain coyote. And, I was enroute from Calgary to Kelowna BC.

Now, I should tell you here that this was not the first time I've ever taken that trip. If you wanted to get technical about it, I've been over those mountains time and time again since I was a kid, coming back then all the way from Winnipeg (which I just discovered on the Late Late Show last night is also the hometown of actress Anna Paquin, of the upcoming X-Men movie...small world).

The only thing you really need to remember if you are traveling east in Canada, is to keep traveling east. Which I was doing, in conjunction with a hearty and robust singing of Take Me Home, Country Roads, by John Denver.

In Revelstoke, I ran into rain again, which had been some mild bit of amusement on the way down to Calgary. This time out, it was really making an honest effort. Enough of an effort to apparently make me miss a turn-off I wasn't even aware existed. An alternate route to Kelowna, adding 2 hours to an already long and wet trip.

As a short aside here, I should mention that even though it is alleged that 2000 people a day are moving to Calgary, they all spend the long weekend in the Okanagan. Almost every car and truck I passed had Alberta plates.

Sorry, there's another short sidebar. Alberta vehicles are apparently not required to have license plates on the front of their car. Which must indicate that the Alberta Correctional Facilities license plate shops must have a really good union...

But, I dissect.

About the time I hit Chase, and saw a sign indicating I was almost in Kamloops, I realized somewhere along the way I had blundered in my travels. As my blood pressure rose, so did my distaste for that high-pitched, whiny John Denver character. I sent that CD into orbit - to the place where it belonged...

It was here where I pulled over, and consulted a map. Not having a helicopter in the back of the Jeep my only options were to go back, or keep on until Kamloops.

But there was another option. One of those black roads on a map, that aren't a provincial highway. It seemed to be a shorter route, and would bring me closer to my ultimate destination.

10 minutes in, I realized that this was indeed no provincial highway. Not exactly a road a billy goat would be confident on either. Especially slicked over with rain. It also had no name on the map, so I had no way of knowing if it was even taking me where I hoped it would.

30 minutes later, I pulled out of the forest in Falklands, just north of Vernon. I was back on track, and about 90 minutes from home. Blood pressure returning to normal, I almost went back to get my John Denver CD, but determined I would buy another one instead.

Chow for now!!