“How come the daffodils and tulips are out now?” asked our Australian friends. “We don’t see them until September.”
They had just flown thousands of miles (and km) across the Pacific Ocean from Sydney to Vancouver and thence to Kamloops. We forgave them for being mixed up: they’d left autumn behind Down Under and jet-lag was playing havoc.
“It is spring here,” we reminded them gently. While it was noon our time, their internal clocks were chiming 5 a.m. and they’d had little sleep while in transit for the past 23 hours.
It was a beautiful time to show off our area. The hills of Kamloops had not yet turned brown. Fields were rich with new growth while deciduous trees and revitalized conifers added more variations of green. Trying to visualize the scene through their eyes, we appreciated our surroundings even more than usual. In between their catch-up naps, we took them out on short trips. Our town’s many resources were pointed out to these city folk, surprising them just how much we have. Company is always interested in seeing the exhibits at the Info Centre and we pick up maps so they can follow our route northwards into Wells Gray Park and its fabulous waterfalls. We impressed them with Helmcken, Dawson and Spahats, plus the Mushbowl.
To break them in gently for their upcoming tours, we planned a loop that took us out of town following the May Days Parade. John and I like the back roads, and we started with the road down the east side of the North Thompson River. Happily, a black bear bounced across the road in front of us before hiding in the brush just above the road near Dunn Lake. After finding delicious pie and ice cream at the Pizza Place in Barriere for our mid-afternoon break, we swung east from Louis Creek to Squam Bay. Calves dotted the paddocks or cavorted happily, and the waterfall part way through was exceptional. At the southern end of the lake, log booms floated far below, readily available to be cut into lumber at the Adams Lake sawmill.
Maps helped show how the waterways interconnect as we drove over the South Thompson River and reached Shuswap Lake. Beside our chosen motel, the swollen Salmon River rushing towards the lake touched the underside of the bridge over Highway 1. From the boardwalk that juts out into the lake, we observed dozens of pairs of mating western grebes. Their sounds fooled me into thinking they were frogs - but John was smarter than that!
He and I had looked for our new home in many places; following the Salmon River upstream past extensive fields and comfortable-looking ranch homes, we passed one such in Silver Creek. We whipped a U-ee to show them a quail couple, the male sporting his distinctive topknot. We looked in vain for “walnut-shaped” chicks. Hanging a west on Highway 97 (got your own map?) we pulled up in Falkland. Here we spent the day, wandering the Farmers’ Market, watching their parade, and taking in the exciting rodeo events. Horses bounced riders sky-high; resilient calves were lassoed and tossed to the ground. Lady-riders guided their horses through a series of intricate patterns. The show-stealer for my “old” high school buddy was seeing varying sizes of kids pursuing three small calves. “Get the pink ribbon from their tails!” Organized chaos followed until the coveted ribbons were given to the clown.
Leaving Falkland, we drove past the turf farms of Westwold, the fossil beds beside Monte Lake, and back down to the valley of the South Thompson. We’d managed to avoid crowded highway driving for much of this long weekend, but now the four-lane Trans Canada took us into Kamloops. From here they would catch a plane back to the coast and onto well-known tourist sights of the Rockies and Alaska.
“You live in a beautiful part of the world,” they purred, as we took them to the airport the following morning. While much more lay ahead of them, our part of B.C. had provided an eye-opening and warm welcome to Canada.