ALASKA BOUND 2023 / Canada Crossing /Harvest Host/ RV Lifestyle / Driving the ALCAN / RV Road Trip

Is there any weapons or ammunition on board? So is it going to fit? This is the first time we've done this. I do not know. You don't know. Comment and tell us how to pronounce it. Exactly, but what we do know. I see bear poo or did I see moose poo? This is the crown jewel, Helmken Falls. Good morning everyone. Well we are on I guess day one officially of Alaska. Yeah. And we are, but we're still in America. So we have 117 miles to the Canadian border. So we left the campground this morning, our thousand trails. Did a little bit of water fill up. Yeah. Okay so you're wondering why I'm recording David backing up. We're backing up to the heated water hose here at the lodge because we have to fill up our bladder. This is what we're going to probably be doing in Alaska. So will the bladder fit without putting the seats down? I do not know. You don't know. It's the first time we've done this. So that's why we're doing it here. While we have time. While we're not rushed. It's a gorgeous day. Look what David's wearing. Look what I'm wearing. Sport my earmuffs. My parka. Jeans. Boots. Even the little birdie on top of the flagpole says it's a pretty day. So is it going to fit? Looks like it will. So the campsite that we're staying in, it's still winter time and we have electric and sewer but not water. So actually this is going to be good to test this whole thing out. Does that thing have a valve so you can turn it off so all the water won't go squirting up? It won't go squirting up with the valves on this one. Yeah it won't pop out. There's not that much pressure. Trust me I've done this a few times. Yeah but that was on the back of the truck. That's true. Artemis is going to be our water boy. All right well how's it feeling? Is it doing pretty good? Doing good so far. All right. This is like watching water boil. I'm actually curious to see how full our tank will get from... Oh from this? I should do a before and after picture of the mark. Well I know it's at about 25 percent. Is it right at 25 or below? I'm guessing a little bit below. Touch it. Well I think we're just about there. All right. I think I'm going to turn it off and we will head on back and pump it. Okay so it survived. We heard a lot of sloshing but it looks good. Looks good. And why are you getting into the hydraulic system here? Because. Because. I installed some power ports. Oh so nice. Is that nice? That looks really good. Yeah. And you did that on both sides? I did on both sides. One for the macerator and this one for pumping fresh water because this is our fresh water fill. And I can hook up the pump into that which we'll see in a moment and off we go hopefully. All right cool. Look at those big old power ports. That's nice. Look at that. Look at that. So cool. Does that look good or what? So this is the pump that David did a video on that he built. Water transfer pump. This is exciting. I love testing out new systems. Yeah. Very exciting. When we tested this we've never actually used it. Used it. Like. Cool. For real. All right. So you guys are seeing this in action. So he's plugging in. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Okay. I don't know. I've probably got. I guess with everything here if I brought it all out. I guess I've probably got about 75 feet. Oh my goodness. I've never used all of it. But just in case. But I've used enough. There's a nice little shorty hose. Right. And then you've got the big hose there. A little reach to that. Yeah. Boy I get the honors of turning it on. Yeah. See that water flowing good. And fuel fill up. Yes. The last one. Last one in a American. I'll say low prices but we're in Washington. So not so low. Not that low. No. It's like a dollar more a gallon in Washington versus what is Idaho. Yeah. Montana. Yeah. Surprising. Well not surprising. No. Yeah. Heading up to the border and once again this trip, this drive is surprising us. Yeah. Right now we're heading right up the Columbia River and it's just. I mean the orchards. I mean I've. Wow. There are so many orchards. It's unbelievable. And a lot of them are coming in bloom now and I think probably within the next I don't know five days or so they're having a festival here. Oh excuse me. What in the world? Yeah. So we got some. Pickers. These orchards are being trained in almost these v-shapes. Yeah. They're making it more efficient to pick and prune and it's really amazing. It's almost artwork. It is like bonsai trees. Yeah. In some cases. So it's really cool. So Sandra's been like snapping. I don't know. She's only been going like an hour this morning. She's got like a hundred pictures already. Well okay. I've got 64 on this and probably yeah probably another 40 on my phone. Probably yeah. But it's beautiful and they're starting to bloom and we saw some really pink, purplish, violet, lavender-ish blooms. All kinds of flowers. Those might be cherries. I don't know. But I mean just literally just orchard after orchard after orchard after orchard. I'm just blown away by this. I mean there's except for where houses are there's literally almost no spare piece of land that it doesn't have an apple tree or some fruit tree on it. Yeah. It's incredible. It's beautiful. But we're yeah just heading up this valley and we got the water on one side. We got well and orchards all over. Yeah. On both sides. So on either side. We'll check back in once we get closer to the border. Hopefully they'll let us in. Hopefully they'll let us in this time and we won't be denied. No. Five miles from the border. About highway 97 sort of the terrain flattens out. Yeah. The last 50 miles and it's really kind of nice. Very nice. We're still following the river. The Okanagan River. Well actually we split off from the Columbia. Yeah. Now we're on the Okanagan. Yeah. So it's it's really cool and but it's a different terrain than before. It's wider. Still have those mountain sides but yeah it's it's really neat. Yeah and the orchards. Oh yeah the orchards are they're just packed everywhere. So getting close to the border but this trip we also had a surprise. One of our viewers reached out to us and wanted to meet us and actually give us a little personal tour. Yeah the Okanagan Valley. Yeah. So getting a little locals. I'm trying to say a local flavor. A local spin on the area. It's always good to talk to locals because you know that they know where all the good stuff is. Oh yeah. Yeah. So we're looking forward to that. It's kind of exciting and we're going to meet them on the other side of the border and then we're getting sightseeing. Yeah. They're going to show us where a place to park the rigs and then they're going to take us in their van and and just show us around the area. Give us a little bit of a tour. So that's kind of unexpected and and very exciting. It is. It's beautiful. Couldn't have asked for a perfect day. Oh it's sunny. It's 6 to 7 right now. It's supposed to be high like 72. It's just everything's coming together. Yeah it's really nice. So we'll get back when we're a little closer to the border. Yeah. Oh what questions do you think they're going to ask? Do we have any citrus firearms? I think citrus. Oh poultry, citrus and firearms. Yeah. Not citrus produce. I'm going to be more generic and say poultry, produce and firearms. Yeah. Now are they going to ask about like wine and alcohol? Do you think these guys will ask? I don't think so. I think it's just gonna well you know they might because we just drove through kind of some wine country but we're actually heading to wine country. Yeah. So I'm going to say no only because the big wine country is going to be on the other side of the border. Yeah I think so too. I don't think they're going to ask that but I think you're poultry, produce and firearms. And probably not bear spray because it's allowed now. Exactly. So they may ask about mace, pepper spray possibly. Yeah. Looks like they give us signs on the border, wait times and so far they're not even lit up. So what does that mean? We're thinking they're either closed or there's absolutely no wait. All right so half a mile. Oh it's right there. Yes it's a big building. Okay start the protocol. Yep. So there is glasses. Border crossing protocol. We pull out our passports, take off our glasses and when we stop we don't pop the air brakes. But in the motorhome we don't have to worry about that. Yeah and you also turn off your engine as well because it's just it's noisy. Nice and courteous. It's just pretty quiet. Yeah really quiet but I'm still going to turn it off. All right I think we need to shut this off now. Yes I think so. Getting close. Yes this is like the pre-screen. That's what I'm thinking. Oh I do have that cabbage so. Oh yeah. Yeah we want you to stop. Hi how's it going? Where are we headed? Alaska. Eventually Alaska. Okay have a lovely day and good meeting you. Thank you very much. Nice meeting you too. Don't forget to stop for Canadian customs. Oh yeah. This is US outbound. Oh okay. Oh okay. Gotcha. So we can't just like haul through there. Thank you. Appreciate what you do. So they're US. Are they Canadian? No they're US. Oh so we hadn't even gotten to Canada yet. No we're not in Canada yet. So they're just interviewing us to let us leave? That was weird. Yeah. Okay. Well there's only one lane open. We got our passport. Yeah right here. Yeah they gave him back. I was watching him. He looked like a wily one. Is there anybody here? I don't know. The light turned green. Yeah. It's magic. It's magic. Where is everybody? It's weird. Hi. Good. How are you doing? Good. Where do you guys live? We live in Texas. We're heading to Alaska for a vacation. You have arrived. All right. So we are in Canada. We are and as soon as we cross the border we go from apple orchards to vineyards. Yeah. I mean they're just covering. I mean literally. They're everywhere. Literally we we get out of the border and they're boom right there. Yeah this is crazy. Wow. Vineyards everywhere. Everywhere. This is fantastic. Wow look at all that. Man nice rolling terrain. It's uh yeah nice. Just made it through customs and guys were super nice. Really nice. Really nice and there is Bob. He's going to take us to a place to park and then we're going to start touring the area. Lake Osoyos. We're going to take a little tour this afternoon with Bob and Jerry. They've been very gracious to show us around their great city and neat part of British Columbia. We're looking forward to it. Just a gorgeous area. Lake Osoyos behind me. It's a gorgeous gorgeous area. Osoyos Lake. Both north and south. We just called the north half and south half. Straight across the highest peak you see over there is called Mount Chewbacca. Are you serious? From Star Wars? Yes. So that's on the U.S. side. Some of the gravel is glacial deposits. All right so we are here at a top secret racetrack facility and right next door is our wild horses. So David has finally seen wild horses at a top secret racetrack facility. Can you believe that? Row 14. This is our harvest host for the evening. Nestled in this gorgeous valley. A lot of trees here too. It's just starting to pollinate. We got to move. We got to move. We had a great first night. Our harvest host here in British Columbia, Canada. It was a fantastic first day and we're getting ready to head on today up to near Kelowna. We're going to see Skaha Lake I think and then stay at a provincial park. We hope if we can get in. It was a great day yesterday. It was a really nice dinner last night and we're in a not a vineyard. I was getting ready to say a vineyard. It's a cidery. It's actually an organic farm and the owners were fantastic and we had dinner last night and stayed the night. It was so peaceful and just a beautiful area. So we're gonna head on. and i knew it wouldn't last when tears turned out my face my mama said all the nights that end that you're feeling gradually fades away cause i'm growing up falling enough just trust i wish i could freeze this moment just never let it end walking through the snow when you're taking my hand all of those late nights on your couch when we just talked until midnight i just wish i could freeze this moment babe weeks and months and years they pass and i knew it wouldn't last when tears turned out my face my mama said all the nights that end and heartbreak gonna that you're feeling gradually fades away cause i'm growing up enough just trust in years they passed but then i found something around out well are we gonna do it oh oh you mean go around yeah so we have to turn left over there it's true pretty easy roundabout we just might we have to initiate our travel companions don't we so is it this road is it this road i missed that turn didn't i i think i have to go back yep sorry sorry guys yeah yeah gee my bad going in circle we're with david you have to ask that question oh you don't know that you're pretty sure we can fit a lot of trees i can't see they at least have sight links i mean this isn't gonna be like a tent camping no they list no sight oh they what wait they list no sight links no no there's no they don't list an individual site with the length of the site so we're going into sight unseen that's good i've been hanging around you too long hi we're coming to you live from canada british columbia she was not expecting that all right so it's day two of our alaska journey we're in canada british columbia and we're up here in colona we took a part of the day to drive up here and got here on the lake at a provincial park really nice super pretty yesterday was wow very unexpected that was like the best first day of a trip a person can ever ever ever i mean it was really cool it was super cool there's nobody at the border oh man we breezed right through the guys were super nice there both on the u.s and the canadian side yeah yeah really nice guys and then bob and jerry met us they were the ones who were going to show us around oh soyos and so they reached out to you they're they're viewers of the channel hey bob and jerry so so they met us at the border boy did we got more than we bargained yes it was absolutely amazing it was really nice yeah they went to the top of the hill we had this gorgeous overlook view oh yeah and then we drove further on up to the valley yep and we found this secret area 27 area 27 don't tell anybody and so they did race car driving yeah race car driving private owners yeah so if you ever want to take your smart car up there you can race it yeah i think more ferraris and mclarens are actually occupying the track time but the best part of that was david got to check something off his list and it wasn't the donkeys from oatman no it was wild horses yes actually they call them feral horses up here but they're wild horses yeah it was wild and then oh they had little foes little babies and they were so cute yeah they're running around with their moms and such so yeah that was really a neat experience very unexpected we saw the signs yeah but then all of a sudden they peered out of the woods yeah and that was just right next to the racetrack yeah they were unfazed by all the motorcycles that were going around the track at the time really a cool afternoon and then they showed us they went to a couple of wineries and that was a lot of fun we got to taste some wine yep and then after that we um we ended the day he escorted us to the harvest host where we stayed for the night um really phenomenal dinner oh yeah and it was really nice um i'll put the name uh down here yeah and it was just super nice i'm just like brain overload i can't think of it but it was row 14 restaurant it's really cool because it's a totally organic farm this couple moved from vancouver and they they came in they bought five acres and now they have a 65 acre farm yep 38 i don't know why i remember these numbers but 30 acres is farm and 30 acres is orchard so it's non-vineyard yes and it's organic uh all organic and they're just super people super sweet people they give back to the community they they sponsor a lot of homeless and feeding the family feeding families not homeless but the food was phenomenal yeah we had things that we just normally don't have and they were delicious they were so that that was so much that was really nice at a nice provincial park uh we're roughing it here by the lake yeah and it's just really a nice day and this is a great end to the day oh but but got to go to the canadian superstore oh yeah that'll be something else yeah so that'll probably be a separate video but i think so everything we got that we wanted was on sale oh yeah and we had the the exchange rate so we got advantage of that so i'm really excited this it's wow so far so far day two day two can it get any better i don't know i don't know so we're going to hit the road tomorrow and we'll take it easy and we're going up to another provincial park it'll be up near cam loops a little north of there and we're having some spectacular weather so we're going to enjoy it in this area for another day yeah so we're glad you're coming along and come along with us tomorrow and we'll see what happens yeah what's next what's next don't think i'm turning right yeah i don't know if i'd turn right either so the posted sign is 179.9 the tsd card is saying 148. so where was it that we got fuel like this in iowa so we know how to work this now i think cedar uh i think cedar rapids yeah oh the places you'll go okay so not that i am trying to justify anything but we are at a canadian truck stop and look there are no soda fountain machines here well there's no picture of david pumping because there was no joy in that fuel stop so the t this fuel station was on the tsd app and they tried the card it didn't work and we've been seeing a dollar 68 all all day long and these guys were a dollar 96 per liter canadian so we're we're heading to a another place it's got to be a dollar 60 something and this town it's a town of cam loops is a town of like a hundred thousand people so i'm sure we'll be able to find something better oh yeah there'll be a selection i'm sure yeah so we got 22 miles to our next stop and i'm sure we'll find something between here and there oh yeah yeah so we're checking out the petro canada to see if they have diesel well yeah 166 nice so that's 30 cents cheaper than the uh truck stop yes ma'am oh is that chicken i'm smelling i think it is it might be chesters it is chester oh it is chester's gotta love canada that is so funny it is we don't see chesters going across the u.s except for once or twice and now in canada yeah northern washington and here they're everywhere gotta love canada it's a little snug in here it is a little snug in here i tell you it's always weird uh fueling in canada because it's in liters yeah i look up there and i say oh man 23 gallons it's divide by 3.3 something got a ways to go yeah i see 166 but that's cents not dollars yeah per liter yeah now there's a brown sign up there that's it palm lake provincial park you feeling lucky i'm feeling lucky i think we're gonna get a site no reservations no reservations first gorgeous right next to 130,000 population town oh i think we're gonna score a site oh you think so i think so i hope so we'll see it says campground so there's is it to the right right uh-oh it is closed can't be closed it says it is closed that is the campground and it is closed gate closed 10 to 11 they said there was no alerts nothing that it was open well a scheduled stop for lunch and we thought maybe a campground and we find out that it's closed now the website doesn't mention anything about it but we pull up to the gate and it is locked closed sign and everything and because we're in a motor home with a toad we can't back up so we had to drive all the way down this windy road to this beautiful paradise so we had a gorgeous view for our lunch and it was nice so now we just got to figure out plan b yeah so we're gonna head back up the road yeah get to the next place yeah man all right well so there's no cell service down by paul lake so we came back up we're driving along the highway finally found a phone number after multiple attempts to find somebody we found a live body but because the service was scratchy they said they wouldn't talk to us until they could hear us clearly so we finally found a place to pull over we pulled over and called back and you checked oh that's a bear a bear well it's not a bear but it's a sign for a bear yes so anyhow yeah if it was a bear she would have dropped that phone yeah you guys would have been just gone so so anyhow we finally pulled over we got service i got a hold of a really nice gentleman and we said what's availability for paul lake and he said well it's first come first serve and we said okay well why is the gate closed he's like i don't know so let me go check so he put us on hold for a couple of minutes came back he's like yeah it doesn't open up till may 12th which was the same date that it opens up for reservations not first come first serve but the website does not list that no it doesn't as a i even thought it was open so you've been vindicated good job so it wasn't you um so then we tried the two other parks that you were going to stay at one of them he said was closed so that's good to know that even though the website doesn't say anything that the campgrounds closed even though the entire park is open yes website was very clear the park is open and this is one of the largest provincial parks yeah in bc the name of it i can't remember well it's gray so wells gray park is open the visitor center is closed the website says it's open and the so thank goodness we called so since this guy was so helpful it's one of the disadvantages of being a helpful person someone's gonna go oh man well i've got someone who knows something i've latched onto them we found a campground it's first come first serve so we'll we'll see so this was our backup plan so that's good news yeah and it's going to alter our schedule moving forward by just a day but but no problem because but this kind of puts us in the no fly zone too a little bit but we'll lay low for two days yeah so if we can get to the campground and just hide out and this video is going to come out after may 1st so yes so we'll be okay um because of the restrictions and there are certain roads in canada that uh you can't drive on unless you have special tires may 1st onward or may 1st before but so far we've been legal now if this video doesn't come out uh the week of like may 3rd or 4th and someone may need to bail us out with because that means we got caught yeah all right we made it means they're open too how are you feeling about this one i'm feeling really good about this one well that's what you said about the last one too i think we're gonna find two spots you think so huh so you're feeling a little bit better than the last one we were at this i was feeling pretty good on the last one until i wasn't no it's closed no it's closed i'm growing up falling in love giving you wrong might not be enough just trust your head and your heart that's what my mama said i wish i could freeze this moment just never let it end through the snow when you're taking my hand those late nights on your couch when we just talked until midnight i just wish i could freeze this moment babe weeks and months and years they pass and i knew it wouldn't last when tears turned all the nights that end in hate that you're feeling gradually fades away