Road Trip Preparations Review

I'll tell you about our last week in Vancouver from August 3rd to August 9th.

Monday is a holiday, so we relax from our hike to Grouse Mountain. We sit in a café with WiFi and plan our route.

Our rough plan is to drive from Vancouver to Kitwanga and make a detour to Prince Rupert. There is supposedly a very beautiful national park here. After that, we will continue north from British Columbia to Whitehorse in the Yukon. The northernmost stop will be Dawson City. Then we will go back south through Nahanni National Park, to Alberta and the cities of Jasper, Banff, and Calgary, passing through the national park with the Rocky Mountains. The second to last stop is Okanagan in British Columbia before returning to Vancouver, where we will stay for four more days.

As I am writing this review during our trip, I can already tell you that we are currently in Dawson City and have already changed our rough plan several times! 😄

In addition, we are planning the route for Eastern Canada, which we will visit in September. But more on that another time.

Tuesday to Friday we are still working.

On Tuesday evening, we go to a pub near our apartment. It's so warm now that we can sit outside and watch an ice hockey game on TV.

Thursday morning the weather is so bad and it's pouring down! Since I don't have an umbrella, I make myself a rain poncho out of a garbage bag 😂

In the evening, we meet up with Rebecca, my German colleague who has returned from her road trip. The evening is so funny! She tells us some stories and experiences from her trip and gives us some recommendations.

We are in a bar that offers chicken wings for 50 cents each on Thursdays. The chicken wings are really delicious. You can choose from different marinades, sorted by spiciness.

Friday is my last day of work and I bring apple cake for my colleagues. In the afternoon, when I say goodbye to everyone, it's a bit sad. But I'm also really looking forward to our trip.

On Saturday morning, we pick up the car from the airport. Since we take the Skytrain to the airport, we initially can't find the car rental. And when we finally arrive there, there are several people waiting for their car and it's quite chaotic! The cars are usually too small for the renters, so they always come back and ask for a different car.

We are a bit worried that the same thing will happen to us and we won't get our reserved Jeep Compass. When it's our turn, we are given the keys right away and can start. It's not a Jeep - it's a Buick Envision - but the car is just as big and spacious.

Afterwards, we drive back to the city center because we want to meet the landlord. We didn't get our deposit back. But there is no rental company at the given address, only a parcel shop. Confused, we ask for a specific person who was introduced to us as the manager. And indeed, the "manager" is there. He has a few other companies and explains to us that we cannot get the deposit back because we paid the last rent too late. After a long discussion and a theatrical outburst from me, we are issued a $400 check. The whole situation is so crazy, confusing, and complicated that we are ultimately glad to have received more than we expected in the end.

Afterwards, we cash the check directly at the bank and after explaining the situation to the employee, she recommends that we have the check put "on hold" for now.

After all the stress, comes the nice part of the day. We go to Rebecca's place and buy her camping equipment. In one go, we already have all the important things. 😃

We just need to get the tent... yes, exactly... just like that! So we visit all the Canadian Tire and Walmart stores from Vancouver to Burnaby, but only find huge tents or 1-person tents.

In the evening, we drive back to the apartment without a tent, but with a few beers, and celebrate our last evening in Vancouver.

Sunday morning, we all bring our stuff to the car and say goodbye! One last time, we stop at Canadian Tire and buy a 6-person tent, after I strongly vetoed Julian's choice to buy a 2-person tent for kids/teens! 😄

Now it's time: We drive the first 100 kilometers to Abbotsford, where we want to do our grocery shopping. But before that, we make a 20-minute stop where we take everything out of the car and rearrange it.

Finally, all the necessary things are together and we embark on our adventure!

Director's comment: "The car drives off into the distance on the highway, getting smaller and disappearing as a tiny dot on the horizon!"

~~ To be continued ~~