I was thankful that I waited before heading further north. This time the road to Omak was lovely, and the numerous apple orchards all in bloom. A wildflower in the daisy family grew in clumps on the hillsides. Of course, within a few days I would be back to early spring and possibly snow on the hillsides but I was happy for now. 

I made a planned stop in Omak to pick up my General Delivery mail, get the oil changed in Alice ($20 at Walmart) and pick up a few supplies. After a deli lunch at the fairgrounds and a long walk for Tango, we headed straight for Canada, about an hour north. I was a bit nervous because my Canadian is a bit rusty, but I knew I had enough still to make my needs known.

A  mild discombobulation set in as soon as I crossed the Canadian Border near Oroville, WA. Sometimes when I travel in a “different setting”, I feel discombobulated and do silly things.Throughout the years, though, I tend to dust myself off and get by just fine. The only thing that came close to derailing a trip was slipping on a dock when I exited a water taxi in Venice. Even that turned out okay, thanks to an extended lunch of wine, cheese, and fresh sardines.

Here is what started it this time: the first sign I saw in Canada was a speed limit sign in kilometers. I had previously noticed that Alice has a button that will change the digital speedometer read out from MPH to KPH and was able to find it and get back on track. The going was slow – in both MPH and KPH –  through the heavily populated Okanogan Valley. It was not what I expected. Think overpopulated Napa Valley. 

I persisted through the traffic and used my cell phone to veer from my original plan and navigate another way to Kamloops, BC. Once there, I pulled into a grocery store and, at that moment I received a text from Verizon with bad news. I was roaming and was up to $50 in charges already. I had previously called Verizon and reality is not at all what they told me months ago, in terms of service in Canada and Alaska. The people who know all the accurate stuff are in the International Group, whose phone number was in the text. I stayed in the car, called the International folks, and talked to my new love, Randy, who was in a call center in Albuquerque. He saw that I am from NM as well and he was super nice. Randy took a long time, explained everything, and backdated a small package of roaming data for $10.00. He also educated me properly about cell and data service in Alaska, something I will share on another day.

Next, I dashed into the store since it was cool enough to leave Tango in the car,  When I got back I was exhausted and decided to close my eyes for just a few minutes. Bam! Two hours later I woke up. Wow! I walked Tango and we jumped back in the car to get going but the car battery was dead. When I pulled into the store hours earlier I left the lights on.

Like a ninny, I went back to the store and asked at the front desk if they could help me. Nope. Call your tow service.

Back at the car, with my new little cell package in place, I called Geico’s emergency road service in the U.S. Nope. They don’t cover me in Canada, the one contingency I did not consider before leaving NM. The service rep did connect me with a local towing service, which was decent enough. That guy said they could come in about 30 minutes. For some reason, he told me that they only take Visa cards and, since I only have MC. I told them I would go back to the store and get cash (another story for another day). They wanted nearly $65 Canadian which really isn’t that bad. I had paid triple that when stranded with the RV in a remote place in the U.S. where my tow service didn’t get to either. Hmmmm. 

So, about 30 minutes later the guy showed up and it took all of 5 seconds. Alice is not complicated and the battery is easy to get to. He asked me what they quoted me. Then he asked if I was paying cash. I said yes, and he told me to give him a $20 and we would call it good. I did not ask him to do this, which entailed telling his boss that someone else already jumped the car, but I did accept. A budget saved once again!

I breathed deep and walked Tango one more time before taking off. I remembered that, in my experience, there is a lesson in every mishap. My lesson that day:  Do not drive off on back roads through the mountains. Without towing or emergency road service and with limited cell service, I should stay on the main road. Turns out, the main road was a gorgeous drive north along the Northern Thompson River (along the west side of the mountains that hold Jasper and Banff) and then west along the Fraser River, into Prince George.

Lesson learned, a small price paid. Onward!

BTW – Kamloops is a pretty little city built on hills, like SF. Prince George is the first “outpost” type city, like the ones that I have imprinted in my mind from reading too many north country pioneer and mountain man stories.