It’s
natural to bite off more than you can chew on that first
big RV trip. But the learning experience is truly invaluable.
Back
in 1972, I bought a brand-new Funcraft RV, which was
built on a Ford van chassis. I thought I was in heaven.
I could stand up in this RV. I wasn’t married
to Karen at this time. I was married to my first wife,
Lois, and we were young and foolish and wanted to travel
in our new RV.
I sat down and planned a trip west to Vancouver, south
to Los Angeles, then east to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon
and back home to Toronto. It didn’t look that
far on the map, so we decided to do it.
 It
was early May 1973 and we loaded up the Funcraft and
started heading northwest through Ontario. We were pretty
green at both RVing and planning trips of this length.
Our first discovery was that Ontario was not a small
province. Our first stop was Sault Ste Marie; next we
drove to Sioux Lookout to visit with friends. Two full
days on the road and we were still in Ontario. Finally,
on the third day, we saw the Welcome to Manitoba sign,
and soon arrived in Winnipeg. I had planned a whole
day in Winnipeg and we took the local bus tour. Back
on the road, we continued west to Regina, then on to
Calgary. The Trans-Canada Highway was not the best of
highways to travel on back then. When we got to Calgary
we were able sit back for two days, well maybe a day
and a half.
Leaving Calgary we headed west into the Rockies and
we went to see Lake Louise. We parked in the parking
lot by the hotel, and walked over to the lake and just
as we got there, a gentleman who worked at the hotel
told us that a snow storm was coming in and if we didn’t
leave now we might be snowed in. A quick two minute
view of Lake Louise and we were back into the van and
heading back to the Trans-Canada Highway making our
way over to Kamloops, British Columbia. One thing I
remember was that every time we were on the east side
of a mountain, it snowed. When we came to the west side,
it seemed to stop. That evening as we listened to the
news we learned that Lake Louise had received a three-foot
snowfall.
...
Take care
& Happy Family Day
M.B. & Karen Wilson
Wagon Masters
rvtours@interlog.com |
