Road Trip Canada - to Golden BC

Not a great deal of progress!

After driving the Meadows in the Sky Parkway, I still have some of the afternoon available, so visit the Revelstoke Railway Museum. It’s not as easy as you might think - although it is very close to town, it is the other side of the railway tracks. I have to wait for an endless train to go past to get there. A lot of the museum is actually about the building of the railways through the Rockies, rather than being an exhibition of lots of trains (there are some). The first account I see is of the Chinese workers - 15,000 or so of them - brought to do the heavy lifting, and treated miserably. They lived in tents year round, were paid a pittance and charged every cent they earnt for food: they stayed in the hope things would get better, but when the work stopped, they were left to fend for themselves. Not to say the other workers fared much better, but they were paid more and had actual housing, of sorts.

This velopecide would be quite funky if they fitted a motor to it, but as it is, it required its passengers to push and pull the handle to make it move - hard work!

I possibly did know this, but the caboose is the train crew’s home on the rails - this one has a cupola, so the conductor can see along the length of the train from above. One exhibit I particularly like is the first class carriage from the Mountaineer.

Look at the prices on this menu! (It’s not said how old it is).

After dinner, I’m wandering and hear music - they have a jazz band down from Golden (next town up) called Confluence Jazz. They perform a fairly wide range of material, not all jazz, but give it a jazz spin. I really like it and hang out for more than an hour - Molly has a wonderful voice.

Finally, it’s time to retire for the night - to the luxury of a RV park. It’s only a small one, quite like what we have in New Zealand, although one difference is that almost everyone has air conditioning: including me, now that I’m plugged in. I also take advantage of the camp shower: Brutus does have one, but it’s small and, worse, the pump doesn’t seem to have enough juice to let me get all the soap off before the water stops running. Here’s the shower - you may as well see the rest as well.

The bed is very comfortable - it’s been cool enough at night that I’ve been able to sleep fine, although it’s a bit warmer in Revelstoke, so the aircon is welcome. In the morning, I can grab a fantastic coffee from the Holm Coffee Company, at the entrance to the park, so don’t need to go into town.

I stop in at Golden to see if there’s anything to see - the gas station and Tim Hortons at the south end of town are packed, so I start to wonder if there’s anything else to the place. Luckily, there is: another wonderful café called Ethos, and a great bakery right next door.

I really shouldn’t, but the White Tooth Brewery is also there and looks so good, I pop in.

I’m really tempted to stop for the day - it’s raining and i really want good visibility for the next bit, but it is still early in the day, I have exhausted the delights of Golden and don’t have all the time in the world, so I press on.

[This is July 2 - 3, distance travelled from Vancouver 890 km]

Cheers!