Doing Just Fine Driving
August 16, 2006 | Tips from Us > Kamloops, Scenic Drives
On my journey this last weekend I experienced utopia down the stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway (good ole #1), between
Kamloops and
Chase . I had Johnny Cash blaring in my ears and warm wind streaking through my hair, which was still wet from swimming in the North
Shuswap Lake , but drying fast. I was a happy traveller and doing just fine. So fine in fact, I wanted to share it with you.
At this point on the road, the highway runs along the South Thompson river at the bottom point in the “V” between two cowboy-country mini-mountain ranges, with the meandering river splitting the valley in two. Train tracks run sandwiched between the riverbank and the roaring sound of motorcycles, RVs, and pick-up trucks pulling speedboats and dirtbikes. The hills on the highway side are covered in Ponderosa Pine, with green agricultural lands butting up against where the needles start. I drove by roadside fruitstands, rodeos and golf courses. On the other side of the river I could see eroding cliffs of dusty earth, farmhouses, cows, horses and riverfront mansions. I would have liked to transform the highway into a dirt path and ride horseback. Or perhaps just float along the river on a log raft or inner tube!
As Cash’s rail-driving song, Legend of John Henry’s Hammer, was hammering away in my ears a long train passed by (or perhaps I zoomed by the train). Perfect timing! Sunny day, good music, and a perfect one-hour drive down a road meant for driving.
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