Familar Roads Also Reflect Change

Photo: The stockyard in Tofield where cattle are auctioned.

It's good to be home after spending the past two days on the road. Driving familiar highways is always interesting; the road is never twice the same. After getting from Viking to Kelowna in a single day, and managing a lunch rendezvous at Tim Horton's in Cochrane with friends travelling in the other direction, I promised myself I'd make the last leg of the journey quick and easy. I would take the Okanagan connector and the Coquahalla Highway.

But after a visit with another friend and good night's sleep , I couldn't resist the temptation to drive along the lake. The sky was gray and rain was threatening, but it didn't fall until Oliver and Osoyoos -- the semi-arid grape-growing places in the far south of the Okanagan.

"Sorry the weather is bad today," apologized the proprietor of the fruit stand where I stopped in Osoyoos.

"Not your fault," I assured her. In truth I was rather taken by the gray skies and wet roads of a place that is almost always sunny and hot. Cool weather is nice for driving too. I kept the windows closed and the car smelled like an orchard.

"Fill the car with Okanagan fruit and vegetables," said my husband, and I took him literally. Peaches, cherries, tomatoes, three kinds of cucumbers, four kinds of peppers, new potatoes. A watermelon, a cantaloupe, four kinds of plums. Elephant plums were new to me. "We only have one tree," the orchard woman said, so of course I had to try some.

After lunch in Osoyoos, with a brilliant view of the lake, I was soon pulling up the long hill out of town. The "Great Wall of Tires" is still there, a few kilometers west, I noted with satisfaction. This is a corral built entirely of discarded tires, except for the gates.

What have I forgotten? I wondered as I drove into Keremeos and started passing fruit stands again. I had everything, and lots of it, but I still got some onions, both red and white, and some Mackintosh and Sunrise apples too. After my last fruit stand stop, I flew on past Bromley Rock on the Similkameen River, a favourite family swimming hole from trips long past.

Driving the Hope Princeton Road is the price I choose to pay for the joy of driving through the South Okanagan to enjoy driving past the fruit on the trees and the grapes on the vines. I always start that journey with a rest and snack in Princeton, followed by lashings of coffee. My old road stop cafe, the Belaire, has had a face lift, including the menu, which now includes a delicious curried chicken soup, perfect for the chilly evening.

The first few miles out of Princeton are steep and full of saddlebacks and S curves. It was mid-afternoon when I drove past the burned skeletons of trees on the hillsides where the forest fire closed the road a couple of years ago. Through Manning Park, the road continued narrow and winding, though it now has wide clear sections and plenty of passing lanes.

All through Manning and Hope and into the Fraser Valley, the road was lashed with a relentless rain that splashed off the pavement in a way that made driving seem like navigating a cloud. So little could be seen; nothing was visible but enough roadway to drive on and some shadowy trees on either side.

The last miles seem the longest on a car trip. But the reward is wonderful: a safe arrival to greet family, cat and home after an absence that makes them all the more dear.