Jun 27-28, 2023 - Andiamo to Vancouver

We enjoyed our second day in Osoyoos relaxing, then enjoying a pub lunch at the Owl Pub before hitting the laundry machines for the last time this trip. In the evening enjoyed a dip in the warmest fresh water lake in Canada a little dinner as we watched, Cocaine Bear, off our main TV using our firestick. So yeah, still “always home”.

We departed in the morning right at the 11:00 am check out time and began making our way home with the last stretch on the Hope - Princeton Hwy, known as The Crows Nest Highway. We have travelled this highway many a time but didn’t realize how demanding it was until you do it towing a trailer. So once again, this truck had to really work today and work it did - all good, the truck did well.

We did stop at the Manning Park rest area for a trailer lunch which was excellent. What made it so excellent was that it began raining just as we pulled in. Not just regular rain but cats n dogs, thunderous rain, so good to sit this one out in our rig. When we were ready to go, the rain stopped, now that’s great serendipitous timing. 

We are staying one night in the Cultus Lake Thousand Trails to close the chapter on this amazing 52 day journey. We are doing our last night here because in the morning we are, once again, dropping our Andiamo off at the dealer for some more warranty work, again nothing major but some items that need addressing. Funny thing about this RV Park, there are some sites that are annual sites, some with 30amp full hook ups, some 30 amp with water only and several 15 amp service sites. We attempted a few sites but they only had 15 amp with water so we decided to take one of the huge 15 amp sites away from all the very packed part of the park. We figured why bother snuggling up to another RV when, for the same services we could get a great treed site with the same services. Okay, we may not have ac tonight but it should comfortably cool down. Note: after set up I did find four sites with 30 amp and water but we are happy where we are. Also funny about this park, there are no dump stations? This I find very strange. I was told the park next door has a dump facility, hmm, not sure how they feel about other campers dumping in their park. Lol. I will check my app for a convenience dump site along our journey back to the dealer.  There will be a summary in a few days. I hope you enjoyed our first real journey in our Andiamo, more to come I assure you. Will let you know our future plans in the summary.

For now, a few pics of our last few days, hope you enjoy…

Lunch at the Owl pub, Poke bowl for Jan, Taco salad for me.

I’m a sucker for a good taco salad. This one did not disappoint.

A dip in the warmest fresh water lake in Canada.

Beautiful sunset on this night.



Our set up.





Our set up at Cultus Lake.





Great pool and facilities here.

Jun 25-26, 2023 - Andiamo to Osoyoos, BC

The TT Little Diamond was a nice peaceful place for two days to recharge before embarking on our border crossing stretch coming back into Canada. When we jumped into the truck this morning and banged in the Osoyoos address it showed about 3 hours and 48 minutes. Okay, that looks about right so off we went. Well little did we know that this GPS knew about a border crossing at Midway that we did not know existed. When we were about 11 miles from a border crossing our little GPS told us to turn left which led to another summit crossing. The GPS then indicated that we were 46 kilometres (30 miles) to the crossing. Hmmm. But our eta was still good, well let’s go for it.

So it was up and down twisty roads, hey look two cows on the road, wow, we continue through an area that looks like it was ravaged by a forest fire not to long ago, a bit spooky looking, we continue. At about 3 kilometres to the crossing we were actually on Border crossing road, okay.

We come upon a smallish building on the side of the road, two bays, one for cars, one for trucks (Rv’s etc). The sign says stop and wait for the border officer. We wait. Two minutes later a uniformed officer comes out to greet us. “What brings you over here” he says, we respond with, “well our gps brought us to you”, “ah you can’t rely on gps”. We share a chuckle. He goes through the usual rigmarole as he becomes more interested in our Airstream. Just then a pickup pulls into the other bay. He takes our passports and says he will be right back. Jan’s window is open at this point when he comes back and hands her the passports and wishes us safe continued travels. So this time our GPS saved us by going this way across the line. Yeah.

Now for our last challenge, the hill leading into Osoyoos from the east, it’s nasty. It is long and steep with some tight hairpin turns. The last thing you want to do is ride the brakes all the way down. We are in tow / haul mode which allows me to give the brakes a couple of pumps which indicates to the transmission that we need some help here. The tranny in turn gears down to give you this help. The truck did well with never getting beyond about 4200 revs. We arrived safely at our, two night, overnight stop at the NK’MIP RV Park. This is a beautiful large RV Park right on the eastern banks of Osoyoos Lake. We stayed here a few years ago on our RV test run but that was in October, now, at the end of June it is much busier. Just to recap, this RV Park is part of a winery, along with vacation condos, a horse riding area as well as all the beach activity toys one needs. Rent a ski boat, kayak, paddle board, all available here. This RV Park also has the best, right on the beach, off leash, doggy park. We will enjoy our two days here. Dinner to night was at the winery, just fantastic.

Some pics of our last few days, hope you enjoy…

The lake at the Little Diamond RV Park



Our great site for two nights.

Pool, clubhouse with pool tables, ping pong, even a frisbee golf area 















Our phone GPS a few days prior to our crossing day. So the truck was about right.

Yup, two cows walking on the road. Don’t think she was expecting us.Lol



An beautiful, interesting drive.




A fabulous meal at the winery restaurant. Sampler food.

June 23-24, 2023 - Andiamo to Newport, Washington

Whew, a long but beautiful drive as we dodged storms to left and the right of us. 9 1/2 hours later and almost 800 kilometres or 500 miles later we arrived safely at our next lay over stop here in Little Diamond Lake in Newport, Washington. This includes leaving Idaho, driving mainly on Montana, then crossing back into Idaho (a crazy shaped state) before crossing the last bridge into not only Newport but a new time zone, one hour back. Why do this all in one stretch and break away from our rule of no more than 3 hours of driving or 300 miles? Well, this was a test to see how we could deal with a longer drive, that and we wanted to get the lion’s share of the driving coming back out of the way. 

So how did we do, well pretty good actually, well we did better than the truck with our a/c dying about 2/3’s in. The drive was pretty demanding on the truck with towing through many mountain summits, we pushed it hard. I believe what happened is that the systems were working so hard that the a/c compressor became overheated and a sensor shut it down before any damage. I will confirm this with the dealer at time of service. That said, all my other readings like, engine and oil temps all stayed level without any cautions. I turned off the a/c for about an hour and a bit and when we were about a half hour away, I switched it back on and we were back in business, so all good.

A few pics of our last few days. We stayed close to home on our day 5 and enjoyed the nature around us at the campground. I think this is a good campground for those visiting Yellowstone. It is about 25 minutes out of the west gate and offer good size, treed sites with full hook ups (50/30) all for about 85.00 / night (at this time of year). I did do a comparison to the KOA parks closer to the West Gate and the prices there were closer to 150.00 /night. 

The campground here  in Newport is a partnership park with KOA and Thousand Trails. There is distinct sections between each, the TT sites seem to be larger with more trees between the sites. The hookups are water and 30 amp power, no sewage. So for us great for a few nights as we typically fill our tanks by the end of the third day, so our two nights works perfectly. More on our stay here later. 

Again, our pics of the last few days… 

The Snake River.





Fly fishing is huge here. I’ve yet to see anyone catch anything 



New office/store at the RV grounds

Laundry, bathhouse with ping pong and horseshoe pitch.

Our corner site, number 58.



Scenic driving



Storms to the left and right of us, pleasant weather for our route.

Crossing into Washington State.