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Never taken Highway 99 from Vancouver to Kamloops, but Highway 1 up the Fraser River valley is a beautiful drive. But hell, most of that drive you have there is beautiful.
When you turn off Highway 1 West of Banff onto Highway 93 to Radium.... that is a fun road you can break some speed limits on.
Good tip. Yeah, I've driven the Rockies from New Mexico to Idaho. Hard to go wrong.
Thanks everybody! The trip was smooth. Your Canadian scenery blew my socks off. 7.500 km over 10 days. Only one ticket but it was in Nevada. If it were in Canada, it was fast enough for a week impound and then some.
I did mount my winters the night before departure. Glad I did. Primarily because I curbed the hell out of my wheel in San Francisco. Also because there was a steady cold rain coming out of Vancouver and a snow/sleet mix going through Jasper. The Blizzaks melted a bit racing across the 37 degree Nevada desert and I put a hurt on them driving up the PCH. Wore them down to the cords.
For anyone else venturing to the Great White North, some additional tips.
Canadian Brother means something else.
A flashing green traffic light in Vancouver means pedestrian crossing. Flashing green in Alberta means the same as a green turn arrow. Or do I have that the other way around.
Gas prepay works a bit differently. In the US your credit card is is pre-authorized for $100 and that $100 is on hold until the transaction is cleared. In Canada you select how many dollars to charge your card and it is charged that amount. After pumping, any left over money is automatically refunded. Wasn't sure about the refund the first time. After that I just maxed it.
Saw signs on my route snow tires are mandatory on Oct 1st.
Settle in on route 99 out of Vancouver. No passing lanes and don't expect a pull-over. Or at least the van I followed didn't pull-over.
Vancouver border agents are cute.
Although I'm not sure if it's required, my insurance agent recommended a "Canada Non-Resident Inter-Province Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card". It's the same info as your regular card but is also in French.
Restaurants brings you a hand held terminal to pay by credit card. Kind of the same deal with gas, there is no pre-authorization for a tip. You select a tip on the terminal and the complete the transaction. To the waiter in Vancouver that I didn't tip, sorry. Got confused for a second.
94 octane ethanol-free gas was available at a few stations. Woo-hoo!
Montana border agents are a bit different. Among other things, I told mine I work in aviation. He gave me back my card and cleared me to proceed but was suddenly my buddy. He slid the door behind him and started asking me for any inside skinny on 9/11. Particularly Flight 93. He was looking for something to feed his conspiracy. It gets lonely in Montana.
Yes, AT&T considers Canada to be international travel.
Make sure your US bank has a partner bank in Canada. I assumed my Wells Fargo would work since Wells Fargo is in Canada. Canadian Wells Fargo is only commercial banking so no fee-free ATMs. Also currency exchange places are generally M-F. Found one open on a Saturday so I could tip at my hotel.
amazing trip. You just gave me an idea for my sabbatical.
Hard to beat the Canadian Rockies for scenery but that impound rule kept a cap on spirited driving.
For driving roads the highlights were NV-50 ("The Loneliest Road in America"), CA-120 (aka. "Roller Coaster Highway"), and, of course, the PCH. The road between Ft Bragg and Eureka California is like a 3 hour autocross course. Plus, at the end, you can drive through a tree.
09-08-2018, 12:38 PM
