Traveling to Lake Chelan and up the Okanagan Valley

The first day we traveled from Marysville to Lake Chelan State Park.  We decided to take Stevens Pass over the mountains and had a really nice ride. On arrival we found two other campers here, so we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves.

Camping at Lake Chelan State Park

As you can see it is really a primitive camp ground.  It had water, power, sewer dumps, paved site, two picnic tables, cell service, but no internet.

So we made the best of it for one night...

The next morning we were off to a free campground I found on the internet called Leader Lake.  It is located a short distance west of the town of Okanagan.  It is a BLM site with no amenities of any sort.  Just a spot to park your trailer next to a lake.  Much better, and you can't beat the price.  We spent two nights here.

Wild flowers were everywhere at leader Lake

Friday morning we  headed for the Canadian border at Osoyoos.  We are carrying with us a shotgun and that requires a permit, so we were pulled aside and told to report inside for further questioning.  They did a background check on both of us to make sure we were not felons, paid a $25.00 fee, and were on our way.  Oh yes, they checked my bear spray also!
Tonight we are at a RV park in Oliver BC, right on a lake.  If you click on the map to the right and enlarge it you can see where we are. There must be dozens of different kinds of birds here.  There are quail running all over the campground and a black bird has a nest right above our picnic table.

The only problem that has developed so far is a frig that has been to cold. There is no temperature control knob and most everything has partially frozen.  I got a chance to get on the internet today and found a solution to fix it.
Hope all is well with everyone.  Russ, Pat, Maddie, & Max.

Tonight's
 campground in Oliver BC.

Maddie chillín on the couch tonight

So how do you plan for a trip like this?

  This process has been a little intimidating.  Where do you start and how do you plan for a trip like this? We will probably travel over 5000 miles in the next 4 months. I have been thinking lately that I never planned this much for the boat trips we took.  Just today I finally realized why.  We were living on the boat so we already had everything we needed with us.  So there was no "to-do list", and "things to pack list", most of the planning involved deciding the routes we wanted to take and the places we wanted to stay. Since we have not owned a RV for several years, we also had to include a "things to buy list".  So making lists played a big roll. I would wake up in the middle of the night to add something to one of the lists.

Sources of travel information

 Travel Guides also played a big part in the planning. Find several good guides for the area you will be traveling to. Internet web sites also were important sources of information.  YouTube is really cool.  Once you find a place you want to visit, search for videos about the place.

My Map.

Make yourself your own personal travel map. Go to My Maps on google and create your own personal map. I discovered that the travel guides written by Mike and Terri Church include the GPS coordinates for the campgrounds.  If you enter these coordinates into the google map, it will place a icon at the exact spot of that campground.  Next enter the name of the campground and the coordinates in the information box for that icon.  Now enter those coordinates into your GPS navigation system and you have exact driving directions to the campground.  Here is an example of our map.  The red icons are commercial RV parks, the yellow icons are government campgrounds, and the blue icons are free campgrounds.

I took the process one step further and entered all the information from My Map onto a Excel spread sheet.  I included the following information:  Name of campground, distance from last campground, private or government campground, prices, amenities such as water, WiFi, laundry, power, dump station, and the GPS coordinates.

This is how the map and spreadsheet work together:  Pick out your next campground on the map, check the guide book or look on the spread sheet to see that it has the amenities you need for the night, enter the GPS coordinates into your navigation system, and off you go.  If you are at a campground with no internet, you can't see your map.  Look at your spreadsheet, pick out your next location, check the amenities, enter the GPS coordinates into your navigation system, and off you go.