halfway through-a review

We've had a wonderful week " off " in Vernon with both our kids, their spouses, 5 dogs and Ariana, a very adorable and fun 2 year old ! Now , off to the Kootenays for a few weeks Lord willing. So far, we left Comox valley, drove north to Port hardy on Vancouver Island, took the " northern Adventure" ferry to Prince Rupert, drove the gorgeous scenic highway from Prince Rupert to Terrace, a loop from Terrace to Kitimat and back to visit Casey & Kim. From there we drove to Prince George, took the Yellowhead from PG east towards Jasper, then turned south towards Kamloops . From Kamloops we took the 97 via Monte Lake to Vernon with the family. We took our own mini trip to the Salmon Arm area this past wknd to attend an Auto swap meet . Thats a story for another blog post, but note to self-we are not the demographic they are looking for... hahaha. We've been doing our own campsite ratings along the way . Our criteria for a 10/10 campsite is different as we don't need hookups or the usual amenities and like to be in small, uncrowded ,off the beaten track sites, hence our preferred choice of Forestry or Recreational places. The positive side of travelling in an old Van is we can do some off roading ( now we have new tires, thanks Dan) and its stress free ( Barring break downs or falsely reading gas gauges) Its been a very mixed group of places we've stayed so far between Private, Provincial, Forestry and Free. I'm all for just pulling over anywhere and stopping, but those days are probably gone. A sad result of the times we live in is the amount of people forced to live in their RVs, many with other problems, so it brings some hassles. Van's doing ok - one broken gas gauge, 2 new rust holes ,a drooping fan belt and one new starter motor later but no tow trucks! Next , a Kootenay loop- we aim to drive along Hwy 6 from Vernon to Nakusp, south to Nelson/Kaslo and back to Vernon along the very south border of BC. It will be interesting to see how much things have changed in the Kootenays in the 20 plus years since we were last there.