Day 5 July 28, 2026 Merritt British Columbia to William Lake British Columbia 242 miles
Our little refrigerator is not cooling. Not sure the problem just yet but that meant we needed to purchase a cooler and some ice. Too bad we gave our cooler to Amy and family the other day. Merritt does have a Walmart so we went there. The coolers all seemed too big or too little. We finally settled on one and bought the ice.
That took some time so we didn’t get out of town until nearly 10:00. We were able to drive on the back road rather than the main highway. We followed along the lake for quite a ways. The shoreline had quite a few homes and RV parks. Some of the RV parks were filled with what must be full time residents because they had sheds, roofs or additional rooms. The traffic was much less but still quite a few semis.
We had to laugh because at one point in the lake there was a straight line of waterfowl. Most likely geese but Connie said they had their ducks in a row. We also passed a sign indicating a turtle crossing. We didn’t see any turtles however.
Further down the road we passed several farms. Pretty place to live this time of year. One farmer was harvesting grain that didn’t look ready yet. Then we came to several smaller lakes. These didn’t have the RV parks nor the houses.
Then we dropped down into the city of Kamloops. The metropolitan area population is about 127,000. We wound through quite a bit of the town to get to the backroads. We usually listen to an audio book when traveling and it pauses every time the GPS gives a direction. Sure makes following the story more challenging. We finally turned the story off until we got out of town.
Our fuel stop just happened to have an A&W attached so we had hamburgers and a root beer for lunch. A guy was there who said he saw us at the Walmart earlier.
Well we are back on the bigger highway. Two lanes each way much of the way. The climb up the mountain is really long and for us slow. On the long hill the car started to heat. We had to take a short break to let it cool down. A surprising number of logging trucks are headed in each direction which doesn’t make much sense.
Then the GPS decided to reroute us through a different area and then back on the main highway. We liked getting off that road but not sure how the side road reduced the trip by 20 minutes. The side road did have a bridge with a wooden floor. That was the first one we have seen on this trip.
The skies have been mostly cloudy all day but we came to a section that was very smokey. The winds have picked up as well which explains the smoke. We didn’t see flames nor fire fighting equipment.
We arrived in William Lake and spotted a Super 8. Rob went in to check on a room. Well they were full. The clerk called six other places before finding one with a room. Lots of fire fighters and support staff are staying in town. We will need to plan tomorrow more carefully perhaps.
Spoffords Travel 