Dry town - no martini!



Dragon Fly Cafe - Salmo, B.C.

We rode East from Trail on Highway 3, there was a mist on the Columbia River and the sun was peeking thru the clouds as we climbed the mountains to Salmo.  We stopped for breakfast at the Dragon Fly Café, it was a great interlude, our waitress was very chatty and told us a lot about the area.  It was busy with customers coming in and out for their java fix of “Kicking Horse Coffee”.  My favourite kind of stop!

We continued on to Creston, Fernie, Pinchers Creek, Alberta for lunch and then at Fort Macleod we headed south on Highway 5 to Cardstone.  No martini tonight, this town is DRY!!!   We were told that we could drive the 14 kms to the border, cross into the USA, buy our liquor at the duty free and then return to our hotel in Cardstone.  We didn’t do it!

It has been a while since we have ridden this highway and I had forgotten how beautiful it was.  The rivers, mountains, alpine meadows and then the rolling ranch land dotted with the Windmills.  They have had a lot of rain this year and everything is very green, the deer and livestock are definitely enjoying the grass.

We have been surprised at the volume of traffic it is way down compared to other trips.  The camp grounds are empty; there are not any big lines of cars waiting for an opportunity to pass.  The economy must be a lot worse than we realized; we have seen three very large sawmills that are no longer operating.  They had huge dry kilns but now everything is quiet.   Where have all the jobs gone? 

Pizza and Cream, Cardstone, Alberta had great pizza, ice cream and a restaurant of old memorabilia.  Black and white tiles on the floor, every table had a juke box with the phone, lots of Elvis posters and pop bottles.  I am too young to remember it but Al walked down memory lane!!!

553/1369 kms