Thursday, August 4, 2011 (Fort Steele Resort & RV Park, Fort Steele, BC)

Steve wanted to get outside washing the 5^th wheel by 8:00 this morning...so that meant we had to have a quick breakfast and get cleaned up.  The water would be turned off and sliders put in. But before we got started, I called Kimberley Riverside Campground...we were leaving here tomorrow and wanted to see Kimberley so we thought we would try to get into the one and only campground in Kimberley (at least I couldn’t find any others).  Well...no luck there...I guess Kimberley is having a Musicfest this weekend...sheesh all of these small communities seem to be having Musicfests!  Well, I guess we will just go for a drive after we finish up at Fort Steele this afternoon and check out a couple of Provincial Parks that are nearby.

It was about 8:25 when we started washing the trailer.  Steve wasn’t going to do the roof...so that saved some time.  I was he “hose girl” rinsing off the trailer after he had soaped it up.   It was a good mornings job...we finished just after 11:00 and after putting all the stuff away, Steve went in to have a shower, while I went over to put the load of laundry (I had managed to get away long enough to put on) in the dryer.  Once I was back, we had lunch...and then it was time to head over to see the train at Fort Steele Heritage Town.

It was another busy day there...the parking lot was just packed but a SUV pulling a tent trailer was just leaving as we pulled in so we managed to take his spot.  Well, we were disappointed to find that the train was not back in service yet... sounds like they may have to replace a part and it could take up to 2 weeks.  That’s too bad...we would have like to have seen it and gone for a ride.  Now it is the only thing we haven’t done or seen at Fort Steele Heritage Town.

Well...I guess we will just go for our drive now and check out those Provincial Parks.  Norbury Lake Provincial Park is 15 kms south from where we are.  It is a small park with small sites and the lake is on the other side of the highway.  Okay...it won’t work...scratch that one.  The other park, at Wasa Lake is a much larger park...hopefully, it will be better.  It is 18 kms north of here.  Unfortunately, we were very disappointed with it as well.  There is a big day-use and beach area on the left-hand side of the highway and the campground is on the right-hand side.  The sites there are also mostly too small for us plus the narrow roadway and overhanging trees could pose a problem...scratch that one too.

Great...now what are we going to do?  We had pretty much decided to just go back to Jimsmith Lake for the weekend when we thought we would check out one more campground.  It is just on the other side of the river as you come into Fort Steele.  It is actually very confusing because the name of it is Fort Steele Campground...and the one we are at is Fort Steele Resort & RV Park.  We found out from the owners of the Fort Steele Campground that they are the original having been here for 38 years...and that many people find it confusing.  They had one spot that we could have gotten into but they only have 15 amp power and the site really isn’t that great.  Even with Jimsmith Lake not having any service whatsoever, the campground, sites and lake are all really nice.  So, we will take the short drive back to Jimsmith Lake Provincial Park tomorrow...and this time we will have a full water tank.

Back at the trailer, we sat outside in the shade...the air conditioning was going full-out inside...it was a hot one today!  I had the laptop with me because I wanted to get our travel journal done.  After relaxing for a bit and greeting our new neighbours who had just pulled in beside us (they have a 40’ Grand Junction 5^th wheel...and we thought ours was big...wow!), Steve decided to take the black-streak remover and start working on the shaded side of the trailer.

Other than stopping for dinner, Steve worked outside on the trailer all evening while I sat in front of the laptop working on the blog.  I wanted to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi here and get the “hundreds” of pictures taken yesterday at Fort Steele Heritage Town uploaded.