More on Canada

We are staying another night in the Grand Forks/Greenwood area of our northern neighbor because of the many places to see and more people to meet.

I got a rare photo of a 12 foot poisonous green grass snake. Ha ha, just kidding...we took a road tour to an old mining town called Phoenix west of Grand Forks and this little three foot grass snake was warming his belly on the road. I stopped to chase him off before he/she gets squashed.

Along our driving tour of the mining town we saw these, over grown weed eaters, sitting by the road. These beasts will cut trees up to 15 inches like they were nothing but a blade of grass.

Our dirt road took us up the mountains for a great view of a healthy Canadian forest.

Got to hand it to the Canadians for erecting this memorial in the middle of nowhere to the soldiers of WWI, or at the time was called the "Great War", who lost their lives in the pursuit of freedom. The Phoenix Cenotaph was moved from the ghost town of Phoenix to its present location in 1956.

These are some pretty nice camping digs overlooking Marshall Lake in the ghost town of Phoenix, BC.

Cute sign with clever wit applied. Marshall Lake is the result of the past mining and I guess the state is trying to drain it but some people don't like the idea.

The open pit copper mine at Phoenix was a result of over inflated copper prices in the early 20th century. By the end of the great war the copper prices dropped through the basement and the mine closed in 1919.

Donna likes to tour old cemeteries which is cool with me because I try to see patterns in them.

There was obviously a love story in this plot that should be further investigated. We did read and see on many tablets that half the grave-sites were from the mine accidents, oddly the rest were from years 1918-1919 and they were attributed to the horrific flu epidemic after WWI.

Empty but still in good condition is the Forshaw homestead that was built in 1909 and occupied until the late 1970's. The Forshaws are credited with being the last family of the Phoenix ghost town.

This old concrete water trough in the meadow must of belonged to the Forshaw's at one time.

Coming down the hill on some switchbacks we can see this very large brick smokestack in the distant town of Greenwood, BC.

We drove up to the smokestack at the B.C. Copper Smelter in Greenwood and were surprised that it was only partially fenced off...so in we go. This is the top of a 620 foot flue that drew off the deadly gases that would otherwise killed workers.

I am proud to say that I spare no expense in taking my love to the depths of a fire breathing "furnace" ha ha!

A half mile long 200 foot high, mountain of black slag.

We found that Greenwood B.C. had not one, but two claims to  fame. In 2012 this little town came in first for best tasting municipal water in the world...or at least of every town that submitted an entry.

We couldn't help but dump all our water tanks and jugs, then fill them with "the worlds best tasting" water...it was good water too.

The other claim was that it is the smallest city in Canada. Besides the best water and smallest stature, Greenwood has taken care to keep itself very attractive to tourism. 

We happen to catch four fawns hanging around us. Both moms were 50 feet away and did not perceive us as any threat. From here we have to head for the border and back to the good ole US of A!

Funny story...I drove up too close to the radiation machine which in turn gave the border guards a false reading. We then went through a 30 minute pat-down, Geiger counters ran over each of our bodies...even the dogs had to be done separately...then the motorhome and tow-car had to be inspected for radiation. The motorhome was then searched by one of the agents. I felt so sorry for the cars behind because we blocked the whole lane.

We picked the obscure crossing at Midway, BC just so we could bring back all the veggies we picked up at Canadian farmers markets...they took it all!

The Boulder-Deer Creek summit was a shortcut back to Colville, Washington that cut off 45 miles to the drive. A very small county road but a beautiful and rural drive.

More later.........