I've been rubbing shoulders with the polished beautiful people in Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna and that's all good but I want to spend Canada Day with down home average Canadians. I determine to drive north toward Revelstoke (my day's destination)but to be vigilant for small towns that might have a parade or Canada Day celebration of some sort. But first I pull into Timmy's (Tim Horton's) for a Canada Donut and a Double Double (see pic). That's a donut with white frosting and sprinkles shaped like maple leaves and strong coffee with two cream, two sugar. Got that caffeine and sugar buzz workin now. Head for the car and run into (literally) a guy wearing a red suede cowboy hat with a maple leaf on the front. Gotta have one. He picks himself up and directs me to a store only a couple blocks away where I make the purchase. Now I feel appropriately dressed for the occasion (I appear in some photos in said hat which is rather fetching if I do say so). I don't drive long before I find the small town of Enderby full on in the middle of a Canada Day celebration in the town's park. It's a sea of red and white - second pic is of my pick for the most creative use of red and white and the maple leaf. There were all the usual festival attractions - face painting, moonwalk, football toss, kiddie rides, tours of the city fire trucks, display of restored classic cars, dunking booth (I know that water was cold), a local to sing the national anthem, and a gigantic cake wishing everyone in Enderby a happy Canada Day. See assorted pics. You know, if you added blue to the color scheme and subbed the Star Spangled Banner for Oh Canada, this could be any 4th of July celebration in small town America. Except for the wrestling. The big draw for the day was a match between team Canada (in red and white and looking quite patriotic) and some bad guys dressed in black (except for the one dressed in a kilt). A professional looking ring (even though it's square it's called a ring?) was set up and the townsfolk were taking this quite seriously, especially the kids. Prior to the beginning of the bloodbath I was allowed in the ring (that term is still troubling me) to have my foreign self photographed with the hometown heroes - see pic. They were really good sports (I think that's a pun). Team Canada did not fare too well at first. Video is of the bad guys applying a proper drubbing. However, in the end Team Canada was victorious (pic of the final take down) and the citizens of Enderby will, no doubt, rest easier. Had cake in celebration then told the GPS to take me to Mt. Revelstoke National Park. It lead me out of town the back way along a country road which, at first, annoyed me (Americans usually like to get to the closest freeway in one quick hurry) but the scenery was fab - farms, dairies, orchard after orchard - cherries, pears, apricots, apples - more vineyards. If Alberta and Saskatchewan and all their acres of grains are Canada's bread basket, BC is its fruit bowl. I make Revelstoke just in time to catch the last two floats in their CD parade. Check into the local hostel and head out to hike the last few hours of daylight in Mt. Revelstoke National Park. Most of the upper trails are only partly open because there's still snow pack in the higher elevations so I hike the Inspiration Woods Trail a lower elevation trail ~3 kilometers with very little elevation gain and oh so peaceful. Few pics included. Then drive further into the park to the lookout point where Revelstoke is visible below - a beautiful view of a lovely little town (pic). Drive even further until I'm stopped at the snowline. End the day in the backyard of the hostel raising a Molson and singing Oh Canada with the hostel residents and a handful of locals. Oh Canada, I had a lot of fun on your day.
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