Corona Kia, Part 1

As the grip of COVID-19, formerly known as the Novel Coronavirus Virus (still called this on many occasions), tightens on Canad, I embarked on a road trip with my son to serve two purposes. First, to make a long distance delivery of a vehicle to my wife....

....and no, not my recently acquired Kia Sportage SX, freshly back from being repaired by the dealer (I will get back to that story at a later date).

Instead, it was a "first-thing-in-the-morning" adventure in a Kia Sedona (my wife's vehicle).

The second reason for making this trip was to avoid flying back up north for work. With the outbreak of COVID-19 and being trapped in this, yeah....I would rather take my chances on the highways.

The first leg of the journey was Kelowna to Kamloops, via Vernon.

Firstly, had to top up the fuel level....

....and really made an attempt to put faith into the range predictor.

The traffic on the highway between Kelowna and Vernon was noticeably less than normal, even with the time of day. This stretch of road usually has a lot of big trucks coming and going and even more small vehicles doing the same, than what is pictured.

Not too far from Kamloops, my boy and I had to make a rest stop.

Let my face tell you that it hasn't been cleaned since this COVID-19 business started (I am just guessing here).

Just up the highway, in a little town called Westwold, is the Route 97 Diner. I have been at this 50's themed roadside restaurant a few times before, but on this day, it was closed and appeared nearly abandoned.

We made it to Kamloops with plenty of fuel and neither one of us was particularly hungry, so we pushed on and out of town.

The next leg of the trip was going to take us to Blue River, where the water wasn't blue or much of a river.

By now, what little traffic we saw on the trip had vanished, as can be seen by this empty roadside panoramic shot.

It wasn't too long after that hunger started to set in, so the boy and I stopped in at a Esso/Subway in Barrière. Strong hints of Winter can still be seen.

Despite seeing them being used as taxis for years now, I still can't get over the fact that Toyotas have replaced the old, venerable Ford Crown Victorias, or just about any other North American domestic sedan.

After using the bathroom and loading up on Subway, we hit the road once again. This time, it was empty for miles and miles, in both directions.

This seems to be as good a place to bring Part 1 to a close. Up to this, there are no vehicle, comfort or road issues to report. The weather was favorable and my boy and I were in good spirits.

Little that we knew, some of that was about to change.....