Travelling By RV in BC – A Sales Manager’s Perspective
June 26th, 2013
Accent Inns Sales Team – L-R Kim Jones, Donna Price, Helen Wright & Karen England
When you work for a hotel company you get used to customers coming to your place of business so it was a very nice change for the Accent Inns Sales Team to visit some of our customers at their place of business. We also had the chance to experience what many of our RV rental guests do as they leave our hotel at Vancouver Airport to take on the trip to northern BC and beyond.
On May 8th 4 of our Sales Team and 4 of our ducks took to the road in 2 campers from Fraserway RV Rentals. We travelled from Vancouver to Whitehorse visiting a number of towns along the way. What we discovered it that we live in a very big province filled with amazing scenery and incredibly friendly towns and villages.
On day 1, we drove from Richmond BC to Williams Lake via 100 Mile House. We spent the night at the Stampede Campgrounds – a great 
location right beside the famous Williams Lake Stampede Grounds. The next morning we got an early start so we could spend time visiting our customers in Williams Lake, Quesnel, Vanderhoof and Prince George. We received warm welcomes everywhere we went. We spoke with some of our current customers and made friends with some new customers as well.
Our 2nd night was spent in Houston at the Silverthorne Mobile Home & RV Park– a very well kept and friendly campground. We had perfect weather conditions for a campfire. An early morning start put us on the road to Smithers where we made lots of calls and met some more amazing people before beginning the long drive to Stewart and across the border to Hyder, Alaska . If you’ve never been to Hyder, it is best that you experience it for yourselves. Like Las Vegas, what happens in Hyder stays in Hyder!
The weather got colder as we headed further north and the Run a Muck Campground in Hyder definitely had a chill in the air. We were also lucky enough to see a great deal of wildlife along the way – bears, just waking up from a long-winter’s nap, moose and caribou frequently popped their heads up from the brush on the side of the road. We witnessed first-hand the extreme beauty of the north with snow-capped mountains and glaciers. Unfortunately we also witnessed the devastation of the wildfires that had recently destroyed hectares of land.
The trip from Hyder to Watson Lake was long and a wee bit bumpy as the winter frost had just left the highway with frequent potholes. However,
by this time we were all comfortable driving the big rigs and managed to avoid the majority of the holes. The long closure of a bridge delayed one of the campers but we all managed to meet up again in Watson Lake at one of our favourite campgrounds – the Downtown RV Park. Four women travelling in campers could not be happier to experience the amazing washrooms – with hairdryers, music and plenty of room to move around.
The final leg of our journey took us to the outskirts of Whitehorse and one last night in the campers at the Caribou RV Park. The next morning we washed the campers,
took advantage of the sani-dump (a rather interesting experience) and returned the campers to Fraserway before checking in to the High Country Inn where real beds and bathrooms felt pretty darn good. After 2 days of calls in beautiful downtown Whitehorse, we boarded Air North for the flight back to Vancouver with great memories and new friends/customers.
A special thanks to Kim from our Vancouver Airport Hotel who provided amazing meals for us along the way, Helen from our Burnaby hotel who provided a great deal of laughter and Donna, also from our Vancouver Airport Hotel who taught me how to pass another camper at high speeds. It was a great trip!
Karen England
Regional Sales Manager – Vancouver Island