BC is vast

Sunday 2 August 2009

We are staying at the Lakeview Inn in Fort St. John, BC. The suite has a fridge and microwave. It has a couch and is very roomy. We ate at Mama Panda last night and had a wonderful oriental buffet. It must be the local favorite because at 5 pm it was loaded with customers, including some children.

We have not seen any Canadian currency yet because we pay everything with Visa. They hold your card while you are getting gas because your card is “AMERICAN”. The accent is not as pronounced as I thought it would be. Janeil shopped at a Save-On which I think is in the Albertsons chain. I thought the fruit prices were out of sight like bananas $1.79 a kg. until I realized a kg. is 2.2 lb.! Our room was $111 with the AAA discount. The buffet last night was $38 with tip.

The wildfires are still very serious. They evacuated the town of Lillooet less than 12 hours after we went through it. There is also a gasoline shortage in southern Alberta after a severe thunderstorm disrupted services. The temperature has dropped a little. I figured out the conversion with 30 Celcius being 86 F. There is a feeling of vastness. Last night we plugged the van into their winter electrical outlet in the parking lot so that the van fridge would use electricity instead of propane while it was parked. Those outlets are for block heaters in the winter so the oil will not solidify. We had block heaters in Montana while we lived there.

We went for a walk in a beautiful Peace garden last night. I think Peace is a geographic area here. British Columbia joined the Canadian Federation over a 100 years ago.

We have travel through a lot of First Nation Reserves which are the equivalent of Indian Reservations. They are FULL of junked cars just like in the lower 48 states. While we were waiting in the fatal accident line yesterday I talked to a handsome firefighter who was First Nation. Fire fighting was his profession and he had been a logger and miner also. He looked like he was about 30 years old. I really felt sorry for the hay truck driver who was sitting forlornly under his truck in the shade. I imagine the accident investigation will be intense as to which vehicle was at fault when they collided on the curve.

Our van has run great so far. Yesterday we passed another RoadTrek and they flashed their headlights in a sort of brotherhood signal. We have seen several other RoadTreks although the TravelAmerica rental big box RV’s are very popular. There are hundreds of the big bus sized RV’s on the road. Now that we are on the Alaska Highway which started in Dawson Creek mile zero, there are lots of petrol stations and motels. The Super 8 here in Fort St. Johns was $180 a night which shocked me. They must really sock it to the tourist trade.

We are going to the Fort St. John 2nd ward meetings which start at 10 am. It is fast sunday. Then we will try to make it to Fort Nelson by nightfall. It was really nice to stay in a roomy motel for one night instead of the cramped van. I put my back out while dumping the holding tanks Saturday morning. I seem to do that a lot on vacations. It may be psychological or it just could be that I try to lift things in odd positions while camping.

We are getting a couple of short walks in each day. We are trying to make sure Janeil doesn’t gain back any of those hard earned pounds she lost. We also take short breaks every couple of hours while we travel. One stop was at a beautiful little waterfall.

We aren’t making nearly as many miles each day as we do on trips in the states. The top speed is 100 kph which is about 62 mph. There are construction zones every 100 miles which slows you to 70 kph (about 45 mph). Apparently they must build like crazy during the summer because they can not lay asphalt during their cold winters.