We've reached Hell's Gate.

10/8/10

I forgot to mention for you yesterday Lisa that, Pink Mountain is home to the Canadian Champion Bull rider, Darryl Mills. Just letting you know.

We stayed at Northern Lights RV Park last night. I think a lot of people are permanent residents or there are a lot of construction workers that stay there. Not really sure, everyone had sweet little set ups though.

We woke up this morning with the bright sun creeping up over the horizon. I knew it was going to be a warm day due to waking up with less and less blankets. Ah, the lovely sun.

We ate at this funny little diner, Motor Lodge Café. Listening to the ladies that were working was like a scene from that movie with Rene Zelweger, New in Town. The boys’ eyes were bigger than their stomachs, when both of them ordered a “trucker’s breakfast.” They were defeated. It was huge mounds of pancakes, potatoes and meats. We tried to go to the art gallery, I guess it has local made goods; it was closed until 10AM.

We started driving toward Prince George and of course hit all of the little farming communities in between. Starting after Dawson Creek I kind of was having flashes of home in South Dakota. Some of the same tractors I remember from when I was younger. Old cars were in junk piles along the roadside that I remembered someone having driven it at some point.

The farmhouses seemed so tidy with lawns trimmed; neatly stacked firewood awaiting the winter and most of the machinery seemed to have a perfect place.

We stopped to get gas outside of Dawson Creek and it totally reminded me of the Cenex Convenience Store back home. Some farmer was in there giving the ladies behind the counter some shit and they were giving it right back. I just assumed like the farmers back home he was taking a “break.”

I witnessed with my own eyes flowers still growing like crazy in flower boxes and beds as the falling leaves danced around the van. This only amazes me so much because when we left Alaska my flowers had already been on their way to their final days a month ago.

It was warm enough driving for me to take off those constraining socks and put on my flip flops. Just so my feet don’t smell more disgusting than usual.

I’m not sure what river ran alongside us for quite some time, I’m sure I could find it, I’m just being lazy. It doesn’t really matter anyway because I think its name should just be AMAZING.  It was just that, it was glistening as the sun hit it. There were farms on both sides and the fall foliage all along it. Hoku and I discussed later at a rest stop how we both wanted to pull off and enjoy it but I didn’t know where to pull off. It was super windy for me already and kind of a narrow road at times. The van was blowing from side to side, which Hoku later coined me as a bad driver for. We never got the steering wheel adjusted so 3 and 9 are actually 4 and 10. Plus all the semi traffic that was sucking me all over.

We also spend a fair share of our time in the right hand lane in 3^rd gear with all our trucker friends. Poor Hoku. I have actually discovered that I love the “check brake” spots in the road for the not so cool truckers so they have to pull over.

We also drove through a logging stretch in the highway, it was kind of sad to me. I understand that’s where log homes and lumber come from. It’s just kind of strange to see some of the most beautiful forest and then all of the sudden a bald spot.

It was nice to see all the ranches along the way. Horses frolicking through pastures bigger than some of the towns we went through.

We stopped in Quesnal and went to this great little coffee shop/deli place called Granville. It was so awesome. It was decorated with vintage coffee apparel and other non-coffee stuff, something cool wherever your eyes wandered. The lady behind the counter was all giddy when she called out Hoku's name and to it right. Got some sandwiches and Rico got some chili and I finally got some good coffee!

We made it to Williams Lake and are getting ready to call it a night at the Stampede Campground. Right when we got set up a little lady that reminds me of Mrs. Shoemaker in Dirty Dancing, came over in her robe to ask us if we needed to get into the washrooms. We told her that we needed change and she made some funny mention of the Loonies. (Canadian dollar coins) If my wallet is missing in the morning I know where to find it. J The caretaker here was nice enough to get us change (Loonies) to take showers. We could/should be able to make it to the states tomorrow. I don’t know if I’m ready to leave Canada, well British Columbia anyway. I think I love it here. More news from the road later. Peace. 

10/9/10

We woke up to goose poop everywhere. They congregate like the seagulls in Seward.

On the road by 10AM, after a breakfast at Denny’s. The apostrophe in the Denny’s sign here is a maple leaf, how clever. And a cup of coffee with breakfast was $2.50. Sheesh!

We found a coffee shop, Countin’ Beans, that is connected to the library. Everyone there was really friendly and seemed a bit intrigued by our voyage. They gave us a couple of stickers so I slapped one on the van and the other on Hoku’s truck. The sun is trying to show itself between the rolling clouds.

Looks like fall is just starting to show itself here. The rolling hills are still very much alive and the birds are still happily flying around. The road construction is still in full swing.  We passed a couple of fruit stands, I made sure to make it known that I would like to stop at one in the near future.

And we stopped at a fresh fruit stand! It was all painted with sunflowers and clouds on the outside, an open front and plenty of goods inside. The nectarines are at the end of the season, the pears are in season right now, plums so little, salmon jerky, garlic jerky and honeys. There were peppers, squash and some other kinds of gourds and onions of the red and white variety. The man working it made sure that we got some freebies…plums and sodas for the road. He took Rico in the back after he found out that he was a carpenter to show him a project that he had going on. And showed him the travel trailer that he could be staying in. Quite nice folks to say the least. He had some sort of accent which made him quite entertaining. He bounced around the store like a bee looking for a flower to pollinate.

We ended up getting some organic habanera cheese and a stick of garlic jerky that had so much flavor and goodness that my taste buds were overwhelmed.

We stopped at two antique stores in Clinton, B.C. One of them wasn’t very cool and the other was really fun to look through. We didn’t buy anything but it sure was neat to look at all the odds and ends and old stuff. I had to walk out after looking at a couple of posters and books in the book section, I couldn’t stop sneezing. I guess no one dusts in there.

We are driving on a road that is like a roller coaster. We are up, down, curving right then left. We are passing farms of all kinds; sheep, alpacas, llamas, horses, cows and goats.

Cache Creek is known as the Arizona of Canada due to its arid and fair weather.  It looks a bit like it too. Rocky looking mountains with trees or bushes growing randomly out of them. Then right next to them there are tree covered mountains with a base of luscious farm land. Rolling hills are stretching forever. The hills look like freshly harvested grain at the elevator; they are the same color anyway. 

It’s been overcast all day.

The Frasier River rages below us, beating up against the gigantic boulders that lay in it. Trains are rumbling by, in and out of old tunnels. Some empty, some stacked two high, whatever their cargo they have a pretty scenic job. Some of the trees are almost neon green with yellow accents. The mountain tops are hiding above the lingering clouds.

We just stopped and climbed over the rail to look at the river below and realized just how small we look. There was a bit of “stomach in throat” feeling for a minute. As we were leaving we realized that someone had used the other side of the rail as an outhouse. Ewww.

It always blows my mind when there is something so wonderful and breathtaking and people can just throw their trash. There were full bags of trash and scattered trash amongst a truly wonderful area.

I was a little bit sad that we missed the Hell’s Gate Air tram and then out of nowhere there it was! So you take the tram from one side of the Frasier River to the other and there is a little gift shop, fudge shop and restaurant on the other side. The lady in the tram gave us the history of the river and was really informative. This place is supposedly haunted. I didn’t see anything but wasn’t really aware of the haunted spots until we left and I read the pamphlet. It’s very interesting though and I could totally see a few souls left behind due to the history there. Google it people.

We found the Royal RV Park, I think, outside of Chilawak maybe? Due to everything being closed because it’s Saturday I think. It may also be Thanksgiving here. I don’t have the internet to Google it but I’ve heard it mentioned a couple times. We went and found a liquor store and I got a couple Canadian beers. Hoku is like a kid in a candy store.  We’ve all showered and now I’m waiting on the laundry to finish and we shall be back in the U.S. tomorrow. I think it said the border is 27 miles from here. I just finished a large beer and am going to get the other and celebrate (or wash away my sorrows) that this is my last night it B.C. Hope this finds everyone happy and wonderful. Peace.