3rd Time

Well, this R.V. Park is full. We had to pay the monthly fee of $550 while we were gone to save our spot on return. Tonight was only the 3^rd time in 6 years that the No Vacancy sign was up and actually it was over full. There were 2 German families parked together in 1 spot and a VW Van parked between the lounge and swimming pool buildings. I hate to think about our future where so much land is going to housing at a very high cost and profit. Where will the R.V.ers stay?

Surprise in Hope

We left today in beautiful sunshine. The weather has been so poor, it’s being called Juneurary. We followed Roger and Myrna along #97 through scenic green valleys and hills and both stopped in Kamloops where we fueled up at the Flying J with Diesel and propane. They went up to Smithers and we saw 4 deer today, as we headed down to Hope. We went through the town and headed south on #7 toward Agassiz where we pulled into a huge 7^th Day Adventists Convention Center called Camp Hope. Rosemary and Alex were there for a 4 day Good Sam Samboree. We enjoyed dinner together; R and I shared all our sewing projects, coffee Thur morning and then home for us to Pac Border. There was this cute little chapel, hardly bigger than us. Unfortunately there were also 2 million big fat mosquitoes and it was worth your life to be outside. We're still scratching.

Birds and Fabric

Myrna and I have been having a great time. She went to aquacize and walk away the pounds while I swam my lengths in their pool. Next we went into Vernon and checked out quilt shops. I got some very nice fabric for a book cover for a surprise for a friend. I also found 2 great flannels for quilt backings for 2 of the grandsons so I have work to do. Bonus, as Fabricland was 40 - 50 % off today.
Roger and Ron are hard at work running a propane line into the BBQ.
We're been having a neat time watching all the birds around here. The quail go scooting across the road with babies in tow, a killdeer is nesting on the rocks in front of someone's house and is very camouflaged if you look from her back, there is an osprey sitting on it's big nest up on a power pole and there are tree swallows in birdhouse nest to the house. Lots of activities around here.

On the Road Again - to Vernon

We ambled across highway #97 through pretty farmland. There were many dead red pine trees. We stopped in Falkland for lunch and you can see the large Canadian flag up on the hillside. We had a pleasant drive and arrived to park beside Roger and Myrna's house. We arrived to their special ribs f0r dinner. Delicious. It is very interesting here. You look out to the green hillside and hear the coyotes at night.
We talked to Suzanne today to wish her a happy birthday.

Tammy's Country Kitchen

Karen and I helped Tammy cleaning and setting up her mobile cook trailer yesterday. Karen got the job of cutting and chopping onions for more than an hour. Today we went to Pritchard for her first day and enjoyed hamburger and fries. Very good! They've done a great job of setting up the area and highway signage, so look for Food Concession at the small Pritchard store on the highway. It's very pretty overlooking the hills and Fraser River.

Happy Birthday

I went out with Ron and Chuck doing shopping and chores as Tammy and Dwayne and girls are coming for dinner. Little did I realize, it was a surprise for my birthday. We had a great time and I thank my friends for all the calls and emails.

On the Road Again - to Kamloops

I saw this deer on the mill road yesterday and he looked surprised that Chuck and Ron were laid off but their part of the work was finished. We went out for dinner at the Steakhouse with Ken and Diana, then tried our luck at the Casino. I didn't have any.
At Cache Creek, we headed east and passed the ginseng farms and Juniper Beach Campsite where we stayed on the way up.
We drove down to Kamloops and are parked in front of Chucks with 50 amp power, more than we had up at Robert's Roost.

More Birds

We were sitting by the lake watching the birds this morning when a serious ‘birder’ came by. He is participating in a program called Bird Atlas B.C., conducted by Bird Studies Canada which is mapping all the breeding grounds of B.C.’s birds. You are assigned a 100 kilometer square to map!

A new young eagle has showed up in the past few days and must be getting very hungry as he is swooping down from the tree he perches in, trying to grab a baby duck. Diane is running and hollering at him, shooing him away.

Here’s the Yellow Headed Blackbird and the Killdeer with the 2 black bands around his neck. If you double click on the pictures you can see the detail. We also saw a Canvasback Duck and Redhead Duck (with cinnamon head) which I'd not seen before.

Downtown Quesnel

I am enjoying the history of this town and area very much. On the way back from Barkerville, we toured Wells, a booming town in the 1930’s as mining was going well and the 1929 depression was affecting so many people. Our friend Ron Mast was raised there. The blue building on the right is a triangle on a corner and the front is only about 5 feet wide.
We also saw a lake created by the beaver dams, when there was only a 3 foot creek on the other side of the road.
There are many painted fire hydrants in Quesnel. They are supposed to show the current or previous business or owner. Therefore you have an engineer at the train station and a dealer in front of the Billy Barker Hotel and Casino with cards in his hands. There are quite a few murals also.

Barkerville - B.C.’s Gold Rush town

Karen arrived Friday and she and Chuck came for dinner.

Today she and I went to Barkerville in a light rain. It’s 86 km and at one point, half of the road was washed down into the river and you drove on the remaining lane, one at a time. Very scary.

When Billy Barker discovered gold in Williams Creek at the back of the current town, it triggered a stampede of thousands. Over the next 8 years, these adventurers traveled the Cariboo Wagon Road to reach Barkerville. Today it is western Canada’s largest living heritage site. There are many actors in period costumes living the parts of the residents of the 1870’s.

We started at the original St. Savior’s Anglican Church, where a wedding was to take place in the afternoon. It is still privately owned. Then we walked into the Wendle House where John Wendle’s sister Martha was cooking breakfast of fried potatoes, porridge and steak. The cattle herd had arrived in town and this was only if you could afford to buy. She visits from Chicago for the mining season, as the miners work around the clock for 5 months of the years due to the ground being frozen for the rest. She explained the green paint on the wainscoting was made with arsenic so the bugs that dropped down died from it. Pest control. We asked where she lived and she wouldn’t do anything but play her part although we finally learned she lives in Wells.

We had lunch at the Wake Up Jake Saloon seated next to 4 distinguished looking Chinese people. We wandered up into Chinatown and were happy to stop into a Chinese Miner’s Cabin with mahjong tables set up and the wood stove very cozy. The Chinese fellow gave us all the history of the Opium War with Britain, the changing of the laws so Chinese could emigrate and their coming to Canada, where many were indentured and had to work for 5 years to pay off the fare. Then we stood in front of the Chee Kung Tong Building where Mr. Yang Qiang, Consul General of the Peoples Republic of China, gave his speech in Chinese (interpreted by his young assistant) acknowledging the Heritage Site Designation of this building. This was followed by a tour of a new interpretive building of Chinese history and a wine and cheese party with more speeches by many assorted dignitaries.

We really enjoyed our day, the period costumes, the street actors and scenes you got involved with, the stores and satellite museum sites explaining many diverse aspects of the time.

Birdwatching

After I dropped Ron off at the mill, I took my coffee and sat beside the lakeshore doing my Sudoku puzzle in the sunshine at 7:30 a.m. That didn’t last long as I got fascinated with the birds on shore and water. I got out my binoculars, camera and Audubon bird guide and saw about 20 different ones, some I’d not seen before. The Yellow Headed Blackbird and the Canvasback duck were very colorful. A Killdeer walked right by in front of me and was delightful. It was so peaceful and the bird songs were marvelous. Diane and Vicki eventually joined me.

As I walked back to the coach, I talked to our neighbours who were here fishing for 2 days. What a small world. I graduated from St. Paul’s Nursing School with her, Lynn Scoullar in 1962 and had not seen her since.

It started raining at 2 so I was glad I’d had this beautiful morning outside.

Sunday Drive

Vicki and Pete arrived yesterday, Gail and Rob are here, so we all go walking after dinner.

We drove up to Prince George Sunday and saw a young deer on the way. Also saw a dead moose on the roadside, hate to think of the vehicle that struck that. We had a nice visit with Ron’s niece Birgit, and then headed back to Quesnel.

We passed the road out to Barkerville. It is North America’s largest Heritage Site. Billy Barker, a fortune seeker, found gold in Williams Creek in 1862 and the gold rush was on. Over 100,000 people journeyed north up the Cariboo Wagon Road. It was the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco. You feel like you’re in a time warp as you walk through a Victorion town of 125 heritage buildings with everyone on period costumes. Here's Billy outside the Info Center.

Heritage Corner

I walked around Heritage Corner today on the riverfront downtown. This is the start for walks on both sides of the river. The Quesnel River Footbridge, all wood, was built in 1928, linking West and North Quesnel. It was one of the first bridges built to span the Fraser and has been used by cattle, horses, vehicles and people until replaced by the Moffat Bridge in 1970 which is used today.

There is a Cornish Waterwheel, the technology dating back to Roman times. As surface gold was exhausted, the miners used this to pump out sledge, keeping the deep workings dry. The sledge went into the sluice box separating some dirt and gold.

There is an old paddle wheel, which of course would have come from one of the old paddle wheelers plying the river, the early transportation years ago.

On the left, you can see some old telegraph poles. Perry Collins, the U.S. International Agent to Russia, working with Western Union started this. It was the south end of an early gamble on a vital communication link to Europe, but alas, the cable was laid across the Atlantic in 1867 first, ending this project.

Robert's Roost Campground

We’re settled into our campground, but due to the mill shutdown and all the construction workers in town, we got the last spot and only have 15 amp power. Gail and Rob are here. Here’s the view from the front window. It’s a very pretty place on Dragon Lake and they even have weddings here in their beautiful gardens. We go walking every evening and check out all the babies.

Arrived in Quesnel – The Goldpan City

We arrived here today and will overnight in the Wal-Mart parking lot where we saw the most beautiful sunset.
Quesnel is at the confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers and is a city of bridges, flowers and logging trucks. Agriculture, mining, forestry and tourism are important drivers of a diverse economy. The main industry is Forestry with 2 pulp mills, plywood plant, lumber mills and many secondary manufacturers.
Forestry employs over 2200 families and this town has the largest concentration of wood product enterprises in all of North America.
Quesnel is named The Goldpan City because it was here that all the fortune seekers turned east to Barkerville when gold was discovered in the 1800’s.

On the Road Again to Walhachin

We left PBRVPark this morning with Kathy and Bill who are on their way across Canada. We fueled at the Chilliwack Shell Flying J Truck Stop and with all the big rigs, there was a Smart Car, looking completely out of place. He only put in $21.00 while ours was $165.09.

We lunched outside Hope beside blue lupines and orange honeysuckle. The muddy Fraser was living up to its name with spring run off through the Canyon.

At Cache Creek we went East for 21 kms and stayed overnight at a Provincial Park campsite just up the road from Walhachin.

This historic town was started in 1908 by two British gentlemen who invited “suitable emigrants” to buy shares and enjoy a leisurely lifestyle suitable to members of Britain’s upper class. A 20 mile flume provided water for irrigation and onions, potatoes, and tomatoes which flourished between the trees in the orchards. This colonial town boasted shops, skating rink, cricket club, football field and stage and ballroom with floating spruce floor in the community hall. Nearly all the men of the town went off to WW1 and when the flume system was damaged in a flash flood, the dream was over.