Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Snow in May?


We met up with our friends in Cache Creek this morning and mutually came to the conclustion that they needed to go further and faster than we did, so after a short visit, headed our way.

Cache Creek to Williams Lake is Ponderosa Pine - Bonanza country. Dry, beautiful, Big Sky country.

So dry that a couple of forest fires had consumed some of the forest in the preceding days. Most of the smoke had blown off by the time we passed through.

From CC heading north, you pass through all these #Mile House places. 70 Mile House, 83 Mile House, 100 Mile House etc. It got me to wondering why they didn't change the names to 112 KM House, 162.5 KM House and so forth when they changed to the metric system years ago. Does their younger generation even know what a mile is?

Two large does crossed the highway in front of us near 70 Mile House; our first land-based wildlife of the trip.

At 100 Mile House, slushy snow began falling. Somewhere around there I also began using cruise control for the first time since we left Hope the day before. Gently rolling hills. We topped off our tank there at 90.9 per liter.

When we arrived at Williams Lake where we would lunch, we noticed a sign that said "Chinese and Canadian Food". I've never heard of Canadian food, unless you count Canadian bacon and Canada Dry beverages. Do you suppose that when the locals are thinking about going out to dinner, that they'll say, "Let's have Canadian food tonight!"?

Gas in Williams Lake was 99.9 per liter. I had remembered from previous trips that even though Williams Lake was one of the larger towns, their gas prices were higher than some of their smaller neighbors. We decided to top off again in Prince George.

The next good-sized town north of Williams Lake is Quesnel (Prounced Qwenell). Situated on the banks of a river, it is a very beautiful community with all the amenities of a larger town.

Right at the northern outskirts of Quesnel, a side road leads to the old mining town of Barkerville. Restored to its appearance during its heydays in the 1860's, it is a fee-adminssion site that is definitely worth doing at least once. Plan on several hours between the two plus hours needed to get there and back to the main highway and a few hours visiting Barkerville and another historical site, a former way-station. Gas - 93.9.

Gas prices stayed in the 93.9 to 95.9 range the entire day, with a few exceptions. Coming in to Prince George, I remembered from a previous trip that the best prices were at a Shell stationand one across the street, just before you cross the river into PG. After filling up there and continuing into town, I confirmed that Shell's 92.9 price was better the the average 98.9 I saw at a couple stations in town.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow after I process them.

Later, I'll tell you about the biggest, best, most famous places and things along the highway.

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