Museums and Mountains

Thursday, May 7, 2009

We continued north on Hwy 97 departing Williams Lake at approx. 9:15.  When we hit the road this morning it was sunny and 9C.  There seems to be a lot of Hwy construction along this route and lots of deer along the ditches.  We managed to avoid the deer but we couldn’t avoid the construction.  We experienced a few isolated showers but it was basically a nice day.  We stopped in Quesnel, BC to see their museum, which is rated one of the top ten in the province.

Especially interesting was a collection of photos of Native, Chinese and Caucasian people from Northern BC. taken during the early 1900’s.  These are ordinary people doing everyday things.  The collection was created by a Chinese photographer C.D. Hoy.  His daughter, Lily Hoy Price, has just published a book called “I Am Full Moon” about her father’s work.  Apparently her Chinese name means "Full Moon”.  We had our lunch in the parking lot and  then continued  or journey north towards Prince George. Here we got onto the Yellowhead Highway, Hwy 16 west towards Prince Rupert, BC.  We decided to stop at a small, timber town called Vanderhoof, which apparently is the geographical centre of British Columbia. We camped at Dave’s RV Park just east of town and approx. 1/2 Km. north of Hwy 16.  Very Nice park and Very quiet.  Highly recommended.

Friday, May 8, 2009

We’ve been on the road for a week today, so far we’ve put on 2233 Miles on the truck.  This morning the temperature was 11C when we departed at 9:30. The terrain outside of Vanderhoof was rolling agricultural land used primarily for grazing cattle and horses.  Around Fraser Lake the mountains seemed to surround us and we continued travelling through the mountain valleys to Terrace, BC.  We noticed a distinct difference in the foliage as we got closer to the Pacific Coast and in the lower mountain valleys.    The trees are much further developed along  the Skeena River Valley starting at approximately Kitwanga at the junction of Hwy 37 North.  And Cedar trees!!  As big as many of the Elms that we see in Winnipeg.  It is a real delight to stop the truck and just fill our lungs with the fresh mountain air…the air freshener companies still have not been able to capture that fragrance.

We parked in the Wild Duck campground on the western end of Terrace, BC - a nice enough campground with mature trees but like so many other RV parks it is  located in a marginal, industrial area.  This evening a train whistle about a block distant reminded us of that… will the 3:00 AM to Edmonton be on time??