Off To Prince George Again - with Bugs, Trains, and Zombies ....

Thursday morning. My ride awaits - not quite as bumpy as my Monday's ride, thank goodness. (I'm glad Neil's truck doesn't trot.) Steve is just warming up the seat for me. He's such a good boy, but doesn't realize there are seat warmers installed, although I probably won't need them as the temps are in the high teens/low 20s.

We're heading to Prince George, and although I've 'seen it all before' I can still be amazed at the scenery. That is why I took about a million pictures with both my IPhone and my IPad - and why it took me almost all day to load and delete about 999,949 of them. This reminded me of the writing classes my friend Roxie and I took a few years ago, when we had to write something about 1500 words long then reduce it to 500. That wasn't always easy, either. However - it did improve the writing so much ... hopefully the same thing works here.

Now - here's what happened. Because I was using two cameras, I may have gotten a wee bit mixed up on order of pics. Let's just pretend I didn't though, and everything turned out perfect.

The rivers are pretty high now from spring run-off - this would be the best time for panning for gold, if one wanted to do that. Seems that the rushing waters dislodge gold pieces from the mountains (flakes, or gold dust mostly) and float them down the river.

We never saw any miners dipping their pans though - maybe roadside riverbeds aren't the best. Coming through the area south of Spences Bridge, you can see just how high the Fraser River is - thank goodness for the retaining wall.

This picture is at the end of the Snake Pit - if you are very brave and don't get carsick, watch  this video from You Tube. To tell the truth, the first trip I ever took here with Neil , I was a tad nervous going through the Snake Pit. Now, as a seasoned traveller, I don't grip the edges of the seat anymore. As much.

 This cute old church is at Spences Bridge. This is also the town of Bait's Motel.

 I will apologize here for the strange quality of my pictures. Since they are taken through a truck window, and it is indeed spring, there are millions of bugs reaching the end of their short lives as they meet the glass. It's amazing how many colours there are in a bug.

This pre-sunset photo proves it. 

Back to the trip ....

 We reached 150 Mile House about the same time as the sunset. At least, I think it was 150 Mile House.

After the sunset, there was no point in taking many pictures. I think I yawned the rest of the way to Prince George. We arrived around half past midnight, then it was drop off the trailer and head a couple of blocks back to the Husky for a good sound sleep. 

The first thing I saw when I hopped out of the truck in the morning was this - a veritable buffet for people who like to eat bugs.

But since we weren't in Survivor mode, we headed to the restaurant - bathroom break and coffee were my priorities.

And after a feed of bacon, eggs, hash browns and toast, the offerings on the grill didn't tempt me at all.

Neil was nice enough to clean the window before we headed for home. This was probably more for his benefit than mine though - his being able to see in front of him was important.
Of course, this caused the rain to fall while we were going through Quesnel. 

We had seen this peculiar camper truck when we were leaving the Husky in Prince George, and here it was again in Quesnel.  I thought Howard could make me a little camper like this, complete with balcony. However, it wasn't until it rounded a corner and we saw what was hauling it, we realized it was a little house used in fire protection education - there was a fire department logo on the truck hauling it. Oh well. It would still have been a cute camper.

 I doubt if Howard would have built me one anyway. It took him 3 weeks, 2 hours, and a trip to Canadian Tire to put a carry rack over Breehy's rear tire.

Quesnel is one of the towns on this route I would love to explore. One day. When Howard builds me a camper.

It's amazing how the landscape changes on this drive, from heavy woods, to huge green pastures, to semi-arid desert full of sagebrush.

And looky here - this is  Pioneer Log Homes of Williams Lake, the company featured on the TV show  Timber Kings.

 I bet they could build me a camper.

South of Williams Lake - isn't this pretty? There are quite a few communities hugging the shores of lakes along the way. Lac La Hache is of them - this might be Lac La Hache, in fact. Maybe.

It was on this trip that Neil decided to introduce me to his favourite Zombie books - Zombie Fallout. Now I'm not a zombie fan at all - I don't believe there will ever be a Zombie Apocalypse, I don't think dead people will ever try to eat my brains (or what's left of them.) I don't even really believe in the ghosts and alien creatures in Stephen King's books. 

However .... 

“The word lighthearted doesn’t usually come to mind when we think of the zombie apocalypse, but Sean Runnette does a skillful job balancing humor with horror in this audio edition, which makes for an entertaining stroll with the walking dead…Runnette gives Talbot a dry, I-knew-this-was-going-to-happen-to-me-someday attitude that captures the wry spirit of Tufo’s prose. This provides a welcome departure from the doom and gloom of most zombie tales, and Runnette wrings plenty of chuckles from the material. Still, the narrator doesn’t forget that this is an apocalyptic horror story, making sure there are plenty of chills and thrills along the way.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Neil has the audiobook copies of the whole series on his tablet,  and he started the first book while we were travelling. 

I must say, between the story itself, and the narrator - well, I was laughing so hard at times I almost lost my breath. (Thanks to the many Husky stations on the way, that was all I almost lost.) So now I'm a fan. I can't wait for the Zombie Apocalypse now.)

However, I could still take pictures and listen at the same time.

Notice the yellow drifting in the meadow? These are buttercups! And some people call them weeds. Imagine that!

 This lake had a pollen beach around it!

 And we're soon into sagebrush country. It was around here Neil saw a snake crawling? slinking? wiggling? across the road. I missed it - I was too busy looking for mountain goats.

 This would be a tunnel if they didn't blast away the connecting part of the mountain ...

 Doesn't this house just blend in with its environment?

 And here's the mighty Fraser. I'll tell you, this was a rough and roaring part of the river.

 South of Spences Bridge on the way home - see how high the water is?

 And boy, were there ever rapids. Who'd like to go white water rafting with me this summer?

See the train track hanging onto the edge of the mountain? I don't know if I'd have enough nerves to travel this route by train, although I can only imagine the terrific views there would be.

 What a wonderful artist Mother Nature is ...

 And here, way way down, is the Fraser River heading to the lower mainland.

 I can't get over how long these trains are - this one goes as far as the eye can see, and this is the middle of it.

Crossing over the road ... we're heading under ....

Our last stop at a Husky -

The truck sure looks long at this angle. The trailer is long, though - 53'. Neil is bringing agility to the supply chain.

We stopped at Boston Bar - here is the aerial ferry that used to traverse the Fraser River. I would have loved to travel on this, but it's been taken out of service. They built a bridge instead. I love bridges (I used to NOT love bridges, but now I do) but this looks like a lot more fun!

Now, instead of going for a ride way up in the sky, you can sit and have a lunch inside. There was a huge display of history, words and pics, behind the ferry. Boston Bar seems like a gotta visit place too.

Wow - talk about a zipline with a view!

Tickets weren't expensive, either.

If you can take your eyes off the scraggly haired image, you can see the ferry making a crossing either in or before 1950. That's even before I was born.

And here we are, back at the tunnels again. See, they didn't blow the roof of this one. This one is Sailor Bar tunnel, a pretty short one.

And we come out to a view of cloud wrapped mountains!

And now it's time to concentrate on the last part of Zombie Fallout. I was just hoping he would read fast enough so we could reach the finish before we reached home - but alas, that was not to be. So now there's more than one reason for me to look forward to my next trip with Neil!