July 28, 2022 (Wed)
We cover a lot of ground and we’re still too hot.
6:45 am 100 mile House
Some of us get our best sleep after 6:00 am, while others are wide awake and go outside and work on writing the trip log. This works out well, as it’s nice and quiet outside, other than the roar of semi-trucks as they pass by about 50 yards (33° C) from our camp site. This is a very nice campsite (pool!), but like everything else in this part of Canada, it’s right next to the road.
Early riser hard at "work"
Bugs: We have been told (warned) that the norther we get, the worse the bugs are. We (Robert) loaded up on serious chemicals (DEET) just in case. So far, it hasn’t been too bad, although the mosquitos descend as soon as we step outside of Harvey, so we’ve started slathering up before stepping outside. There’s also some other flying bugs that are annoying because they fly in your face and up your nose and that’s unpleasant
DEET does a good job of keeping the bugs from landing, but it doesn’t actually quell their interest—they know there’s blood (or a nose) in there, somewhere! As a result, it’s like being with your sisters: “I’m not touching you!” as a cloud of bugs hovers around you.
Jungle Juice aka DEET aka Don't Touch Me, Bugs
9:40 am 100 Mile House
We’re off, and you know our first stop: Gas! We backtrack a bit to get to a gas station a few miles back down the road. Harvey has dropped to half a tank of gas and at 10 miles per gallon, we don’t like to push our luck. Harvey holds 32 gallons, about 120 litres.
Today’s gas price: $5.87 (because of how far uphill they have to bring the gasoline)
11:20 am 100 Mile House
After finishing up some trip log stuff (there’s good cell signal here), we look around and see that there’s
a “mall,” meaning an enclosed collection of five stores, two of which are open. But the two that are open are a restaurant and a grocery store! If you ever find yourself about 10 miles north of 100 Mile House (where 110 Mile House should be), we recommended Mary’s Country Kitchen, especially the egg salad sandwiches.
We stock up on pickle relish and hit the road!
12:20 Lac La Hache
There’s a sign outside this town that announces, “Lac La Hache, longest town in Cariboo” (Cariboo is the region we’re in). We’re not sure how longness is determined, but it doesn’t seem to take very long to pass though .
Turns out that “Lac La Hache” means “Lake of the axe,” because of the thrilling story of a French fur trapper, who (wait for it!): lost his axe head in the lake while chopping a hole in the ice. History is exciting!
1:30 pm Lake Williams
We are overwhelmed by Lake Williams, as it is an actual town. There’s a Starbucks, a MacDonalds, a Subway—Holy Cow! This is good, because we’ve been wanting to get a hammer, and we find a store that will sell us one.
We thought that as we traveled, Harvey would get more and more organized. That we’d figure out where things should go and properly stow them each time.
Har.
“Where should I put the hammer?”
“Is there room in the freezer?”
“No, that’s full of lemon pound cake.”
“Then put it in with the charging cables.”
2:45 pm 45 miles south of Quesnel
We’ve progressed from high scrub desert back to trees and rivers and rugged hills (not tall enough to be mountains, but not smooth enough to be proper hills). The temperatures are still in the 90’s, and Harvey’s A/C can barely keep up.
Jungle Juice aka DEET aka Don't Touch Me, Bugs
3:45 pm Quesnel, BC
We reach our destination town (named after a white guy, and it used to be called “Quesnel’s Mouth,” so we’re grateful for small favors).
Speaking of mouths, our mouths are hankering for some ice creamy treats to beat back the 95° temperatures. Siri directs us to the nearby A & W so we can get a root beer float. Hmm. They’re OUT of ice cream! Next Siri directs us to the local Dairy Queen, where we are not the first people to have this idea. The line goes out the door.
“It’s like walking into a blast furnace,” says Robert after venturing outside Harvey into the seared terrain of downtown Quesnel. Good ice cream, though, and we had our first sighting of somebody else wearing masks!
4:50 pm Lazy Daze RV Park, Quesnel, BC
After the swimming pool experience yesterday, Gini is very interested in RV parks with swimming pools, which turn out to be somewhere scarce. But this RV park is on a lake, which is almost as good!
Oh yeah, the camp host says that “the word is that there’s been an outbreak of swimmer’s itch in the lake… “ Gini decides it’s not a great time to go swimming in the lake.
Ah, well…
By the numbers
Numbers are the notes in the symphony of life.
Miles traveled so far: 554
Estimated Percentage of total road miles: 16%
Days so far: 4 days
Estimated Percentage of total road days: 13%
Gini & Robert
Harvey Staff
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