(Vancouver, BC –
Quesnel, BC: 415 miles)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY S.!!!
Somewhat cloudy and gray morning in British Columbia. We
packed our stuff and left the apartment at 7:30 am. More less. We did
not sleep very well and it looks like J. is getting sick. Pretty easy
drive out of the city (few miles on city streets and than highway 1).
A lot of trains in Vancouver. Sun in front of us. No horrible traffic
because we were leaving the city. Toll bridge. Nothing really special
along the main stretch of highway 1. The speed limit was 100
kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour). We saw some waterfalls from
the road but unfortunately the park was closed. Slowly, we were
seeing more snow, the mountains were bigger and more majestic. It was
also getting colder. The town of Hope was our first real stop (for a
few minutes). Chainsaw carvings all over this small town. Snow on the
road (old one). Otherwise nothing special. Speed limit dropped to 90
kilometers per hour (no wonder our trip takes forever). More snow
along the road but the road itself is clear and dry. Time to time
there was a house or a small settlement. It did not look much
different from driving in Nebraska. Long and tedious driving. The
landscape was much nicer, rivers, mountains, and forest but the close
proximity to the road there was a lot of farming and cows. We saw
many road signs warning of wild life but did not see a single thing.
Many of those small settlements were sad looking. Few visitor
centers, largest cross country ski (from Vancouver Expo exhibition),
big log building, jade gift shop (they had huge jade rock by the
store). The road was changing between two and four lane highway.
Speed limit 90-100 kilometers per hour. Speed dropping in towns to
50-70 kilometers per hour. All major international corporation
present (Walmart, McDonald's, Subway, Chevron). There was provincial
park – volcanic chasm – about 3 miles off the highway 97 (our
access road to Alaska Highway). All snowed in and inaccessible. Nice
detour with not much to see. We were using Milepost
http://www.milepost.com/,
apparently the must have on the way to Alaska. Stop for the fudge
(good one). Nice and pleasant weather. About 6:00 pm in Quesnel,
British Columbia for the night. Somewhat goofy motel. Overall: so far
so good. We just passed half mark for our trip from Phoenix to
Anchorage (about 1950 miles done and also so many left to go).
