Day 130 – July 18 – Kinaskan Provincial Park

As we turned on the highway this morning it started to lightly rain.  We stopped at a gift shop just prior to the Cassiar Highway.  The gift shop had an open sign light up in the window but the door was locked and the operating hours posted were from 10 until noon and then from 4 to some later time.  There was a note that said they closed at noon so the clerk could go next door to cook for the café.  It was about 10 minutes before 10 so we waited for it to open.  It was not worth the wait!  Most of the stuff was made in China tourist junk and the few things made locally were priced over the top.

We drove down the Cassiar Highway through the remains of a forest fire.  I am not sure when the fire occurred but there was green brush and flowers blooming on the former forest floor.  The black trees stood watch over the new life.

We stopped again at Jade City.  It was an interesting place – jade is found locally and the gift shop had lots of interesting things made from jade and other locally found stones.  I snapped a few pictures of some of the stones outside and of the cutting process that was in action.

The road was listed as in good shape, but that is relative to other roads in this area.  It did have a blacktop surface most of the time.  We bounced along at speeds varying from less than 20 miles per hour all the way up to 50 on the “good” stretches of the road.  Our poor motorhome has squeaks that have rattles and squawks that have grumbles.

We got gas at Dease Lake, which was another interesting process.  They had four gas pumps and I was third in line from the pump.  All of the sudden a white car pulled in front of the person getting gas at the pump.  The woman from the white car went inside the station/food mart and just left the car.  The guy getting gas had a fifth-wheel trailer and was able to swing out past the car facing him.  The next guy pulled to the pumps and I followed.  He filled up and pulled away from the pumps.  I pulled up, but the woman had not returned to the car.  So I angled the camper so I could fill the tank around the car.  The pumps were all prepay, so I went in and left my credit card and returned to the camper.  I was filling up the camper when the woman finally came out and started filling her car.  She then had to go back into the store to finish up paying.  I went in to finish paying and there were three people in front of me buying groceries.  So I had to stand in line because there was only one clerk working.  It took twice as long as it would have if the pumps took credit cards.

We saw a mommy bear and her two cubs on the side of the road.  The little ones didn’t want their pictures taken and stayed back in the bushes.

We tried to find a place to eat dinner but there just wasn’t anything, so we are having waffles in the camper.  We parked for the night in a British Columbia provincial park and the rain continues off and on.