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Eddie Hintz, July 23rd
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Hey now,
It's 23 July, 7pm. We are on Highway 97 heading north for Chetwynd, and will camp just beyond it. Our convoy is currently 6 strong. Bob Hoover is up ahead, at our campsite, as he left for there early this morning from Prince George. Jack Stafford is leading the way, followed by Jorge, Todd & Becky, Tobin & Christa, Dan Kane, and my dad & I. Ron experienced technical difficulties with his Powerbook, and remained behind in Prince George at the Apple Service center, and the rest of the group will join us later, as they were getting maintanance at the VW dealer. Our total number is about 12 now, and a few more may yet join us farther north.
Our first day out of Vancouver was spectacular. The scenery was much like that of Kings Canyon mixed with a little of the Pacific Coast Highway-but no hairpin turns. There were several beautiful waterfalls beside the road, and numerous lakes as well. It was all truly marvelous, but I'm a little sad because Sam would have loved it.
We made it to Williams Lake, and people kept walking up to us and talking about our trip, having heard about it on CBC(that's Canadian Brodcast Company, we had an interveiw on their nationwide morning show). One of the fellows who came up to chat was Mr. Wilbur Jones, of Williams Lake, who graciously showed us a location very nearby where we could camp. It was very welcome as we had been on the road for over 12 hours and were still one hour away from our planned campsite... This is the part Sam would *not* have liked. We camped without water, in knee high grass. Ok for folks with real westys, not so cool for my bus. Lots of bugs too. Seems like the farther north we go, the more agressive the mosquitos get.
Truckers up here are a strange breed. The roads are basically all 2 lane highway with an occasional passing lane. So the truckers way of telling you they want past is tailgating. We had one guy with about 50 tons of steel girder about 5 feet from the back of the bus, doing 60mph. Scary. We let him pass, and he did it to every single bus in the line. Maybe he knew what he was doing, but I think he'll kill someone someday. Thankfully he didn't today. He wasn't alone either, I've only had one courteous truck behind me all day.
Tonight we are camping at Moberly Lake, we should arrive there in about an hour. Today's drive was agian spectacular, although the pine trees are starting to thin out a little, not as big and buff as before. Still all over the place though. It's also quite cool, especially considering that it's July 23rd. This is really a lot of fun so far, although this group travels kind of slow. Hey! We just saw a Mama bear and 2 cubs on the left side of the road!!!! While I'm typing this! This is really very cool...
I'm not really sure what the plan is for tomorrow, as I don't have a copy of the intinerary anymore, I lost mine. But it's safe to say we're going North...
Peace,
Eddie
