I think I've now figured it out. For the last few days -- since the trip
began -- I've had the feeling that this trip seems to be long and drawn
out, with lots of driving and not much sightseeing. Then it dawned on
me as I was looking at the itinerary for the
umpteenth time... it's the distance between towns. Unlike many places
in more populated areas, the drive from place to place here is running
3-4 hours and a couple hundred miles. It's in those hops between towns
I'm getting bored. Mystery solved.
The alarm went off, but I'm not sure we're giving the alarm a complex,
as we completely ignored it for a while. And we did turn it off in
a rather heartless sort of way.
5:54am
I chose to squawk up a storm, as this trend of waking up whenever
Tubby feels like it is getting on my nerves. It's one thing when he's
at home and it's not impacting me, but this is getting tedious.
6:46am
At long last, we were out the door and checked out of the fine Travelodge-ings
in downtown Prince George.
6:49am
After finding we only saw maybe half of Prince George, I suggested
we spend a few minutes looking around further. The suggestion carried
with no objections.
6:56am
We found our way to Highway 16 and the eastern route we'd be taking
as far along as Edmonton.
8:04am
Opting for the first rest stop of the day, I set out on my own for
a few minutes and took a picture
or two.
9:02am
Despite whizzing along at break-neck speeds (not really possible,
given the speed limitation of 90 km/h on this road, or about 56 MPH),
it was easy to spot this
handsome fellow grazing near the road.
Lured by the name and a railroad theme, we stopped and had a look
around McBride.
10:56am > 11:56am
We crossed over from British Columbia into Alberta,
the loss of an hour as we moved from Pacific to Mountain Time, and
a speed limit of 10 km/h slower (90 km/h consistently, versus British
Columbia's preference for 100 km/h).
12:10pm
We arrived in Jasper, where we managed
to get hung up for 45 minutes looking around (largely at nothing),
and wondering why this town, near nothing that we could see, was such
a resort-like place. Dumbfounded at not finding the answer, but seeing
several hitchhiking young women (despite it being illegal to both
hitchhike and pick up hitchhikers), we returned to the highway --
now Highway 97, no longer 16.
12:51pm
Once the incessantly slow train finally got out of the way, we were
finally free of town. (Granted, we could have gone down a mile under
the undercrossing, but I was driving, and I'm renowned for my laziness.)
Describing the light, almost pale gray shade of the water, is tricky.
And the photos weren't helping
much. This
one wasn't much better, but at least I took it from a moving vehicle.
1:12pm
Yup, another
moose. But this one had the good sense to pose in front of a better
backdrop.
1:20pm
The blues of the
water didn't come out as well as being there, but there were three
distinct shades; quite lovely. And a
highway.
1:52pm
We crossed through Hinton. A bit annoyed at the speeds changing
from 100 km/h to 70, then to 60, then to 80, I refused to stop or
recognize the corporation of this city any further than making this
whiny notation.
2:59pm
A bio-break at the famous Edson Rest Area. In the interest of modesty
and privacy, no photos were taken.
4:37pm
We hit Edmonton. Lots of wandering
around, we didn't really even get lost in this, the capital city of
the province, although we did find it took an outrageous period of
time to find our way back to Highway 2 to begin heading south for
Calgary.
5:52pm
We FINALLY managed to clear the Edmonton city limits on the south,
and officially left town.
7:32pm
Giving in to imminent whining, I allowed the vehicle to stop at
McDonalds, where I refused to have anything, although I did snag a
cool salt packet in English and French, and note the red
maple leaf on their sign.
8:47pm
We pulled into Calgary. Tired. Pictures of Calgary tomorrow. But
we did stop off and feed the Unnamed Expedition with 97.7 litres of
fuel (which yes, is working out to about $3 a gallon -- so feel thrilled
you're in the United States and only paying $2.30 a gallon. (Price
may vary from community to community, of course, so shop around for
the best rate.) They also tell you where your
money goes when you buy gas -- and only 3% of it is profit.
8:58pm
A very nice, but slightly odd fellow, Matt, checked us into room
217 at the Travelodge here in Calgary. But there's four, so you get
to guess which one. As for me, I'm going to wrap up today's updates,
and settle in for a good snooze. At least until the alarm goes off
tomorrow at 5-something AM and is again ignored.
