Sat., Aug. 17 - Here we go again, hoping the wifi will last. We are now in Quesnel, north of Williams Lake and south of Prince George. We had a good run today, enjoying the views along the Fraser River on Route 99. Sheer mountain faces, deep valley, winding road, hairpin turns, but generally no problem. We then hit highway 97, just north of Cache Creek, which we have followed for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we'll be in Prince George fairly early, as it's only 120 kms from here. Hopefully we can get my brake job done on Monday, and then be ready for further travel north.

A couple of things about today. We stopped for gas in Williams Lake. Two nice young guys did all the work, one of those rare full-service stations. That was very nice. But the washroom was the key to this place. It's unisex, and inside, it's like a small den, complete with a large wood carving, magazine racks, a large potted plant, and opposite the sit-down, a good-sized t.v., showing the Hamilton-Ottawa football game. Best service station toilet ever..

Secondly, we stopped at one of the fairly numerous rest stops along highway 97, and encountered two young guys who were searching the grasses and general environs with considerable concentration. I thought maybe they were looking for mushrooms; but it turns out they were geocaching, frustrated because they couldn't find the 'cache'. The one guy looked everywhere, while his buddy chose to chat with us instead. He was a most rotund fellow with two missing front teeth, dressed in a sloppy black sort of a track suit. Turns out they had gone to Washington State to pick up an old camper truck from his grand-father, and were heading slowly back to Alaska, where they live. On the back of the camper was the word "SECURITY" in big bold letters, the brand of the camper that Grandpa had manufactured. Big guy said it had served them well, as they camped in one of the rest stops the night before, and nobody bothered them, presumably because they were Security people. Ironically, however, somebody crept up to the truck in the middle of the night and syphoned off half a tank of their gas. So much for the Security sign working. Next day they went to Canadian Tire and bought a lock for the gas cap.

Before we left Lillooet this morning, we paid a short visit to the Visitor Center, which had a fine display of large jade stone blocks out front. This area is one of the finest sources of jade anywhere, so it gets a lot of play, with fine displays of the rock all around the town. Inside the center, I asked why they had named their big new bridge over the Fraser the "Twenty Three Camels Bridge". Turns out one of the early gold rush entrepreneurs figured camels would be better than horses to pack gear and supplies to the gold fields, so thought he'd make a fortune contracting them out. Didn't work!!! Turns out the sharp-edged rock in the area cut the feet of the poor camels, as they have soft pads rather than strong hooves that horses have. So all of the camels were retired to pasture, some living a long and contented life, enjoyed by the locals for years to come, and remembered by naming the bridge in their honour.

Chinese and Japanese peoples also played a part in Lillooet's history, the Chinese settling in the area after the completion of the Trans-Canada railroad, the Japanese in smaller numbers, some settling here following their WWII internment. The first Japanese Canadian to be elected to public office was from Lillooet, a doctor who was invited to practice here after being released in 1945. Another important figure was Ma Barker, a very well known newspaperwoman known all over Canada for her editorials in the local paper (which she edited for decades), in which she frequently blasted the politicos, local, provincial and national. CBC did a series about her a number of years ago, called "Ma". She worked the paper well into her 80s.

That's enough for now. I still have some fellow passengers from the train to tell you about, but I'll save that for another time. In the meantime, we hope the rain doesn't continue tomorrow. And we hope the 15 cms of snow predicted for the north-eastern part of the province doesn't decide to move west. We miss all of our friends and family back home, but manage to raise a glass as we think of you. Stay tuned. More later.