Fort St John British Columbia to Manning Alberta 242 miles
Today is sunny and already warm. Part of that heat warning. We checked for a coin laundry but couldn’t find one. The front desk said they had one machine just around the corner. Cost is $2.50 Canadian to wash and another $2.50 to dry. So we got our clothes and started the process while we ate breakfast and packed up. Woodie started on the first try this time. We stopped for gas and headed down the road. The countryside is much more open with some agricultural spots. That also means there are a few houses along the way. Oil fields are in the area somewhere but we didn’t see them until later. The town of Taylor has a big processing plant for some kind of fuel. At the end of town is a long bridge with metal mesh deck. This was the worst one yet. The car really wobbled from side to side and there were big trucks coming from the other way. We sure were glad to get across that. On the other side is a long steep incline. On the way up Rob decided to look at the bigger picture of our travel. Oh No!!! We are going the wrong way. We were supposed to take a different highway out of Fort St John. So we turned around, went down the hill (very slowly) and across the wobbly bridge again. Got back to Fort St John and filled up again just in case. That added 35 miles to our day’s total. Just our luck the highway out of town has major construction so the road is closed for several blocks. It’s nearly 11 am and we are finally going the correct way. The road came to a hill with a sign stating slide area. Well part of the road had slid off the side. The remaining road had really large frost heaves that were as much as a foot higher on one side of the car as compared to the other. That made the woodie do strange things. Got through that area and the terrain got really flat with huge fields. Three crops dominated the landscape. One was grass hay baled in huge round bales wrapped in some kind or mesh or three wraps of twine. Next and most popular was canola with very bright yellow blooms. Finally there was some kind of grain that had not yet turned yellow. Virtually no fences and no weeds. Farm yards were scattered every few miles. Now throw in a few big logging trucks rather than fuel trucks. We crossed into the province of Alberta. Rest areas don’t exist on this road only an occasional turn out. Not even a litter barrel. We ended up eating our sandwich in a heritage park with a little bit of shade. A police car passed us. The first one we have seen in Canada. Next fuel stop we had a Magnum ice cream bar to help cool off. When we were nearly to Manning we encountered a small rain shower. That helped cool us down temporarily. Something to note. Vegetables and fruits are sold by the pound. Meat is sometimes sold by the pound and sometimes by grams. Most everything else is in grams or liters. Apples yesterday were $3.99 Canadian per pound. That makes them $3.11 in US currency. We are the only guests in the hotel tonight. Conveniently a fish and chips food truck is in the nearby parking lot. We bought one order and spilt it. One big piece of fish and a pound of fries cost around $15.50 in US dollars. Gas is back under $6.00 US per gallon. However, odds are that low price will go up before we reach the east coast. We spent about an hour trying to find a room to rent for two days from now. Several towns/hamlets are fully booked along our intended path. We are competing for lodging with oil and construction workers.
Spoffords Travel 