Day 9 July 10, 2024 Smithers British Columbia to Stewart British Columbia 210 miles
The coffee machine in the breakfast room was the fanciest Keurig ever. There were eight options to choose from with including hot chocolate, tea, latte, cappuccino, espresso and regular coffee. The beans are ground after you make your choice. The used grounds container filled up while we were there so Connie figured out how to empty it. The other unique item was all wooden utensils.
We finished and loaded the car. Several crows were at the back door. One was working very hard to get into a discarded pizza box. Amazing what they can do.
We stopped briefly for gas and finally took off about 9:00 am. The skies are partly cloudy and much cooler.
Came to our first construction site of the day. They used a traffic light mounted on the back of a pickup with a drop down gate like those used by railroads. The other end was a regular flagger. Later we saw these used on both ends of a construction site.
Just before our turn off a portable sign indicated an active wildfire was ahead. Be aware of low visibility. Sure glad we aren’t going that way.
The landscape is predominantly dense forest. It is a combination of evergreen and birch. Occasionally we could see a lake or river through the trees. Large mountains are in the distance. Some snow is still on them.
The skies are getting cloudier and the temperature is dropping. We came to a couple of short patches where a lot of rain had fallen recently. This was a warning of things to come. Very shortly after filling with gas a continuous rain started falling. It last nearly until we arrived in Stewart. Rob got out and put the windows down. He also opened up the manifold heater and got a blanket for Connie.
The mountain on the opposite side of the river still has snow at about our level. The river has a fine mist above for a long distance. The top of the mountains are hidden in clouds so the view isn’t as good as it could be. Luckily there is significantly less traffic.
The GPS took us to the wrong location for our lodging. While we were stopped trying to figure it out a couple stopped to admire the car. They own an RV park in town and were hoping we planned to stay. We agreed to follow them back for pictures. On the way the car ran out of gas! No wonder we were smelling gas. The RV hosts returned and the two guys got things restored but we lost at least three quarters of a tank of gas. They put in some gas from our gas cans to get us to the camp ground and on to the gas station. The hose from one end of the inline gas filter came loose.
The hotel for tonight is definitely an old one. It was built in 1924. The room is small but if you look over the building next door the view is gorgeous. We went to the highly recommended Mexican restaurant across the street for dinner. Expensive and only fair in our opinion. Connie does much better Mexican food.
Spoffords Travel 