We just learned we will get an extra hour tomorrow. I love it when we Fall backwards one hour. We have come through three time changes and have one more to go.
At Mile 0 in Dawson Creek, BC this morning we went the wrong way on 97 for 19 minutes when we finally realized the truck compass said south instead of north and the descriptions in The Milepost weren't matching up with the scenery outside the window! I had been blissfully thinking I wouldn't have to navigate through Canadian towns and cities anymore and was concentrating on giving the lad interesting tidbits about the road and we were going the wrong way!!! In my defense, I have to say, the Canadians are tightwads about putting highway signs on the roads, especially after merges. (We went the wrong way in Grand Prairie for oh, 20 km, and had to go back but that definitely was not my fault!) Anyway, we found the right direction (!) and travelled 300 miles or so to Fort John. We were going to stay at a park 75 miles further on but they did not answer their phone, so it's a good thing we called before we left this area.
We have had a good ride all this time being able to hook up to water at parks. It's kind of unbelievable actually, when you think it's November 6. Well, all that came to an abrupt stop this morning. We went to bed hooked up to water at the park and woke up to no water and 26 degrees. So that's that! We will still be able to use the toilet in the trailer (with antifreeze) but will have to use bottled water for boiling tea water. Luckily we have been able to find open parks because of the boom in gas exploration and workers staying in parks all year. Some of these rigs are gigantic and have full size fridges and freezers outside! They are also very well insulated for winter.
The occurrence that has really had a big effect on the Irish especially, is the onset of long twilit mornings and evenings. It is barely light now at 9 am and was pitch black tonight by 5:30. All that will change tomorrow with Daylight Savings Time ending, but for sure, daylight hours are diminishing. I love the long twilights out here, something we do not have in the East.
We had two enormous, long passages down today which were quite scary for me, truthfully and two others which were not as bad. In the chain up area, was a tractor trailer with pipes on the back of it, checking his load to be sure it was secure. When you see a trucker do that, you pay attention because they don't stop for anything. The Irish called this the Canadian Grand Canyon, a horrible twisty, steep, s-curvey, descent onto a bridge with grating (like the old Jamestown Bridge) into Taylor, the Energetic City. Quite frankly I had to shut my eyes for a good part of it. The lad's comments about knowing he did not have full control of the trailer and wishing we had hydraulic brakes instead of electric, did not help.
The other bad descent was into the Prophet River and this one was terrible. Prior to the descent in the chain up area, always an indication that things are going to be bad, we stopped to walk Pak. There was a double over-sized trailer and pilot car checking things over. We tried to wait until he was done so he would be ahead of us, but he wasn't in any hurry. 4/5 of the way down the lad kept quietly remarking over and over that we had no brakes left. I didn't think it was the time to talk so I just kept my feet smashed into the floor and prayed for a miracle. When we finally got safely to the bottom and kept going, he said the brakes would be okay after they cooled down. Personally, I would go to a brake place. We had them done right before we left, but I know we have a lot more of those coming up as we haven't hit the Rockies yet. (That's tomorrow.)
The other two memorable ones were because we didn't expect them. One went into Pink Mountain and the other into Big Beaver Creek. These death defying descents were never a problem for me before because I wasn't towing anything.
We had a good dinner at the park here and are settling in for the night.
The pictures will have to wait until I have a stronger connection; they aren't loading.
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