Prince George to Fort St. John

Prince George
Sunday turned out to be much sunnier, which was great because Caitlin, Luke and I celebrated part of Canada Day in Fort George Park. It was pretty busy, if you can see the mass of people behind us, but there was entertainment on the stage, (including a guy twirling fire) and more tasty bannock to eat. No fireworks, but we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, so I was happy.

Monday we went and played tennis for a bit (or Caitlin and Luke did and I kind of watched and attempted a few sad rounds) and then went for sushi at Wasabi Sushi. I love edamame! Monday night was definitely a highlight. Caitlin and I put our pajamas on and packed candy and blankets and pillows down to her car and drove a bit out of town to the drive-in theatre! The movies started at dusk, and they play a kid's movie first and then an adult movie, so we went for the later one, which started at 11:30pm. Pretty late night even for me, nevermind Cait who usually doesn't stay up past 11:) They played Men in Black 3, which was okay, but being able to sit huddled in a blanket in my pajamas made up for what the movie was lacking. So fun!

Tuesday I unfortunately had to move on, but I had a really great visit and it was nice to get to know Luke (Caitlin's husband) better. The drive to Fort St. John seemed to take way longer than I thought - perhaps because I ran out of gas just before Chetwynd and had to wait for BCAA to come and give me more. Only took them 15 minutes though and I was less than 10km out of Chetwynd when it happened. Definitely a good reminder to keep my van at least half full of gas all the time! And I do have a jerry can, so I guess I ran out of gas about 20km earlier than that...

Fort St. John

I did make it safely to Fort St. John Tuesday night, where I'll be until Saturday when I head to Edmonton. I'm staying with Lorissa (a friend I met while living up here a few years ago) and her husband Arly. They are building a house about 20km out of town near Cecil Lake, and last night we went out there so Arly could work on shingling the roof. The plan for this house is amazing! It's going to have a big wrap-around porch and a deck for the master bedroom upstairs, and they are painting the outside yellow. The place is also surrounded by poplar trees, some of which had to be taken down to make room for the house. Our contribution last night was burning some of the pile of trees and then watching Arly and his brother Jim while they worked. I am definitely going to have to come up for a visit once it's finished!

Also went for a picnic at the look-out yesterday, which looks down over the Peace River. I really hope it will stay looking this way, and the Site C dam planned for the river won't be built!

Today I'm up at the Northern Lights College while Lorissa is at work. A friend is looking over Black Beauty to make sure the van will hopefully make it the rest of my journey. Yesterday I learned how to change an oil filter! In case anyone was wondering, it looks more like a metal cylinder and less like a coffee filter or plastic funnel, which is what I had thought before. The van looks just as beautiful from underneath! Being on campus is also handy because I can get wifi to write this blog!