Bonehead's Traveling People

Here is a little bit of what we did each day on our trip to Smithers, BC. Just couldn't write about everything. The most important thing is that we had a good time! No pictures this time. I seem to be having some problems getting pictures onto my blog right now. Sorry about that. I'm working on it. I know that I talk about taking pictures in the entries below, but I don't wanna go back in and change everything I've written. So, no pictures even though it says there are some. I'll try and put some pictures or slide shows on here later. _______________________________________________ Saturday, 7/17........We had spent the night in Burns Lake, BC . Not too bad of a motel called Sunshine Inn. It had a restaurant next door that served a most excellent senior veal cutlet dinner. YUM! We didn't leave until about 9:30 in the morning as we had a short ride. Seen lots of Moose signs, but haven't seen any in person yet. I can't wait to see one so I can zoom in and take some pictures. Notice I say "zoom" cause I sure don't wanna be too close to one of them. They are HUGE! Anyway, we got to where Sonja is house sitting. Really cool log house that has lake front property. Lake Kathlyn and across the lake you can see the Hudson Bay Mountains with a glacier called Lake Kathlyn Glacier. Doesn't look like much of a glacier anymore. You can see what global warming has done to this poor glacier. Its slowly "going away". So sad............We were able to visit with Sonja before she took off with her gal pals for a hike and overnight stay up in the alpine wilderness. She didn't expect us until 7/18. Oops. We came early. Her friend Jerome is here to keep us company, so we'll be well cared for until she gets back. I guess she has things planned for us. I'll be writing about what we do.........Jerome took us out to Boston Pizza for dinner. YUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sure is pretty here on this little lake. Trees, mountains, water, and I can see snow. Makes me miss the desert even more. hahahahahahaha.....I will enjoy it while we're here though. Its quiet except for when the train goes by on the other side of the lake. I love the sound of the train though, so it doesn't bother me. ______________________________________________ Sunday, 7/18.........Didn't do anything today. Just chilled with Jerome all day. I've tried and tried and tried to get internet here. No such luck. So, here I am writing in wordpad. I guess I could drive into Smithers and "borrow" some wifi, but I haven't done that. Guess I'll just not have any while we're here. Sonja had made some "hobo" stew and thats what we had for lunch. That is always good to eat.....Sonja got home in the middle of the afternoon. She was still raring to go, so off went. She took us to where her house and property is, 80 acres in Driftwood. Her daughter Jenny and husband Mark are building a neat log house on their share of the property. It sure is gonna be a neat house. We then went to the fossil beds at Driftwood Provincial Park just up the road from her place. Cool place. Tons and tons of fossils. And tons and tons of mosquitoes. They sure did love me!!!!!!!!!!! We "collected" some fossils. I say "collected" because you can read the sign. hahahahaha........She then took us on a back road ride through the country side to Moricetown. We stopped at the Buckley River and watched the Indians fish with a long net. That was cool. Coming back home Dan spotted two black bears. He got pictures of one but not the other. He was way too far even for my camera to zoom in. We had a great time.......HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister Christine and my son Michael. ______________________________________________ Monday, 7/19........Another day in Smithers, BC. We discovered that our dollar is worth less then the Canadian dollar. Oh, WHAAAAAA! I don't like that at all. The stupid economy could have at least waited until we got back home before crapping on us. Oh sigh.............Anyway, we went out quad riding today. Dan and I and Sonja and Jerome. We went to the Dome Mountain area riding the Canyon Creek Forest Road. Dan and I were on the lookout for bears and moose. We seen lots of tracks but no animals. Oh! Except mosquitoes! hahahahaha......We stopped by several lakes. They were all so pretty. Lots and lots of green. We stopped by Paradise Lake and had lunch. I had a tuna fish sandwich with Canadian mosquito. Ha! And a side of Canadian fly. LOL LOL LOL....You sure can't get away from either of them. I finally pulled my hoodie up over my baseball cap and that helped a little bit. It sure was different riding in the woods. No sand dunes or cactus here! It was actually a nice day out. Lots of sun. ______________________________________________ Tuesday, 7/20........Its gonna be another nice day. Right now its very chilly out, but the sun is shining on the glacier and its pretty. I feel so sad about this glacier. Sonja showed me a picture of it when it was a large glacier and it looked amazing. I took a picture of a painting of the glacier that was done quite some time ago. Its hanging here in the house where we are staying. You can see how far the glacier had come down the mountain side. If you look at this picture as compared to the pictures I have taken, you can see where the glacier used to be. To me it just shows that global warming is a very real thing when you can see it with your own eyes that a glacier is melting. And this is only a very small glacier. Just imagine the changes in the the huge glaciers! Not good. Just very tragic............We went out for another quad ride today and we really loved this ride. We met up with Sonja's friend Elieen and off we went. Jerome on his quad, me and Dan on our quad, and Sonja and Elieen driving in her "side by side". Sonja took us on a ride that call the microwave. Its a small dirt road that goes up to a cell tower. After we left the cell tower the dirt road turned more into a jeep/quad trail and we drove through some of the most beautiful "green" country we've ever seen. First we drove through lots and lots of trees. But then we broke out of the trees and were driving through the alpine. Some trees, lots of flowers, lots of grassy meadows, and many pretty flowers. The snow capped mountains were in the background and the meadows were dotted with snow. The scenery looked like a picture postcard. We drove to a snow mobile cabin and hung out there to eat the lunch Sonja had packed. Perfect place to stop for a butt break and to eat except for the mosquitoes and flies. Sonja gave me a mosquito net that is actually a shirt with a hood on it. I put it on and they couldn't get to me. Sure love that mosquito shirt! At least I didn't have to eat my salmon sandwich with Canadian mosquito! hahaha....I tried to tell everyone that the mosquitoes love me for some reason. If the mosquitoes and flies weren't so bad, it would be a beautiful place to have a cabin. A cabin with a heliport for the helicopter to get back and forth to town. Nice to dream big.......Anyway, after lunch we drove to the "repeater". Some big thing on the top of a hill that I don't understand what it is and choose not to look it up on the internet to find out. It looked like a big katsup bottle from a distance but as we got closer, it looked like a saturn rocket. On the way to the "repeater" we drove through some snow that hadn't melted yet. That was fun. Our poor quad didn't like the snow very much. Dan had to get a "running start", plow into the snow, and keep the quad reved to get to the other side. We were laughing all the time. When we got up to the "repeater" we seen the biggest flies. They were all over the place and as big as bumble bees. Horse flies. I manged to get some in a picture that I took of Sonja and Jerome. Dan hiked up to the hill by the "repeater" and at the top was a brass survey marker. Very, very pretty country. A whole lot different then being in the desert. I would love to ride in this area again sometime and take more pictures of the flowers. Dan said while we were riding through the meadows, "It makes me want to get off the quad and run out into the meadow, twirl around, and sing "The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Music". hahahahahahaha ______________________________________________ Wednesday, 7/21............We had pretty much a lazy day. No quad riding today. Sonja planned for some of her friends to come over for a bbq. She sure did make some yummy food. It was me and Dan here along with Sonja/Jerome, Elsa/Murray, Ang/Jerry. I don't think I even took any pictures today. ______________________________________________ Thursday, 7/22........HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MEEEEEEEEE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!! I guess its not everyday you turn 61. We went out quad riding today. Dan and I, Sonja and Jerome, and friends of Sonja's, Elsa and Murray. We went back to Dome Mountain but this time we went another way. It was fun and a most excellent birthday. Some of the trails were rather gnarly. We rode to a snowmobile cabin and hung out there awhile. The trail to the cabin was like competing in a mud bog contest. We sure did go through the mud. It was so much fun. We only got stuck once. Jerome got stuck once and tipped over off the back of his quad right into the mud. It was a Kodak moment and I missed a picture of him laying in the mud. I did get a picture of his "stuck" quad. It was so pretty and I took some good pictures. Pictures of flowers, of course, birds, and people. Oh! And grizzly bear poo poo. ha! Sonja ran out of gas so Jerome had to tow her about 10 miles back to the truck. We back to Boston Pizza for dinner. _____________________________________________ Friday, 7/23.......Today was Jerome's birthday. Sonja took us almost to the Artic Circle today on back roads! lol lol lol........It felt that way anyway. She took us to a place where we could possible see a grizzly bear. Guess what? We didn't get to see one. We did see the bare end of a bear's butt as he ran across the road and I took a picture of a dear. Oh! I did take a picture of moose poo poo. I seem to have this "thing" for taking poo poo pictures on this trip seeing as we're not seeing the real thing! After our trip to "not seeing any bears", we headed to Sonja's friend Eileen's house for dinner. We had met her before when she came to see Sonja in the desert. Cool lady. She made us a fresh halibut dinner and it was most delicious! And she had made Jerome a small birthday cake. Cool. She lives on over 400 acres and her farm is way cool. She has a horse named Cisco that is older then dirt. Well, hes 35. After dinner Sonja's son Larry came over for a "jam" session with his mom. He played his guitar and Sonja played her base. He has a REALLY good voice and sang lots of songs that I knew, so of course, I had to sing along too. It was another good day in Smithers. _____________________________________________ Saturday, 7/24.........We all headed to the Smithers Farmer's Market this morning, looked around, then Dan and I headed out. We are now in Prince George at the Day's Inn. _____________________________________________ Sunday, 7/25.........We were gonna stay in Canada another night but ended up driving all the way to Bellingham, WA. It was alot fo driving and a long day. We stayed at the Silver Reef Casino. _____________________________________________ Monday, 7/26.........Met up with my sister Peggy and her husband Dennis in Bellingham. They live in a neat house kind of in the country. We sat around and chatted until our Dad and his wife Susan drove up. We were gonna meet them for dinner, but they came to the house instead. I thought that was cool. We all went to the Old Country Buffet in the local mall. My neice, Annalisa, met us there as she was just getting off work and she works in the mall. Now we're just watching some tv.