Prince George, British Columbia August 14, 2013

Yesterday we drove from Stewart to Smithers. It rained almost all the way. It was still very pretty scenery, but would have been a lot better if it had been sunny.

We stopped at a town called Hazelton, and then drove to Old Hazelton to look at some of the old buildings. After that Cindy wanted to see some totem Poles she had read about. A lot of them look like works in progress.

After seeing the totem poles, I spotted a bear eating berries.

Washing off bugs with the rain.

Replica steam boat.

Old electric range.

Many looked like they were being worked on.

Black bear eating berries.

Long line of stopped traffic.

Parked at the Treasure Cove Casino and Hotel.

 We stayed at the parking lot by Safeway. On the way to Smithers there was a sign that said free RV Parking at the abandoned mall. It was quiet all night, and after 10:00 we and one other motor home were the only people in the parking lot.

This morning it was foggy about half the way to Prince George. Again there was some very pretty scenery. We were about an hour and a half from Prince George, and I noticed a sign that said accident ahead. It was about 11:30 in the morning. There was a long line of cars, trucks and RVs waiting to go through the accident area. A state worker came by telling everyone that the wait would be about 2 hours. We decided to wait it out. A lot of the people turned around and went back the way we had come from. The highway was too narrow for me to turn around and we didn't have anything better to do, so we still waited. We did pull up a lot as more and more people left and went back the other way. We kind of felt like home is where we were parked.

Finally at about 2:00 another highway worker came by and told us that there was an accident investigator that everyone was waiting for. He probably wouldn't get there until after 4:00 and then would probably take about 3 hours before the highway would be opened up. That would have made it till after 7:00 before the road opened up. This is Highway 16, the main highway through this part of British Columbia. He told everyone that there was a dirt road that would bi-pass the accident scene. By now we had gone forward enough to be able to back into a driveway to turn around, so with his help guiding me to back up; I got the truck and trailer turned around. Two other fifth wheels did the same thing, and we drove about 10 miles back to the bi-pass. The dirt bi-pass road was not in the best of shape, but at least we got going again.

    

We finally got to the Casino where we had been told by Days End that they had free parking for RVs. They even have an area marked for RVs, so we are staying here for the night. Originally we had planned to get here at about 1:00, but we didn't make it till after 4:15, but we are settled in for the night.

Our days in Canada are numbered. We made a reservation through Coast to Coast for an RV Park in Washington for Saturday, the 17^th. We are planning on using Coast to Coast through Washington and Oregon as much as possible. We may have to boon dock some, but Cindy is OK with that.

  Thanks for visiting. Update: I got better internet, so here are the pictures.