2009-05-08 - 1:52 p.m.
So it turns out that Barkerville is a long way from Vancouver. I knew that when I set out, but I don’t think I had an idea of how remote this place is. I left Vancouver early on Tuesday morning. I had come back from Victoria the day before (after a great weekend) and quickly re-written a quiz, which took all of about five minutes. Then it was a flurry of last goodbyes, and a couple of small things to get sorted out. Tuesday morning I was on the road by eight. I need to make a correction here- apparently the truck is a ‘classic 1988 Ford’, according to Dad, and shouldn’t be described as simply big and hard on gas. Even though it is. Classically big and hard on gas. Also, classically comfortable, which was good, because it took me eight and a half hours to get to Quesnel. I think that part of the problem was me not being very familiar with the route, and not sure where you could speed with impunity, and where the cops were. There was also quite a bit of construction. As I drove past 70 mile house I could see the effects of the recent fire- everything was all burned along the road, and as recently as the day before I travelled they had closed the highway for a while because of the smoke. By the time I got to Williams Lake I was starting fade. I had my i-pod, and the stupid thing seemed to know what I wanted to hear, and then refused to play it. Specifically I was looking for some Vinyl Cafe, which is always nice on a long trip. So, since I was using shuffle (safer than mucking about with the menu at 100 km/hr) I would just skip until I got to a Vinyl Cafe story. The only trouble was that it wouldn’t give me any stories for the longest time, and when it did, it was one that I had just heard! I swear that the shuffle function is not random, but is out to get me.
I-pod problems aside, I finally made it to Quesnel. Trev, who is a retired Anglican priest in Quesnel has been organizing things for me, and he offered me a place to stay. I was glad enough to take him up on it, as I was well and truly done in for the day. Trev and his wife Carol are really nice, sweet people, and it was great to meet them. They are both retired now, and they gleefully told me all the wonderful things they do instead of working. If you ask me, retirement sounds like a pretty good deal.
Wednesday morning I took my leave of Trev and Carol, and armed with a hand drawn map of Wells, headed out to find my new home. Wells is about 5 kilometres from Barkerville, and it is the place where most people who work in the park stay. Trev had found me a one bedroom apartment, and he warned me not to have high expectations. Well, he was right. The place is really big after what I’m used to, and I think that it is the biggest place I’ve ever had to myself. It’s a one bedroom apartment, with a good sized kitchen, and large living room. It’s decorated in what Trev aptly called ‘Early Canadian Garage Sale’, which means that I’m sitting on a flowered sofa, and the matching easy chair is in the corner. The paint is peeling, and the sinks have rust stains, but the carpets are freshly cleaned, and the stove and fridge are new. All in all, I quite like it.
There is still lots of snow on the ground. When I was moving in yesterday it was snowing, and it snowed again this morning. This apartment doesn’t seem to be very good at keeping in the heat, and I’m already regretting leaving all my winter stuff in Vancouver.
I went out to the church yesterday. The church is called St Saviour’s, and it is the original building that was built in the 1870s. It’s a pretty little church, not very big, but then, neither is the town. There is an odd little museum attached to the church, in what was designed to be the Sunday School room.
This morning I discovered the Wells General Store. I had heard that they had an internet cafe, which is what I was looking for. I found that, and a whole bunch of people that made me feel like I was in a TV show. When I went in the lady who runs the Barkerville candy store and the Barkerville blacksmith were both in. I was glad to meet them, as I knew there was orientation on Friday, but I didn’t know where or at what time. They were also unsure, since Mike the blacksmith thought that it was today, and Jean the candy lady hadn’t heard about it at all. Luckily Carol, who runs the store is the kind of person who gets things done, and after a couple of fruitless phone calls saw the person she needed to talk to on the street, and chased him down. That settled, they gave me a cup of coffee while they talked about the park. It seems like pretty much any bureaucracy – problems, and things not handled very efficiently. Carol assured me that it was just a couple start up bumps, but Jean didn’t seem too sure.
Jean and Mike eventually left, and Carol got me set up on the internet. She rents access to her wireless network for twenty bucks a month, which means that I can take my laptop down to the store. This seems easier and cheaper than home internet, which you have to get through one company in Quesnel. I’m going to try it for May. Also, there is no cell reception here, so I have to get a landline. I was trying to order one through Telus’ website, but it wouldn’t work. When Carol heard that she told me that she was expecting a call from one of the executives at Telus, and she would tell him exactly what went wrong. Carol is a very helpful woman.
So now it is just waiting until the orientation tomorrow, and then it will be waiting for Monday, when this whole thing starts for real.
