July 1, 2001, Sunday- today is Canada Day- Happy Canada Day. With the busy holiday weekend, tee times weren't available at their gorgeous golf course. Time to mosey to the east, so we left Terrace and arrived in Smithers with a lunch stop in the Hazeltons. We got lucky twice. First, driving down the road I noticed that the rear facing camera showed nothing behind us. No car, no road, no nothing! Easy fix….somehow a button on the monitor face was trying to display images from the second camera. We only have one!
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Second, we went over a large drop in a freshly paved area. All of a sudden the car behind us is passing us with lights flashing and horn blaring, signaling us to pull over. One of our compartment doors popped open and was 90 degrees to the coach. It was also good luck that nothing fell out of that compartment.
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At the Riverside Golf and RV, 125 miles from Terrace, I helped Phil get his satellite dish up and running. He was "perturbed" because I pushed the button and got the dish. He tried and tried and tried and got more and more and more upset. He locked onto a strong signal, but no picture. So, I made a house call. First, I noticed that he was not on the same satellite. Easy to tell when he was pointed 45 degrees in a different direction. After we got his lock-on to the correct satellite, we changed his "transponder" to the correct number, and turned his access card right side up in the receiver. Now we got a picture but he was locked out. So, after two long calls to the dish company, they reset his signal and he and Karen are now as happy as a clam!
July 2, 2001, Monday- to get back into the swing of things Karen, Susan and I decided to give the par 3 course that surrounds the Riverside RV Park a go. For $10 each, Canadian, we got 18 holes of challenging fun under our belts. Next, a 10-mile bike ride into town gave us a feel for the Bavarian downtown area. For another $5 each, we could play unlimited golf, so with 18 more holes we totaled 36 for the day. Perfect! Karen's golf reflected the many rounds that she's had during her wintering in Arizona. For Susan and I, as always, some holes were good and some left room for improvement.
On our second round we noticed that the greens had marks from someone walking on them with soccer or baseball shoes. The cleat marks were a pattern of four marks for the sole and four for the heel. What a shame that someone continued to damage one green after another. When we finished we told that staff, and at 10:30 tonight the owner of the place came to thank us for letting them know. They were heartbroken, and said that the greens keeper will be even more so. It will take thousands of dollars to correct the damage.
July 3, 2001, Tuesday- surprise of surprises. For today's round of golf, Phil decided this was his day. With an empty course to the front, rear and sides, there wouldn't be pressure on him to play within the fairways or with golf etiquette. Even with the handicaps of using a partial set of rented clubs and not having picked up a club in who knows how long, he did great. It must be that Dartmouth hockey slap shot that kept him going straight. Needless to say, the laughs were constant!
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This small town of Smithers, BC has about 12,000 residents and serves as the shopping base for some 30,000 people. It's Bavarian styled downtown was filled with great "outdoor" shops. Every type of hard goods and soft goods for biking, hiking, etc. with the latest high tech bend, was available from knowledgeable salespeople. The mountains that surround this community could be compared to the alps with views for 360 degrees.
July 4, 2001, Wednesday- Happy Independence Day to all! To celebrate we did a bit of red, white and blue. With sunny skies three of us couldn't resist another round of golf here at the Riverside Course in Smithers, BC. So, off we went, again with nobody ahead or behind us. Phil revisited the municipal pool and did his laps.
After lunch we did a nature walk for 90 minutes up by the cross-country ski area. Like the Stations of the Cross, we had 20 stops to make with an explanation at each place about the nature appropriate to that area. The loop however, covered some wetland, boggy areas. Our poor Hobbes came out of the hike needing a bath from head to toe. Also, spot lumber prices shot up as we left the forest. Hobbes must have had a thousand board feet of lumber attached to his coat. This loop trail, besides being in wet areas, was in dense trees and brush, creating a natural environment for a few million mosquitoes. Fortunately we had the bug spray and bear bells, and exited the area none the worse for wear.
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July 5, 2001, Thursday- travel day. 250 miles from Smithers to Prince George, BC. However, it wasn't the best day of travel. Tried to start the coach and nada. Nothing. But, this time I was educated and knew to wiggle the ground wire to the starter motor, (the same thing that we had in Golden, CO in April. Got that done. Whew! Stopped for some museum, art show, visitor center at Burns Lake. Lunched, and then Phil stopped for some petro and a squeeze into the tires. Good thing he looked, because the exhaust pipe was hanging by a thread. The last time that happened, he lost the tailpipe and blew the inboard tire. Fortunate again, because a tire/muffler shop was directly across the street, with a new bracket and a few bolts, we were on the road again.
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The most challenging and frustrating part was a two mile stretch of pea gravel over fresh blacktop. Even at 10 MPH it was kicking up a storm on the rocker panels and wheel wells. Because of the gravel that stays in the tire and gets kicked out down the road, 10 miles later we were still getting beat with stones and tar. The pits!
As we approached Prince George, our cell phone regained its life and Susan took down a bunch of messages. The last one, an hour old, was from the glass shop in Prince George. Good news…our windshield arrived. Bad news….it arrived broken. So, tomorrow we have to figure out where to get the next one sent to. There's never a dull moment.
July 6, 2001, Friday- a day of frustrations and touring. First, last night our Gateway computer screen went dark. With about 2% of the screen showing in the background, I struggled to get the weeks data backed up. First call this morning was to Gateway. Even though they replaced the screen last fall, for the third time, it was only covered for a 90 day period. Cost to repair the "back lighting" is $299. Add shipping and sales tax, we're close to $400 for repairs, and where do we send it to? Stephen in Denver? Can we get it to Gateway and have them repair it and return to Steve prior to his trip to meet us in 2+ weeks?
Next, let's take Susan to the optometrist for her 60 day review. Everything looked good, but the "topography" photo didn't show concentric circles. Will Susan need more surgery? Don't know, but we did fax and send a hard copy to Lance in Denver.
Stopped at a computer repair shop that told us it could be weeks before anyone in town could get us up and running….parts could be days to weeks from Gateway. I don't thing we want to hang around that long.
Cranked up the old Fujitsu computer, took off lots of old data, and added a few files from the Gateway to let us function on the old computer.
We did meet Phil and Karen and took a tour of the Canfor Pulp and Paper mill here in Prince George. Amongst there various BC plants, they employ 6500 people. However, with record low pulp prices, several of the plants are getting ready for rotating shutdowns.
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Lumber from the Prince George area is good for paper purposes. With long winters that keep the trees dormant, and spurts in the summers, long fibers result. This plant gets their raw materials from the lumber mills in the corporate organization. By-products of lumber are wood chips and sawdust. These are shipped to pulp mills and the bigger pieces are used for making of pulp and paper. The smaller pieces and the dust are fed into the furnaces that produce steam for the manufacturing process. Nothing is wasted with 100% of the forest products being recycled.
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A rotating kiln is used to heat lime, calcium carbonate, in the reclamation process. At the start of the drums, the lime is heated to 650 degrees, Celsius. At the other end, 275 feet away, the 10.5 foot diameter kiln heats the lime to 1000 degrees, Celsius. Now that's hot.
What we observed is an equipment intensive operation, AKA big bucks of the investment to stay ahead of the competition. For instance, an $8.5 million railcar dumping operation was recently opened. Now, a full railcar is tilted 82 feet into the air, and as they say, "let the chips fall where they may".
Many parts of the plant were noisy, hot to very hot, with caustic smells and considerable amounts of dangerous equipment. The two product lines include one production line for white pulp, sold in bales, and brown butcher looking paper sold in rolls. It wouldn't be my first place to work!
Steve is trying to find out if he can get us a replacement Gateway computer shell. So, we may look at new boxes, but won't make a decision until we hear from him.
July 7, 2001, Saturday- for an education Phil, Susan and I toured the various computer shops in Prince George, BC. They ranged from little shops that only took orders, to the big box store like Staples. Interesting that Staples had 2 computers on display, but sales tags for about 6. It seems that they get one computer of a type, and if they put it on display, they purchasers want a discount for a "display" model. All in all, we didn't find any computer that would fit the bill if we were in the purchasing mood.
July 8, 2001, Sunday- a relaxing day in Prince George. I finished my six month preventive coach chores of boiling our batteries (to send the sulfates off the plates and back into solution), and treating our fresh water tanks with chlorine to keep everything clean. In the afternoon some fresh air and exercise was in order. So, off to one of the town parks along the riverfront for an hour plus walk. Then past the railroad museum and motorcycle museum, and finally stopped at a hilltop park, filled with flowers, that had 360 degree views of the city. As we walked passed the flower beds I noticed a sign "no dogs allowed". Hobbes isn't a dog, right? And at that moment we noticed a RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) car coming around the loop. Fortunately, we made it back to the car without being noticed.
On return to the Blue Spruce Campground, Karen invited us to join them for dinner with a couple that she met on the golf course. Karen did a great job of finding their home and introductions were made….lour hosts are Susan and Rick. We hit it off with the same sense of humor and many of life's experience, as we four have enjoyed. They even have a condo in Scottsdale, AZ, and will stay in touch with Karen and Phil this winter. She is in the real estate business here in Prince George, where it's a tough go at this time. Prices are depressed. Many homes are in low $100,000's which would equate to the $60's to $70's in US dollars. Rick, who is in the flooring and countertop business with carpets, wood, tiles, also has seen massive slowdowns. In the early 90's some 2000 homes per year were being built. Last year the number was 52 units. It's hard to make a living with the lumbering business being so depressed.
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