Houston, BC - One Mile at a Time

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. The second day in BC, a Saturday, our RV breaks down. We are stranded in a small town called Houston, BC, Friendly little town (pop. 3164), lots of people have stopped and asked if they could help us. But, none-the-less, we’re stranded, it’s a holiday weekend here in Canada so we’re here for a while. How long a while? Who knows?

The day didn’t begin well. Neither one of us slept well in the rest area. It wasn’t the trucks on the highway but the darn birds that started chirping at 4:30 that woke both of us and kept us awake. Ah, maybe it was the exicitment of our trip, who knows? But, I’m going to blame it on the birds. At 6:00 the alarm went off and we were out of there by 8;00. After we bought some gas, we did some touring.
Quesnel’s (Kwe-nel’) milling industry is world wide. and, we got a good glimpse of some of it from a cool observation tower (made out of wood, of course) at one of the mills.

The white steam is visible for miles and the piled up logs and lumber are stacked high all over the milling yards.

Here’s a company that uses the wood from the trees that that the pine beetle has destroyed.

And, if that isn’t cool enough for you, here’s the world’s largest gold pan.

Now, I wish that one of us could have stood near it to show you how big it is but the supposed ‘large’ parking lot turned too small for us to turn around in when two cars parked on opposite sides. So, I ran out of the RV, snapped the picture and Gary stayed in the RV on the road.

The excitment done, we headed down the road. We boogied along for 309 miles. (Looks like we’re picking up some of Canada’s finest - black flies and mosquitos.

Here’s a triple threat: it’s not enough that we have to watch for elk but now moose and deer. How much else can we watch for?

We had the music going, we had some sodas at hand and - spice drops on the spice drop shelf (doesn’t everyone have a spice drop shelf in their RV?) We stopped in Houston, BC about 3:30 for a picture with the world’s largest fly-fishing rod. Gotta get the best and what better follow-up to the world’s largest gold pan than the world’s largest fly-fishing rod?

But we’re a bit behind schedule and we want to be at our next stop by 6:00 so we’d better rush along. We headed out of town, got to the top of the hill and wham, a beeper starts and then the engine dies. Gary had pulled to the side of the narrow road and we were dead in the water. Long story short - it is the fan motor. It’s kaput and the motor is overheading. When it overheats, it shuts off. We’ve had this problem before and got a bonus week at the Freightliner Service Center in Grand Junction, CO.

OK, let’s see if we can get back to town. We unhooked the RV (dicey on a 2-lane road with an almost non-existant shoulder. But we had our 3 reflective emergency triangles out. We find a drive way and Gary turns the RV around. At least he’s headed towards town.

Hmmm. No fan. When the motor gets hot, it stops, automatically. So when I say dead in the water I mean we can’t move until the motor is cool enough to run. We wait a half hour for the motor to cool down, Gary slowly drives down the hill. He gets about a mile before the motor overheats and stops. We wait a half hour or more and he drives another mile. We’re getting there. We didn’t realize how far we had driven out of town. Then a 3rd mile. Then a 4th.

I check the nearest RV park. No, we’re not going to stay here. No sewers, the electricity looks dicey (two of the posts I could plug my hairdryer into - not an RV. and I wasn’t sure about the water faucet. The next park is 2 miles out side of town on the other end of town AND up a hill. Gary waits a bit and moves another mile. The police come but really can’t help us much. Others stop. But we move on down the road a mile at a time. Then, Gary gets to the bottom of the last hill, with a two-lane bridge on it - no shoulders for a very slow RV to drive. It’s 9 pm. Nope, not going to make it. He turns around and pulls into a vacant lot in back of the local restaurant.

Yes, we can stay overnight. And, we’re there. Tomorrow, early while the engine is cold, Gary will try to make the hill.