Check in #1...

*I am short on time as I'm to be on a town tour in Barkerville in less than an hour, so all you grammar freaks that are reading (do I need to name you??), cut me some slack, I just don't have time to go back and edit.

I can tell already that I am going to need to write each day with pen and paper and then just copy it over to here because it feels like I've been gone for weeks and I think it's really only been 4 or 5 days. I only knew it was Saturday yesterday because I checked in with the bff and she was cleaning toilets and that only happens on a Saturday, so.... (once she cleaned toilets on a day that wasn't a Saturday and it took me a long time to get back on track - she is that consistent.) All that to say, I barely remember yesterday, let alone 4 days ago.

I will give you the highlights the best I can... 

Day #1 included 6 tunnels (I love tunnels and I honked in each and every one of them. I'm pretty sure that's illegal now, but I would take the ticket just to see "honked in tunnel" written on it. Does anyone else honk in tunnels when you're on a road trip?

I travelled a total of 547.5kms (in fairness, that included about 80kms of a detour to see the sights when I accidentally turned the wrong way out of DQ when I was leaving Cache Creek), saw 5 Big Horn Sheep, 1 gopher, 3 deer, 1 herd of cows standing in the middle of the road and approximately 1,354,754 mosquitoes.  

The picture below is my set up at Big Bar Lake Provincial Park. I slept in my car because I arrived to rain and was too tired, anxious, tired, and wet to finish setting up the tent, etc. Once I got as far as the picture shows, I sat in my chair and didn't move for quite some time. I remember thinking "now what do I do?" many, many times.

*on a side note - now that I am an adventurer and out of the city limits, I say words like "cattywampus".  I looked at the poles holding my tarp up at one point and exclaimed to all the mosquitoes that could hear me "wow, those poles are looking a bit cattywampus". I won't be surprised if you don't recognize me at all upon my return.

Below is the view I wake up to when I am sleeping in my car. It's not glamorous, but it is dry and comfortable and I'm just realizing that is my new definition of glamorous.

There was a brief break in the rain on day two so I cracked out the stove and heated up some beans and chucked in some veggie dogs for breakfast. Turns out I wasn't that hungry so I ate a few bites, put the lid on and stuck it under the picnic table, where it sat for the remainder of the day. When I went to do a clean up before I went to bed, I found the pan, realized I could eat something, so finished them off cold from the pot. Again, glamorous has a new definition.

Before I left on this trip, I took a good deal of time organizing all the things and making sure that everything had a place to live so that I would know where things were and cleaning up/taking down the site should be easier. The picture below is after night 2. Yes, you would be correct, that is everything thrown in the car waiting to be dealt with later because rain and mosquitoes have become my cross to bear.

Blue skies are now worthy of their own photo op...

It was very short lived. Now it's stop #2 and I am in Barkerville. The rain has returned with a vengeance. I'm not sure if you can tell in the next picture, but there is an actual wall of water falling from the skies. It is wet and cold.

Ooooops, I almost forgot the driving details for the second driving day. Hahahaha, I've just gone to check my photographic evidence for kms travelled and apparently I have forgotten to take the appropriate picture. The car hasn't moved though, so I will make a note to get the #'s before I start off again in the morning.

Day #2 of driving found me starting out in the pouring rain and stopping at the first Timmies for a real bathroom, hot chocolate and a bagel. It was not lost on me, while I was sitting inside, that I was also wearing plaid and Shania was belting out some tunes on the radio. Oh Canada, indeed!
There were no exciting detours today and I arrived to my destination without incident.

I saw 2 more deer, another gopher and once I arrived, my first bears. Yup, I am no longer a bear virgin. 1 big ass momma bear and her two, very little cubs. They were right on the road/woods behind my campsite. Good times. I'm glad I got lots of sleep the previous couple of nights.
I wish I was brave enough to be close enough to get a decent picture of the bears, but I am not. I am not brave enough, stupid enough or boy enough to intentionally be that close to a momma bear and her babies.

Oh, and I believe the mosquito count is now sitting around 2,843,728 - for those of you that like data.

Moving along. Have I mentioned that it is raining? And cold? I would love to say that it is lovely falling asleep to the sounds of rain falling on the tent/tarp/car, but it is not. It is, in fact, very, very loud. I'm trying to think forward to the days ahead where it will be so hot that I will be trying to conjure up the thoughts and feeling of this rain and cold.

Onwards I go.

Barkerville is a lot of fun and there is so much to see and do. I met Billy Barker yesterday and listened to him spin his tales from the banks of Williams Creek and listen to his memories of striking it rich and eventually, losing it all.

I paid the big bucks and road the stagecoach to the Courthouse to hear a trial that was presided over by Judge Begbie. Oh man, it was so much fun. The two guys who did it were incredibly good at their jobs and were so, so funny. When court was done I was very thankful that I had paid for the stagecoach because hello, RAIN and it was a good 30min walk in the mud to get back to town.

I'm just about to head in to my second day at Barkerville. Joining in on the town tour in about 15mins.

I will pack up tonight if there is a break in the rain and sleep in the car so I can pull out with little fuss in the morning. While I've been sitting here I've realized a huge flaw in my plan for tomorrow - I had been planning a Costco trip tomorrow in Prince George and tomorrow is the Stat holiday for today so IT IS CLOSED. I am really trying to not have any feelings about this because in the big scheme of things, it is no big deal.

Just before I go, I know that the one question people want the answer to is "are you having a great time?" I've been thinking about this... Am I having a great time? Honestly, no. Again, it's wet and cold and and there are a million+ mosquitoes, but I'm not having a bad time either. I am just having a time. BUT, every night that I've been lying in bed I've found myself thinking of people that are trying to sleep, wet and cold, but not by choice. When I was working at the liquor store I met many people who were living in their cars and they all had a story of why - none were on purpose. There was one lady that had lost her mom recently and her sister had kicked her out of the family home, changed the locks and left her with nothing. This lady was looking for a safe place to park her car for the night while she figured things out. WOW.

So perspective. I am safe and I am mostly dry and mostly warm and at any time I could drive to a hotel and get a room. It is not lost on me that my choices are exactly that - choices.

No idea when I will be able to update again. Tomorrow I head across the province and make my way to Haidi Gwaii for several days.  Less rain would be lovely, but then again, the rain will only help me to appreciate the sun in a new way. Oh, and a shower would be nice. Or laundry. Either or. (I'm not picky.)