Yes – Fragile
Various – Holiday Hits Vols 7, 6, 5 & 4
Chad Wackerman – Scream
Chad Wackerman – 40 Reasons
Up around 8 or so, packed and drove along to a place called Smithy’s for breakfast – sausages, egg (over-easy), two pancakes and lashings of coffee...
We popped into the station to ask at the Hertz desk about handing back the car on Monday but no-one was there so, after purchasing enough petrol for today’s trip, we started the long drive to Prince George, 370 km away through the Rockies...
Initially we followed the route our upcoming journey on Tuesday on the Rocky Mountaineer Train will take...
The weather was fairly cloudy, obscuring much of the view – we split off at Yellowhead Pass and headed North West, stopping off at the little town of McBride, where we enjoyed some refreshments at the station...
Then back on to the seemingly relentless road, before we stopped again at Lake Purden for a coffee in a little café whose highlight was its seven foot tall stuffed bear...
Not long to go now and we soon found our house on the shores of Tabor Lake – but there was no-one home...
So we drove on and into Prince George, stopping at the Tourist Office to ask what was what – we discovered there was to be an Ice Hockey game tonight and another tomorrow afternoon...
We asked what we ought to do now – Saturday, mid afternoon – and were told the best shops were on 4th and 5th Avenues – so we parked the car and took a look...
There were drunks and down and outs on the street and most of the shops were closed – to make matters worse it started to pour with rain – we’d driven all day to get here and it seemed to be a God-forsaken dump...
I did find a Chad Wackerman CD for $5 in a pawn shop though – so it wasn’t all bad!!
We drove back out of town towards our house and stopped off at the only restaurant in the area, where, sheltering from the now torrential rain, we enjoyed cold drinks and chicken quesadillas...
The rain receded and we drove back to the house to meet the lovely couple who would be our hosts for the next two days...
We were shown to a self contained and luxurious chalet in the wood next to their home, settled in quickly and relaxed with a little TV – during which I discovered a new Canadian band, City and Colour, apparently an offshoot of a famous (here) punk band, Alexis on Fire...
In the evening we drove back to Prince George for the hockey game and went to the stadium to which the Tourist Office had directed us, only to find it deserted...
Despite the beautiful house by the lake, we were a bit down re Prince George and proceeded to drive around aimlessly, looking for something, anything to do...
As luck would have it, at one point I wasn’t allowed to make a left turn and so went right and ended up in amongst a crowd of people coming from a car park – we rolled down the window and asked what was happening – we’d found the hockey game...
We’d not been to a game since trying to see Sparta Prague’s football team a few years back and, on finding the game had taken place the day before, ended up going to watch Sparta Prague’s Ice Hockey team instead...
The Prince George Spruce Kings were being beaten by the Quesnel Millionaires 2-1 with a minute to go – the Kings scored with 38 seconds on the clock, forced overtime and then scored the winner (they use “golden” goals in hockey) just 20 seconds or so into the extra period...
Over two hours of fun and we drove home in the darkness feeling not so bad about Prince George after all...
We were now committed Spruce Kings fans and intended to return for tomorrow afternoon’s re-match...
Filled up the tank again on the way home, ready for the journey back on Monday...
Finished off the day with an episode of “Seinfeld”, before retiring around midnight, now eight hours behind Edinburgh...
Highlight of the Day : Ice hockey and the lake at our door...
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