31

Saturday Aug 3        Rest Day 6

      Fort St John (BC)

Breakfast served in the hotel from 5:00 till 9:30. That’s to get a good run at the day. I was down shortly after 7 for the continental plus one or two hot items. Sufficient considering the amount of energy I needed for this Rest Day.

Breakfast time here is the best time to ring home, thanks to wi-fi and Whats App. 8 hours difference now but that’ll change tomorrow when we cross into Alberta.

Laundry was next. No coin-operated laundry on the hotel; they could get it done for you for $21. Only three cycling days since the last laundry so I did it myself. Washed and dry by noon. The bike got a once over and oiling. I’ve found that the greatest thing to get grit and grime out of the awkward places are pipe-cleaners. Brilliant. It’s like a new model as it stands here now in the bedroom.

Washed

Sprayed (still to dry)

Last evening I got a NikWax re- proofing spray in Ernie’s Sport Expert near where we had dinner. So coat washed and sprayed and dried and I look forward to the next rainy day (not).

The hotel is about a good 20 minutes walk from the central area on the edge of Fort St John with a less than impressive out the back from my window in Room 224. TDA could have picked a more central location (as in Dawson City and in Whitehorse...and with a coin laundry.I wonder would it be worthwhile presenting a complaint to the Complaints Department ?!

So just around noon I cycled down towards the centre to pick up a few items and to sightsee. I needed another book (three novels finished already) and sought and found Lanacane - an effective  cream for relief from bug/mosquito bites. Got it in the pharmacy in Walmart.

Dropped over to the temporary Visitors Centre for suggestions to take up an hour or two. She gave me a brochure indicating a historic walking tour around the centre. Regular path-side plaques gave the history of the site across the road.....across here you just got to imagine what the hotel looked like.

Fort St John is the oldest European settlement in BC when it was established as a trading fort for trappers in 1794 at a location a little southwest of here. In the 1920 and 1930’s persistent drought caused the move to this location, so it’s a very recent development - everything around here is recent; anything from 1960 back is regarded as ‘historic’.

The town has a population of 21,000 and is laid out in a grid. The centre is where 100  Street (the Main St) intersects with 100 Avenue. Wide streets and everything is low-rise and timber-framed. The average age of people in Fort St John is reputed to be 8.8 years below the average age of BC as a whole.

From the time the town started to expand in this location farming replaced trapping and the discovery of oil in 1951 and natural gas again transformed the community and its economy.

There must be some Irish connections as I spotted Shamrock and Killarney on my cycle-about, and there’s a Baldonnel just out the road.

I had first gone to the Pomeroy Sports Centre (the usual location of the Visitors Centre) but all closed up for refurbishment. It has two full size ice-hockey surfaces, a speed skating oval and a walking track on its three levels, and many other public facilities.

Coming back to the hotel I took the cycle track that runs parallel to the Alaska Highway.

This evening I went up two 100th Ave to Mass in the Church of the Resurrection. I try and do so when Rest Day’s occurs at weekends and this evening I had a special intention for a special person. Mass followed the expected pattern 15-20-20 for prayer, talk, sacrifice and a large crowd. Met the priest afterwards and chatted about the cycle...he wished me well.

All set now for push-off tomorrow morning on a 6 day stint down to Jasper. Might get wi-if somewhere along the way if we’re fortunate.

Thank God for a lovely day.