roll my body around all over

May 10

SO Williams Lake made me a little crazy. Dropped my laundry with a sweet lady named Julia and went for breakfast. The eggs tasted like chemicals or something, everything was weird. I got some writing done, then came out to get gas. While I was eating, the price went up by 7cents. I was all excited like it was going to be cheaper here! Went to the gym but ran out of time, so half shower in a hurry- very unsatisfying. Tried to pick up a few things and got a little loco in the mall. Ran crazy back to the truck, need some food supplies. The Save-On got me even more bunged up! Tipped the camper up onto its tippy toes for the first time leaving the parking lot. Definitely time to go. Decided I do not like this town. At least not today. The people are so so friendly, so I'll give it another try another day. 

 

Ride up the big leaving hill with Amelia Curran, and over into the breathtaking Fraser River canyon where there are grassy benchlands that then drop away into the river chasm. SO many incredibly green, green fields. I wanted to roll my body around all over every one of them. Another giant switchbacked hill after the bridge means I'm taking my time, letting my truck cool a couple times, having a picnic on one of the ledges, sitting in the sun. Finally, the sun has come so I don't mind the time now, I'm not stuck inside out of the rain at all, getting some good walks in. Hoping to walk to see some petroglyphs further up the road, but Ima have to get a move on.

This valley blows me away. Reminds me of the book, “A Recipe For Bees”. Man I wish I still had that! The woman lived outside of Williams Lake, but a good distance, married to a sheep herder who went away in the summers, up into the mountainsides with his herd. Set in the early 1900's, very historical drama-romance stuff. But I love stories about places I'm from, can go see, and imagine it as the author described.

After that big hill, it is just as I'd imagined, a high, flat, rolling pastureland, with rocks dropped from outer space moonscapes all over the fields. Or glaciers left them behind. Either way, really cool. There was a sign right at the top about poaching, slaughtering and stealing horses and cows, and the penalties attached. I guess it's a big enough problem to warrant that. But I'm sure it's the aliens doing it. Or the bigfoots. Further along, after a long steep descent, there are lovely river valleys. I have a soft spot for these meandering grass strips, with the softly curving roads that accompany them. I wish I had a fast car or was on my motorbike. 

Wyld Stalyns!

Farms n greens

The road is so straight in th alpiney places that it gets somewhat boring. But after awhile, the road has no more lines, so I'm free to read and wander and weave all across it no foul no harm. Carefully watching for oncoming traffic from both ends of me of course. My speed is averaging eighty, everyone is passing me at 300 kms/hr it seems. The camper is pushing the box against the cab again, and it's become a hammering sound. I crank the music louder and try when I stop at Bull Canyon to push it back off a bit. Not budging. I took a break and hiked the river trail for a while.

 At one point in Redstone, I got out, and hurt my shoulder, leveraging my body sideways, holding onto my windowsills, trying to push the camper with my feet. I keep forgetting I'm not a hundred pounds and wiry anymore. By Tatla Lake it's an artillery firing behind my ear. When I pulled over to take in a mountain range viewpoint on an uphill gravel pull out, it shook itself back a bit I guess, and was quiet. But it didn't last long. I've slowed down to sixty to try and keep it from hitting so hard. When I hit the bump on the bridge, it stops and I have sweet silence for some time. I had turned off the stereo ages ago since I couldn't hear it over the banging. Then I hit a speed bump and it started up again until just before Nimpo Lake. At one point just after Kleena Kleen I pulled over on some gravel and tried to accelerate and bump it back. It did not work. Two hours of slow going, worried that the place it was hitting was going to be ruined, thinking how to solve it without too many supplies or hassles. Best plan I could think of is jacking it up prying it back out, and slipping half a pool noodle in there. Alls I need is a pry bar and a pool noodle. If you were here, you would look around and realize how futile this plan feels right now. 

 

Once again I hadn't intended to keep going for as long as I have , but I really wanted to sit in a pub to finish this day. A roadside saloon, man! But in each little town, everything is shut down, for sale, in decrepit disrepair. It makes me sad that there aren't enough visitors anymore to these wild and amazing places. I see lines of cattle here, lines of horses there, following one another back to the sleeping or feeding places around six pm, starting just after I took these ones of them all foraging for roadside McDonalds garbage.

Dean Lake, my camp destination came so fast and there were so many bugs hitting my windshield, I thought I'd just see if there was a pub in Anahim, or a rec site there. This rapid gunfire noise onslaught was traumatizing.

Anahim turns out to be the same as all the others, even though it takes up more space on the map and has shading on it like Williams Lake, which I took to mean it is a more populated centre. But maybe I didn't go far enough. I turned around and sped back to Dean Lake for sunset. Time for my jammies and reading and sippy times. 

 

Looking forward to the descent to sea level, this high, dry air always fucks with my sinuses for a week. I hate the getting used to it feeling, my whole face hurts. Eyes forehead cheeks n jaw. Hard to believe I'll be arriving to my destination already tomorrow, given that the box of my truck does not somehow shake itself the fuck off the frame. I have to try again in the morning. To fix it better. Wash the mud off the jacks with lakewater, back the chains holding it on, off, and push with all my might again. Also need to get rid of these bubbles in my radiator fluid, the noise is too peculiar every time I shut her off, sucking and bubbling and sucking...er. I think have an idea how to do it. The one solution I was told didn't work at all and I'm not sure if my way will ruin it somehow, so I will run it past a few people who know better first.

It is so nice to get in before dark to set up! I counted three long steeps to get back to Williams Lake from here, in case I plan to go to the -([secret])- Springs with the friends I imagine will be coming to visit... I mean, not imaginary friends, I mean... I'll do it either way... with whoever shows up, imaginary or not!

Man, I wish I had time to throw some cool filters on my pictures and make them look more badass. Not tonight, the battery's dying...