Quesnel: “Gold Pan City”

    Arriving Sunday late after noon we discovered not a lot to do. One Hour-ish to Wells, 8 minutes past that, Barkerville.

    We Slept in *mart parking, as we had in Kamloops. Checked out the town fresh Monday afternoon, it was pleasant. Not a town that has hustle or bustle, but friendly.

    We headed off to Wells with the plan of spending the next day in Barkerville, and then returning to Quesnel for some gambling at the Billy Barker Casino.

    It did not happen that way.

    When we returned to Quesnel, Siobhán and I napped, and killed to batter – I left the headlights on.  We were stranded in the *mart parking lot.  It was having its lines re-painted. We had parked in the over spay zone.  A motor-home with an unskilled driver had got himself stuck between our van and the line of painting.  The solution was so simple to the painters; if I moved first (I would need to move before they started painting anyways) the other motor-home could drive straight out thru where I had parked.  Plans go to shit when I can not start the van because the headlights drained the battery: no one had jumper cables.

    Two other moter-homes had to move (ones that could have stayed put if I had moved) to get the unlucky wedged motor-home away from the paint.  We stayed in the ‘splash’ zone (not one speck of paint got onto our van.)

    That was Quesnel in the Summer of Two-thousand and Six.