Yep, McBride is getting a new gas station. That means we will have two!!! It’s not open yet, and although they made the announcement half a year ago, I didn’t want to start bragging until I was sure it was finally going to happen. It is being built right across the street from the Husky station. The photo was taken last week, before the snow.
Back in 1977 when we moved to the area, McBride had 4 gas stations. I had it in my mind that there were five, but my present memory can only come up with 4. One by one, they slowly closed until the weekend when we actually didn’t have any, but fortunately someone quickly took over the Husky station and kept it running, giving us back the one station. There is a “Card Lock” in town where people who are a member of the Coop can get fuel, but that isn’t available to the general public.
The little village of McBride is located in the middle of the lonely 400 km (200 mile) stretch of Hwy. 16, halfway between Jasper, AL and Prince George, BC. In the winter it is the only place to get gas between the two locations. It would be a really long drive for people traveling between the two places, if McBride wasn’t sitting there, 2 hours from Jasper and 2.5 hours to Prince George. It is nice for the traveling public to have somewhere to stop, fill up, and load up on some junk food for the road.
I guess this new station will hurt business for the Husky station, but it is too much to wish for that there will actually be “gas wars”, since I am sure that both stations will always have the same price for fuel. The new station is however, an optimistic sign that maybe McBride’s future may not be total decline.
You can see my paintings at: www.davidmarchant.ca
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