Driving in the Interior of BC during the summer can be a pleasurable experience. There is always the danger of a deer, moose. or bear jumping unexpectedly out onto the highway in front of you, but generally the good visibility, long daylight hours, and the dry pavement make driving fairly safe endeavor. Fall and winter however, present a different story. Night driving, animals on the road, and snowy slippery highway conditions always makes winter travel a throw of the dice.
Yesterday, was the first such scary trip of the season for me. Joan was flying in to Prince George, returning from her visit with her brother. Her plane was scheduled to land at 9:00 AM, so that meant that I had to get up at 5:30 in order to make it up to Prince George in time.
It was a bad drive. The first part of the drive was in the dark, plus because it had been raining during the night, and the temperature had then dropped below freezing, there was black ice on the road. Black ice is a thin layer of ice on the covering the surface of the road, which is very difficult to see, but you can sure feel it. Oh yeah, there was also fog. It all contributed to a long, slow, white-knuckle 3 hour drive.
Fortunately, there was very little traffic and I didn’t meet any animals on the road. I took it slow, and made it to the airport in time, but it wasn’t very enjoyable.
The Prince George airport is built in one of the foggiest places they could have picked. The whole area surrounding the airport was a blanket of pea soup fog particularly in the fall and spring. That prevented Joan’s plane from landing on time, and it had to circle around with 4 other planes for an hour before it finally did land, although it was still pretty foggy.
Joan got off the plane and had a happy reunion with Skye, once we got back to the car. It is always such a relief to finally arrive safely at home after such a trip to Prince George, particularly during the fall and winter months.
Take a look at my paintings: www.davidmarchant.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment