Empty McBride

    This is what Main Street McBride looked like yesterday in the early afternoon.  Of course it was the Labor Day holiday, so all the stores were closed, but the lack of people and cars still surprised me.  This was a reminder that the crowds of Summer generally disappear after Labor Day.

    McBride did have a bustling summer with lots of tourists due largely to the massive number of forest fires that burned through the Cariboo and Chilcotin areas south of us.

    There are just two highways that allow people in Northern BC to get to the Lower Mainland.  One of those highways was closed for about a month because of the fires and so all those people who would have used it had to detour past McBride to get to Highway 5, which became the only other way to get to the south. 

    Also another reason for all the drive by traffic was that Prince George became an evacuation center for those people in the active fire areas that were forced to leave their homes.  Because of the one highway being closed, evacuees had to take the long round about way, that went past McBride, to get to Prince George.  Joan and I were surprised at how much traffic was on the highway during these times.

    But things are now moving back to the slow and quiet mode around here as McBride gets back to normal.

    

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca