Tire Problem #4

Odometer - 4063

Just when we were thinking that Prince George to Smithers is rather boring, and just when we were thinking that we might get to Smithers a little early, and not too long after we had a picnic lunch at a rest stop near a lake, we hear this somewhat familiar refrain: “Blub, blub, blub.”

We quickly recognized it as Flat #3, (or tire problem #4 if you count the spare tire bulge Robert picked up when he checked the spare many, many miles ago...).

By now Gates and Robert know the routine all too well. I got in on the action, too, by placing the orange warning triangle down the road to alert oncoming drivers that we were parked off on the way-too-small shoulder changing a tire. The good news is that it wasn’t raining, despite a very threatening sky. It was not hot. And the road, despite heavy trucks carrying huge logs to a nearby paper mill, was not very busy. The whole problem delayed us about an hour, and that’s including the time spent in Burns Lake at Tirecraft Auto Center buying a new spare and having it balanced.

A nice thing that happened this morning was that we met another Coast Guard family in the parking lot of the hotel. They had seen our Coast Guard license plate and came over to talk. They’re going to Juneau and were also headed for the ferry in Prince Rupert. It was fun to compare notes and talk about Alaska.

Here comes the rain as I sit here in the Tirecraft parking typing away and waiting for Robert. Our hotel tonight is a bed and breakfast which is supposed to have a view of a glacier. It’s the first bed and breakfast we’ll be staying in and I hope it’s as nice as the reviewers at Trip Advisor have said.

Last night we had dinner in a local restaurant, Carmel’s, which had good food and lots of it. Dinner also included salad and dessert. There was so much to eat that I immediately put a half to two thirds of my meal in a take-away container. Gates did had leftovers, too, and it was that which we enjoyed as our picnic lunch.