July 2, 2022

Last night's motel was Fairview Motel.  It's a bit shopworn but not seedy or decrepit.  Good wifi and a full kitchenette.  All for less the $100 Canadian.

The owner/manager is from India.  We had a long friendly chat this morning as I was getting ready to leave.  He's worked in hotels around the world including Dubai and Moscow.  But he says he loves it here where he wears blue jeans instead of coat and tie and doesn't have the pressure and stress of high end hotel management.  He also owns a restaurant and some other establishment in town. He's been here 6 1/2 years and has two kids, one in kindergarten and one in 7th grade.  He plans to stay at least until they are in college.  

I was interested to know how his experience of the people in this region compared to mine.  He is dark skinned and bearded with an obvious accent and I asked if he encountered any racial animosity. He said all the time, but that that's everywhere.  He said people's reactions range from "it's so nice you bring your experience here" to "go home with your politics."  To the latter he says "you elect your politicians.  I run a hotel."  I liked him.

So, a really short ride today back down AB-2 and AB/BC-49 to Dawson Creek and another motel (Lodge Motor Inn for $90 including tax).  The farms here sit on oil and scattered about the fields are small block-like structures, each with a tank next to it and some with a pump jack nodding up and down.  I don't know if the ones without pump jacks are exhausted wells, idle wells or, perhaps, wells where the oil rises under its own pressure.  There is also what appears to be a small refinery.

I've mentioned how flat the land is, in places stretching tablelike to distant horizons.  I love riding across land like this where you can see weather developing miles and miles away.  Today I was racing forward under towering cumulus clouds.  One band of clouds was dark and ominous and I wondered if I could get out from under it before it started to release its rain.  In this broad landscape you can have an active relationship with the weather.  Instead of sitting passively in one place and waiting to see if the weather clobbers you, you can feel a sense of agency watching it and moving relative to it.

I saw a sign pointing to "Green Island Road."  That set in motion a train of thought.  At places the land looks like a vast green sea.  And scattered about on this sea are dark islands consisting of dense wooded areas.  I wondered why those islands of trees, some the size of small forests, were left in place.  Perhaps the soil is too rocky to farm?   Are they there to break up the wind?  Maybe to maintain some biological diversity?   I'm sure the deer appreciate them.

The Peace River meanders northeastward across Alberta.  AB-2 crosses it south of Fairview on the bridge mentioned in a previous post.  At that point the river has cut a dramatic, hundreds of feet deep valley, all the more dramatic as it's such an unexpected feature in the surrounding flatness.  The best view of the bridge is from the north on the steep descent into the valley. I wanted to stop for a picture but there was no convenient spot to pull over.

You can get a good view of the bridge from this angle using Google Streetview.  Search for "Dunvegan, AB" in Google Maps.