"Nice Town" I said...."and what's the lake called again?"
***
I've agreed to go along for the ride and help a friends brother move. "He only has a little stuff..." she tells me.
She was wrong.
He's a pretty full apartment, couches, beds, chairs, tables, desk, basically I was lied to because ...
Well, I wanted the ride. I've not been for almost 40 years, and looking around the town realize I might never have been, although how I made it to Cache Creek from Prince George is a bit of a mystery. The town, largely ugly and brand new, full of chain stores. Nothing remarkable.
The drive, beautiful, after a sense - the weather, warm, to 21 degrees Celsius, no snow on the ground anywhere, the lakes - frozen solid, people out ice fishing in shorts and t-shirts.
We go for dinner and I choose the fish tacos.
Tasty tasty.
And chatting to J***, Lester's brother, he's got a new job in Dease Lake, a mining camp, he does the tech stuff...
He makes formidable cash. 2 weeks in and 2 weeks out.
He's worked at the diamond camps up north as well, and we're talking, this and that, and I'm showing him the giant clams that show up on my Facebook feed and explain how they're filled with colorful pearls and even gold nuggets...
Which sets him to thinking...
"If you seeded a clam with a bit of gold would you get a golden pearl???"
Clearly not a geologist. Otherwise a smart enough guy.
Pass the night on his sofa, next day we get underway and it takes about 5 hours to get everything into the truck, then we head off, towards Vernon...
We stop at a taco place on the north end of Cache Creek. I don't have a name, it's a sign just as your leaving, farm-to-table. And while I didn't take a picture, they were amazing. Huge, with a buffet of hot sauces and salsas - watermelon, blueberry, pineapple, strawberry, cilantro, cucumber, onion, and on and on...
I make 2 tacos a towering foot high. And, while it's plenty enough, I go for 2 more. I won't be this way again, or not soon.
Although, from what I can see, the geology up here warrants some exploration. All the dilapidated and crumbling pioneer and prospectors shacks, junk shops, thrift shops, but that's another tour best done on my own.
The weather again Saturday, 21 degrees.
Summer will be hell. Already there are fire warnings.
We make it to Salmon Arm. He has a locker. But it's dark and so we park the truck and head for dinner.
No dinner for me, I'm stuffed with tacos.
Sunday, unload truck into locker, then drive to Vernon and unload truck.
We're done. From Vernon back to Nelson, by way of Greenwood, another Taco Stand, some more tacos...
Good, but the stand in Cache Creek is the best I've come across.
And that's that. A total of 2 stops for thrift shops - in Salmon Arm, and Williams Lake, although we passed dozens and I undoubtedly missed out on hundreds of treasures I haven't the budget for. But it gave me a taste to go back, so many unexplored roads and trails, antique shops, the very real possibility of gold, precious metals and gems.
That's where I've been the past few days, there and now back fucking around with the blog...but that's a seperate post.
The top cufflinks, brilliant, as big around as a toonie, only $30 is a bit steep.
And the ones beneath, at $45, are preposterously priced. I usually pay no more than $5 a pair, as much as I'd like these I can't justify the price. Salvation Army in Williams Lake, seriously overpriced.
And this, spotted at a gas station along the way, the local arts-and-crafts of Williams Lake. And there were proper drug-dealer baseball hats with pot leaves and sayings like "Dope" and I was thinking, I gotta change up my look, I'm far too conservative, shake it up, put together my baseball cap, tracksuit, look like a proper DJ turned fentanyl junkie, once a week hang around town like that, then back to my regular look, a sure-fire way to broaden my realm of acquaintance...