The next day in Prince George was a running around day. I’d decided the night before where I was going to try to get the leaking tranni hose fixed and where to go to try to find used spare tires. Luckily, our RV campground was close to the industrial park where I expected to be able to do everything. Including finding a good price on diesel.
I had another 1,000 miles to drive before reaching a large enough town in the states to get a reasonable price for four new tires for the rear of the RV. I didn’t want to pay $360 for a tire that would be $250 in the states. And I needed four. Anyway, we drove over to the shop and got the work started on the hose repair around 9am. I walked over to a nearby junkyard to try to find a usable spare tire. I did find one after 40 minutes of searching but it had a slightly different size. But it was only $50. I asked two tire stores later (one within walking distance, the other we went to after the hose repair) if I could use it anyway and they both said no. When I got the time to do some research, I found that the only thing different was the width. Which means if I’d pumped it up to a nice high pressure along with it’s mate (dual tires), that probably wouldn’t have been a problem for a hundred miles or so to get me out of a jamb. The width might be a problem in that the tires could rub together while traveling so adding air pressure would separate them a bit more. So, I passed on it. Meanwhile, I’m getting worried about finding spares to take with me on the next 1,000 miles. After a couple hours, the shop finished the hose replacement and $220 lighter, we head over to a Goodyear tire store because I’d called and they said they had a used tire my size. The guy told me $108 each, they had two. So I got the work started on both of them and used one to replace my blown tire. That one went into the tire cubby, the other unmounted tire I put in my bedroom. Then they started to ring everything up and now the tires were $150 apiece! I didn’t like that at all and complained enough that they and I settled on $130 each. They dropped the price $20 each and I came up $12 each. Then there was the $60 just to mount one of them on the rim! Rip off. I should have left with just the one tire but I was worried about it because, like I’ve said, the three tires on the rears were all the same age, had cracks in between the treads, suffered the same as the one that blew, and the spare that was running on the back now was made in 1990, and tires do age. It looked good, but it was old. I didn’t put the new used tires on because they had too deep of tread, I’d have to use both of them on the same axle and side or in the front where I already had two brand new tires, and I’d just been charged $60 for one tire to be installed on a rim, not even mounted on the rig. Geese. Well, anyway, $365 lighter, off we went. If you wonder which Goodyear store ripped me off, it’s the one in the industrial district in Prince George, BC.
Back on the road now, we were heading south-east into the Rockies where Dan wanted to do some hiking. We looked for trails that seemed interesting but not to taxing for me, since I’d let myself go in Alaska and had gained 30 lbs or so. In just over 2 years. Not smart or healthy. Spent too much time in my favorite bar, The Big I, and not enough biking or hiking. I’m determined to do better at getting some exercise my next trip back to Fairbanks, starting in May of 2010. But the draw at the I is hard to resist, the most beautiful woman on the planet hangs out there and doesn’t seem to mind talking to me, and several other beautiful and very pretty woman hang out there too. Sigh. Yes, I am that shallow.
After an hour or two of travel, we were back in the boonies and along the way we found and stopped at a nice little trail into some old growth forest. It had started out as a mining interest but that petered out. Before the old growth was all cut down, some conservationist put a halt to it and the old trees were saved and are still there. Interesting but I forgot my camera so all the pictures I got were of after the hike.
Parked on a really steep hill here, had to turn off the refer to prevent it from getting damaged. Some jackass parked practically right behind me which made it difficult to get out of that spot. Idiot.
Start of the trail.
The view from the trailhead.
Back on the road. Great weather.
A distant mountain we'll reach in a couple hours.
After that hike, we just traveled a couple more hours and stopped at a nice campground in McBride, BC named the Beaverview RV Park. We didn’t view any beavers, either kind. Damn.