"At the Crossroads to Opportunity - 350 kms north of Edmonton and 115 kms east of the City of Grande Prairie. The Town of Valleyview is strategically located at important crossroads that lead to Canada's north. Excellent paved Highways lead the traveller to northern adventure via Highway 49 leading to Peace River and the Mackenzie Highway that will take you to the Northwest Territories, and Highway 43 leading to Dawson Creek, the Alaska Highway and adventure in northeastern British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska. Population: Town of Valleyview 1,884 and the trading area 5,000." (source http://valleyview.govoffice.com/)
There were a number of motels that I could see from my vantage point, there were a lot of both pick-up trucks and larger tanker trucks passing me by and I could see family vehicles hauling fairly large trailers stopping to take their dog for a walk and then moving on. Many of the larger trucks left a raw oily smell in the air as they roared past. The smell slightly turned my stomach. While it was nothing specific or unusual I had a sense of discomfort, or not belonging to this culture of oil exploration. Perhaps I was just tired or being over sensitive but something felt a bit unwelcoming.Or perhaps the feeling was generated by a few rude comments directed at me, made by folks as they drove by. As I have said before - I wish I could tell people that while I can get the tone of their slurs, it is really hard to hear what someones shouts out of the vehicle as they zoom by at 80 or a 100 kilometers an hour.
I was there at that corner of highways for quite a while and as it was starting to get late (by my watch, not the height of the sun in the sky) I, in spite of it being a poor travelling day, was getting ready to walk over to the nearest motel. Just after I made a call to my daughter to say that I was still alive etc, a large pick-up truck with a back seat that seemed larger than the combined square footage of the front and back seat of my car stopped. There was a couple in the front seat. The male driver asked me if I was going to Edmonton. Which may seem like a strange question considering that I had spent most of the day, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, trying to get away from that city. I suspect that my sign which on one side said "Yellowknife" and on the other side said "Edmonton" had been accidentally flipped over and was showing the wrong city. The good folks were just stopping to tell me I was going in the wrong direction.. But when they heard where I was going they didn't have the heart to refuse a ride so I got in. Perhaps I should use that tactic more often!
It was only a hour and a half drive to the town of Peace River which is surprisingly little time to talk and to get to know someone. They were off for a weekend in the Peace River country. He was an oil rig worker ( I can never get straight what all of the jobs are around a rig - so I am never sure what the guys actually do) somewhere near Edmonton but they both loved the northern Alberta country and would move there if it was not so far away from their families. They had two young children at home and I think the woman was a stay-at-home mom. He had done some hitchhiking when he was around 16 or so throughout parts of BC but I am fairly sure that I was his wife's first experience with hitchhiking.
We mostly talked about the oil exploration that was happening in the area. He talked about the "oil sands" that had been discovered near Peace River and the fact that because there was no pipe line to transport the raw crude, it was being shipped in tanker trucks. He thought for every $10,000 dollars in crude heading south, it was costing $3,000 in shipping. Not, in my mind or his, a good use of resources.
While the picture does not show it - the sun on the Peace River was quite glorious. Unfortunately the closer we got, the less attractive the town became. Peace River appeared to be turning into an industrial area. I understand the importance of jobs and the need for folks to feed their families and pay for their mortgages - but destroying the character and the beauty of an area seems to be a very high price indeed.
After some discussion and considering it was around 9:00 pm, they dropped me off at a motel on the northern edges of the town.
Peace River is a scenic, vibrant, urban centre in Alberta's northwest and is home to over 6,000 residents. The community is situated in the Peace River Valley and straddles the banks of the mighty Peace River. The town is within a five hours’ drive north of Edmonton and two hours northeast of Grande Prairie and is serviced with air, rail and bus links.
Peace River provides a wide range of services to the surrounding areas. Among these are an impressive combination of businesses including locally owned downtown stores and restaurants, as well as national and international retailers.In October, Peace River was awarded the 'Cultureville 2011' title in the prestigious competition that celebrates CBC's 75th Anniversary and Alberta Art Days. When accepting the award, Mayor Lorne Mann said it was an endorsement of Peace River's thriving community. (source http://www.peaceriver.ca/)
p.s. the couple had a wee dog in the back seat that mostly ignored me and a large dog in the back of the truck. I thought of Susan as I watched through the back window as the dog struggled to keep its balance as we went around curves etc. She would not have been happy.
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