The story that I am about to tell took place all within a 24 hour period in and around Kamloops. To say this is a story about a winner might be pushing it a bit, but by days end no one was killed.
Eric, my summer student and I had arrived in Kamloops the night before and were now holed up in an entry-level motel on the east side of the downtown.
My first mistake was that I decided that we should eat dinner at a Bonanza Restaurant. I had no reason to believe that this was a bad decision until about 1 o’clock the following morning when I was slowly pulled out of a restless sleep by a relentless feeling of nausea that increased in intensity as it consumed me; the hours had slowly dragged by. At one point I got up because of the misery of the moment and went to the bathroom hoping to relieve myself of the consuming nausea by sticking a toothbrush down my throat to upchuck the offending dinner of the night before, and maybe get a few minutes sleep before sun up, but to no avail.
Morning found me feeling just as nauseous but rather then lose a days work, we took off for the bush after Eric had eaten his breakfast. We were hardly out of town when I yelled for to Eric to stop, I barely had time to get out of the truck and barf my guts out. After taking a drink of water I seemed to feel a bit better but a few miles later I again shouted to Eric who screeched to a stop a second time, and not any to soon. I will say Eric was tough, he did not seem to let my puking bother him in the least, he hung onto the steering wheel grim faced and determined.
My second mistake was that on arriving at the stand and parking the truck at the landing, I gave Eric the compass because I felt to weak to run the line into the plot. Eric was not familiar with a compass, but we managed to find the plot with out too much difficulty. It was after we were ready to leave the plot that I knew we were in trouble. It seemed Eric did not take note of the original bearing and after wondering around for several hours in the course of our work we were now lost.
My day was not going well. To say we were lost was not entirely correct but thrashing around in the bush when I was to weak to walk did not make me a happy camper. After a couple hours of needless wondering with the aid of the compass we finally found the truck.
My third mistake was that I let Eric continue to drive the truck as we headed on into Kamloops. Eric was not a bad diver but his lack of experience on gravel was now cause for concern as he was giving little regard to a series of large jagged rocks that happened to be along the side of the road. Rather then be a back seat driver and suggest that he at least try to avoid them I kept my mouth shut. Moments later the right front tire had its side ripped out and down it went.
Oh the joy of fixing a flat in what was soon to become a downpour. Just as we were starting to change the tire a big thunderstorm rolled in over us. What started as a few drops of rain soon became a torrential downpour and it was only a matter of minutes before we were both soaked to the skin.
We were fortunate however to get into town before all the tire shops were closed for the day and after about an hour or so, and plenty of red tape as it was a government truck, we were finally on our way to Lytton.
Boy was I glad to finally check into a motel for the night and then have a very light bite to eat, the only thing except for water since my encounter with the Bonanza Restaurant of the night before.
Two out of three is what saved Eric, it was his good fortune that he had nothing to do with the food poisoning at the Bonanza.
Eric, my summer student and I had arrived in Kamloops the night before and were now holed up in an entry-level motel on the east side of the downtown.
My first mistake was that I decided that we should eat dinner at a Bonanza Restaurant. I had no reason to believe that this was a bad decision until about 1 o’clock the following morning when I was slowly pulled out of a restless sleep by a relentless feeling of nausea that increased in intensity as it consumed me; the hours had slowly dragged by. At one point I got up because of the misery of the moment and went to the bathroom hoping to relieve myself of the consuming nausea by sticking a toothbrush down my throat to upchuck the offending dinner of the night before, and maybe get a few minutes sleep before sun up, but to no avail.
Morning found me feeling just as nauseous but rather then lose a days work, we took off for the bush after Eric had eaten his breakfast. We were hardly out of town when I yelled for to Eric to stop, I barely had time to get out of the truck and barf my guts out. After taking a drink of water I seemed to feel a bit better but a few miles later I again shouted to Eric who screeched to a stop a second time, and not any to soon. I will say Eric was tough, he did not seem to let my puking bother him in the least, he hung onto the steering wheel grim faced and determined.
My second mistake was that on arriving at the stand and parking the truck at the landing, I gave Eric the compass because I felt to weak to run the line into the plot. Eric was not familiar with a compass, but we managed to find the plot with out too much difficulty. It was after we were ready to leave the plot that I knew we were in trouble. It seemed Eric did not take note of the original bearing and after wondering around for several hours in the course of our work we were now lost.
My day was not going well. To say we were lost was not entirely correct but thrashing around in the bush when I was to weak to walk did not make me a happy camper. After a couple hours of needless wondering with the aid of the compass we finally found the truck.
My third mistake was that I let Eric continue to drive the truck as we headed on into Kamloops. Eric was not a bad diver but his lack of experience on gravel was now cause for concern as he was giving little regard to a series of large jagged rocks that happened to be along the side of the road. Rather then be a back seat driver and suggest that he at least try to avoid them I kept my mouth shut. Moments later the right front tire had its side ripped out and down it went.
Oh the joy of fixing a flat in what was soon to become a downpour. Just as we were starting to change the tire a big thunderstorm rolled in over us. What started as a few drops of rain soon became a torrential downpour and it was only a matter of minutes before we were both soaked to the skin.
We were fortunate however to get into town before all the tire shops were closed for the day and after about an hour or so, and plenty of red tape as it was a government truck, we were finally on our way to Lytton.
Boy was I glad to finally check into a motel for the night and then have a very light bite to eat, the only thing except for water since my encounter with the Bonanza Restaurant of the night before.
Two out of three is what saved Eric, it was his good fortune that he had nothing to do with the food poisoning at the Bonanza.
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