I slept hard and was awake at 6:00am. No need to stay here any more. I packed up quickly. Since I slept in my clothes from the day before, I figured what’s the harm in one more day in the car in the same clothes? I put on my shoes and went to the restaurant to get my free made-to-order breakfast. Maybe that would be the silver lining of the Travelodge. It wasn’t. It was made to order, just not to my order. Oh well, better get on the road.

Today’s drive I start on a section of highway that is quite remote and uninhabited. I’d read about it on line. There is much written about this section of road and the lack of services. There is at least one gas station, maybe two on this stretch of road. There are a couple of campgrounds and 4 or 5 lodges. The truck will not make the stretch of road without stopping at the one gas station, Toad River Lodge. That gas station also has a restaurant, lodge, campground and cabins. I booked a cabin on a lake. It looked like a lot of campground cabins, very basic. But, the view of the lake looked awesome. It is only a 7 hour drive today.

Most of the drive was in the foothills, lots of trees and rolling hills. Only the last 2 hours was on the lonely stretch of road. I filled up the gas tank in Fort Nelson. I also filled up a gas can in the back of the truck just in case. As I left Fort Nelson, it started to get more mountainous. This is more the terrain I was hoping for. The road was fairly empty at this point also which was nice – no more needing to pass cars. I was so excited to just sit by the lake. Along the drive I saw quite a few Moose crossing signs, but no moose. At one point I saw a sheep crossing sign and it was flashing. I came around a tight corner and they were just jumping off the highway mere feet from being hit by a truck coming the other way. They jumped vertically in the air and cleared the guardrail with very little effort. I would have loved to watch them longer, but this was not an area to stop.

My cabin is very basic, no frills. But it has a bathroom, is clean and doesn’t smell bad. First thing I did was take a shower and put on clean clothes! Something so simple yet it successfully erased last night and and put me back where I should be. I’m on a solo adventure to see beautiful things. Clean clothes and a burger in belly does the soul good. I am so fortunate in life. I let a hotel room fog that knowing. Now, I’m back in that knowing. After an early dinner, I sat on the porch of my cabin. The wooden chair is not comfortable, but I don’t care. It’s almost 8:00pm and the sun is dipping away. It’s getting quite chilly, but I don’t care. The air is fresh. The lake is glassy. The huge puffy clouds over the mountain are backed by orange glow. There are elk in the grassy meadow on the other side of the river. Earlier there was a large log in the river and I marveled on how I often look for moose and only find logs. Now, there is no log and everyone that walks by asks if I saw the moose earlier. There are two white swans that keep floating around and then getting all excited. When they get excited, they honk and fly back the way they came with their wings slapping the water loudly. I’m just sitting here listening to their honking as it echoes off the hills around me.