Wednesday, August 17, 2011 (Mt. Fernie Provincial Park, Fernie, BC)

It was another cool start to the day but the sky was bright blue...it was going to warm up nicely.  Not too terribly exciting day today, I’m afraid....it was "work" day for me but Steve was going fly-fishing...so he was happy.  Actually, I was looking forward to some time on my own (as was Steve, I’m sure)...it’s the laundry part I wasn’t looking forward to.

It was about 9:30 when we headed out to find a spot along the highway to drop Steve off.  There are a number of pull-outs where people park and walk down to the river with their fishing rods.  We pulled over at one spot and Steve got out to check to see if it would work...yup...it looked like a good spot.  He grabbed all his gear and he was off down to the river.   I drove off in search of the Laundromat.

The Park Attendant had said to take the second left once across the bridge...the Laundromat was in a Quonset.  I had no trouble finding it and there was also plenty of parking so I had no problem with the truck.  But I must say I was less than impressed with the condition of the facility.  Half of the machines were out of order and two people were already there and had half of the remaining machines taken.  The change machine also didn’t work.  Great...there’s nothing I hate more than having to go to neighbouring businesses pestering them for change.  I found three empty washing machines, got them loaded and had enough loonies to get two of them going.  I then headed across the street to the Subway store...where a cashier very reluctantly gave me 5 loonies for my $5 bill.  Well, I can at least get the third machine going and then go out and try to find another business more willing to exchange my $10 bill for loonies.  When I got back and tried plugging the loonies into the third machine, they wouldn’t go in...something was jammed in the slot...oh great, can this get any better?!  Now I had to go find another machine that wasn’t out of order.  Finding one on the other side of the laundomat, I pulled all the clothes out of the machine and reloaded them into the other one...it had better work!  Luckily it did.  Now the next challenge were the dryers...as I watched the only 5 working ones (out of 10) gradually being taken by the others...there was one left...come on washer...finish!  Whew...got it.  When the next washer finished, another dryer was available down at the other end of the bank of dryers.  The third load, when finished, joined the clothes in the first dryer.  Well all I can say is thank goodness I got there when I did because there were now people waiting for machines.    As one woman said, they could sure use some competition!

About 2 hours later my ordeal in the laundromat was finished and after packing the bags of clean clothes into the back of the truck, I was off to the Overwaitea for some groceries.  I easily managed to park the truck in the parking lot...whew...that’s always a concern for me.  After I had finished my shopping, I thought I had better check in with Steve...it was now after 1:00...he had been fishing for 3 hours.  I managed to finally find a payphone (there are not many of them around anymore)...he had been anxiously awaiting my call...unfortunately he wasn’t having much luck and without any wheels, he hadn’t been able to move to another part of the river.  Okay, I’ll come and pick him up.

Steve was pretty disappointed...fly-fishing on the mighty Elk River is supposed to be awesome.  But I guess fishing was pretty slow today...there had been lots of others fishing, including guides, and they all said the same thing.  I’d hate to have paid almost $600 for a guided fishing trip and not catch any fish!  Here are some pictures he took...

On the way home, we stopped at John`s house hoping to pick up the CD with our pictures from last Friday`s whitewater rafting trip.  Unfortunately, he wasn`t home (he was out on the water) so we were to call him after 5:00.  We are leaving tomorrow and really wanted to pick up the pictures rather than have the CD mailed back to Sidney.

Once home, I continued with my "work"...putting groceries and the clean laundry away and making the bed while Steve put his fishing stuff away.  After playing telephone tag with John, we finally connected and he said he would have our CD ready if we wanted to pick it up...so off we went.

Anxious to see the pictures, I loaded the CD into our laptop as soon as we got home...and nothing...what the heck??  We finally determined that the CD was blank...sheesh!!!  It was after 8pm by this time but I called John again, only to get his voicemail...so I left a message for him to please call back asap.  We watched TV for the rest of the evening...we never heard back from John...