(August 8)
Dear Folks,
Greetings from the laundry room of the Encore Suites in Grande Prairie, AB. You can see Mari hard at work on the floor. The man in the striped shirt is Jacob. His wife just had a baby: their third boy, their fifth child. They live in Hines (sp.?). He farms grain and beef cattle and does logging in the winter. They have a big house and yard–a great place for children. They have grades K-12 in their village. Jacob has been farming there with his father for about 10 years.
We thought that you would like the photo of the Girls with the statue for Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Lots of cloud photos today. Most are from the area of Dawson Creek, BC–officially the start of the Alaska Highway.
We are sorry to leave the mountains behind.
Alberta has farming. What some folks might not realize is that it is a major source of energy. There are large groups of refineries.
The lady in the photo is Kim, the restaurant manager at the Woodlands Inn and Suites. She helped us load Miracle and we got to talking a little.
Kim has a good friend Christy who was seriously injured in an automobile accident. She now uses a power chair. She has had to go through extensive rehabilitation so that she can function and take care of her children. Her house is wheelchair accessible. While Christy has been going through this, other members of her family have had different health crises.
Christy had had to go to a more urban area: Ft. St. John. She hasn’t really been able to be home in Ft. Nelson in eight years. They think that she will be able to be home soon.
Christy is part of an organization that advocates for disability rights. In Ft. Nelson, besides the typical handicapped signs (blue with a character motionless in a wheelchair), Ft. Nelson has purple signs with an active person in a wheelchair.
Christy is lobbying for greater autonomy in her personal care.
Kim has been in Ft. Nelson since she was four. It is where her father, sister, and her immediate family live. It is where she wants to stay.
More tomorrow. For now, we will get this on its way.
(August 9)
Dear Folks,
Today we went to the Grande Prairie Museum (which has 55,00 artifacts) and the Heritage Village-a number of historic structures donated, restored, and lovingly outfitted. It’s impressively accessible–ramps and automatic buttons for the doors galore. The Girls seemed to like the boreal forest exhibit best. They certainly knew that the animals were not alive. But they also knew that they HAD been alive. The amount of work that has gone into that place is incredible. And it is all free and open to the public. It also houses regional archives. It takes its immigrant heritage seriously. There was a large influx of Poles around the time of the Great Depression, for example. They homesteaded, worked hard, and helped shape the culture and make Alberta the bread basket of Canada.
We started out the day receiving an act of kindness. Grande Prairie is a good-sized hub for the surrounding area. It has very busy streets connecting one strip mall to the next. To walk, we must cross a wide street to get to a sidewalk. We were waiting to do so. A young woman walked by. We said hello. She looked like the stereotypical tough person: black shorts, black tank top, lots of tats. After she passed us, she turned around and asked if we were trying to cross the street. When we said that we were, she came back and walked right out into the street, raising her arms to stop the traffic. She was very effective. We crossed the road and called a fervent thank you. She called back, “People here drive like they’re crazy!” To which we agreed.
After the museum, we went to a gas station we had visited on our last trip to Grande Prairie, on our way up to Tuk. Then we were able to pump. This time we could not. We had to go into the store–an On the Run–and ask the clerk for help. He could not get that pump to work for us, either. So he asked us to move to a different pump.
When we started trying to get gas, no one else was there. Now all of Grande Prairie showed up. The poor clerk: he ran himself ragged trying to mind the store and help us. We did finally fill up for the long trip to Saskatoon tomorrow.
Just a couple more notes:
In Whitehorse, we stayed at the Raven Inn: the most expensive lodging on our trip. We had no choice: it is the only place wheelchair accessible there right now. It considers itself luxury on the edge of the wilderness. The staff are lovely. But on our two stays this time: going up and back down from Tuk, they charged us a penalty cleaning fee. I explained that the Girls had been trained to wedge against my back so that I do not roll over and become unable to move. It’s a medical necessity. That made no difference. We also learned that they ordinarily do not take the duvet covers off and wash them after each guest. Yuck!
We were wild about the Woodlands Inn & Suites. It feels like home. We could completely relax. Where are you going to go today and find such extras in your bathroom as a sewing kit and a shower cap? The people are so kind. Since I am not a breakfast person, they fixed me a little Care package of rye toast , peanut butter, and sliced tomato. It is worth going out of your way to go there.
Ft. Nelson is also facing the problems that many communities are having: people are living longer and surviving conditions that would have once killed them. So there are more people with disabilities. And many businesses and essential services are inaccessible. Neither dentist is accessible.
Kim shared the story of a man who had had a leg amputated because of diabetes. He was waiting outside a store in the cold one day. She stopped and asked him why. He said he was waiting for someone to come along, notice him, and open the door. She did so.
We urged her to organize at the grassroots level.
Tomorrow is a very long drive to Saskatoon. So you may not hear much from us. We have wished that you could all be with us for the Arctic Highway, the Dempster Highway, and the Alaska Highway. They are challenging and yet also magnificent.
As we say in the County: not gonna lie. We are not fans of the prairie. And that’s what’s coming up for the next 1,000 plus miles.
Wags and Hugs.
The Lowman Family
