Dateline May 15, 2011, Over Pine Pass to a Three-Day Welcome at Farmington Fairways
Another adventurous day began with us leaving the casino parking lot in Prince George, where we had spent the night after a few hours at the computerized roulette table. Forty dollars lost, a few hours of fun gained. A fair trade.
The drive started uneventfully until we reached Pine Pass, the lowest pass in the Canadian Rockies at just about 3,000 feet. The sign at the foot warned of SUDDEN WEATHER CHANGES, which is the kind of warning that always reads cheerful enough until you experience one. The temperature when we started up was a comfortable forty-eight degrees. As we climbed, the gauge slid steadily downward. By the time we were near the top it read thirty-six, and the freezing rain we had been driving through quietly turned into snow.
Tight curves, big drop-offs, fresh snow on the road. Janice took it slow, John watched the gauges, and we crept across the pass with both of us paying very close attention. Coming down the east side the weather lifted, and we relaxed and rolled on toward Dawson Creek and Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.
At Chetwynd we made a decision. Instead of heading straight east, we would take a loop north up to Hudson's Hope, then continue on to Fort Saint John at Mile 48 of the Alaska Highway, and circle back down to Dawson Creek. Somewhere in that loop we would need an RV site for the night, but everything we passed was either still closed for the season or flooded out by the high water running everywhere. We pulled out The MilePost, the bible for traveling in the North, and a few pages in we found a listing that read like a typo: an RV park with a golf course. A minute later we came up on it on the left side of the road. Farmington Fairways.
How many RV parks come with a golf course attached? We had no idea, but probably not many. We pulled in to ask, and the next three days turned into the best stretch of the trip so far.
We walked into the pro shop and were greeted by Melanie Rigsby. Inside, a group of women were getting drinks before Ladies' Golf Night and the energy was high.
Melanie told us to pick whatever site we wanted and let her know which one. The amenities were everything you would want, clean showers and bathrooms, and a small miracle, free use of all of it. We set up the Roadtrek, made dinner, and settled in.
The next morning we ran into Dawson Creek for some supplies, then came back to play. At the pro shop we met Melanie's husband John, who was the one who turned the conversation into a story. We walked the nine-hole course, 3,100 yards, and it was a real track. The layout would stand up to courses in the lower forty-eight. It had only been open for a week because of a longer winter than usual, and even so it was in surprisingly good shape.
Over a beer in the pro shop afterwards, John told us how the course came to be theirs. He had been a junior member as a kid, played the course for years, and developed a real interest in course management. He went to college for agronomy, came back as greens superintendent, moved up to general manager, and three years ago the elderly gentleman who had owned the place decided to entertain his offer to buy it. He and Melanie have been running it ever since.
He also invited us to play the next day in their opening-day scramble, starting at two in the afternoon, with dinner afterward and a Horse Race to follow. We would learn the rules of that game later.
Saturday came in clear, sunny, and seventy degrees. We had developed a small RV issue overnight, and when John heard about it he sent us to Boes Trailer Sales and Service in town. We met the owners, Jerry and Terry, who sat us down over coffee, listened to what was going on, and scheduled a mechanic for Monday afternoon if we still needed the work done. The unhurried courtesy of it stood out. So did the women and interns at the local visitors' center, who could not have been more helpful. That was the way everyone seemed to be up there in British Columbia.
Back at the course we found we had been paired with John and Melanie for the scramble. The members all came over to introduce themselves and to welcome us into the day. We teed off on one, played the nine, and finished two under. We won. John kept a steady supply of beer flowing throughout the round, which we are sure helped loosen us up.
Then it was inside for dinner and the Horse Race.
John finished the raffle and the awards from the scramble, then announced the rules of the Race. Nine two-person teams. Five dollars each. Alternate shot. To survive the first hole you had to make at least double bogey. To survive the second you needed a bogey. By the third you had to have a par. Teams kept getting eliminated. By the time it was over only one was left, and Janice, paired with a man named Clayton, had taken it.
Back into the restaurant we went for more drinks, more jokes, more stories. The members treated us like we had always been there. Around ten we excused ourselves, thanked everyone, and headed back to the Roadtrek.
Since we will be coming back down the Alaska Highway in mid-July, we told the whole crew we would be stopping in again. We are already looking forward to it. Three days with John and Melanie and their friends, and one of the better welcomes we have ever had on the road.
