Clinton, BC

At the RV park we were staying in we met a man that was very interesting. He told us about his childhood of growing up in a family of 11 children on a farm in BC. During WWII his family survived because of living on a farm and they help feed other people who needed help. At 16 he and a friend jumped on a box car and ended up in northern BC. They got a job on a cattle ranch that had 4200 head of cattle. There were about 20 cowboys that worked the ranch. They used Indians on the ranch for certain jobs. Since he was the youngest guy they chose him to go to the reservation and get help to work on the ranch. All the other cowboys were afraid to go onto the reservation. He got along fine because he said he treated them as equal and they learned to trust him. He always wore a black cowboy hat and those were the days of the movie Hopalong Cassidy so the Indians called him Hopalong. He was also a guide for people who wanted to go hunting and fishing. The stories were so interesting and he said that people wanted him to write a book, but he thought no one would read it. We told him we would.
The fires were only 10 miles from Clinton and the wind and smoke was blowing our way. It was so thick you felt you were near a campfire but without the flames. We just crossed our fingers that tomorrow we would be able to leave.