Run Sheet
01/05/25
Yet another of the things I love about being in the Firefighting game is the fact that it draws people of like minds and beliefs together no matter what part of the country or world they’re from.
I am writing this entry while on the road. Occasionally my job takes me to various corners of the province to give special courses to other Fire Departments. I really love my job, but this is one part that I particularly love. Being a Firefighter is one thing, but being a Trainer is another. I’ve mentioned before that I fight fires, and that I train Firefighters. Fortunately for me I don’t just train the firefighters in my department, but in many others. I am contracted out to other Fire Departments to provide training in some of the subjects that I specialize in. Today I am in the interior of the province with one of my fellow FFs. He’s going to teach a course in Strategy & Tactics and I’ll be teaching a course in Search and Rescue.
I love going on the road to teach, I get to work with and meet Firefighters from all over, and I get to meet many different kinds of Firefighters. I get to teach them things that hard experience has taught me, I get to teach them things that I’ve studied and learned. I get to learn way more than I teach though. I learn a lot about fighting fires in different climates and geographic locations, and I get to see how different departments work and live.
Tomorrow’s class will be held in a tiny little hamlet called “200 Mile House”. In the interior of the province of British Columbia are a number of towns with names like that. These were settlements on the trail to the Yukon gold fields in the 1800s. The riverboats would terminate in the town of Yale, and these little settlements were named for how far they were from Yale. There is 70 Mile House, 100 Mile House, and 150 Mile house, 200 Mile House etc. This place has a population of about a thousand, and a handful of dedicated Firefighters who thirst for knowledge. I’ve worked with them before and they’re a great bunch of guys. The accommodations, however, leave a bit to be desired.
To wit, the “200 mile Roadhouse”
When I first agreed to do this job I was told by the chief that he was going to put us up in a “Nice little place down the road from the firehall” He said “It’s not very fancy, but it’s clean”. I’d have to say he was right. As I sit here on my bed in “The Roadhouse” on Friday night I look around and reflect on just what hotels are all about. You go to a hotel to sleep while away from home. Let’s face it, even in a five star hotel all you’re really interested in is having a place to sleep and a place to shower in the morning before going off to do whatever you’re really wherever you are to do.
This room is certainly a place to sleep and shower. I think it is a closet that they’ve wedged two beds and a TV into, with a bathroom. This would be fine by itself, but unfortunately they’ve also wedged the two of us into it too. There is a small window from which I could throw an empty pop can and hit the transport trucks that pass by 24 hours a day on the highway at high speed. It’s damn near midnight right now, and the outside temperature is about 80 degrees, the inside temperature is somewhere exceeding the melting point of lead.
The mattress is reasonably comfortable, the pillow is tiny. It doesn’t matter what the blankets are like as I doubt I’ll even have a sheet on tonight. Don’t get me wrong, I’m saying all of this tongue-in-cheek. I think it’s a fun adventure. I have a good book to read and a laptop to type on. I have tomorrow’s course to look forward to, I have a cherry slurpee to sip on, and a bag of trail mix to munch, so life is good.
This is by no means the worst place I’ve stayed on these trips. At least it’s clean, it’s right above the bar so at least there’s music, and when there isn’t music, both of the TV channels come in reasonably well.
All I need is a place to sleep
and shower in the morning. Fortunately for me it’s only for two nights,
this will be one of them.