Two Days In One!!

Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson.  It was a great road, just cruising along looking at the beautiful scenery!

Yup ... I think I could live here.  Except for the occasional bad road, 10% grades and "holy cow" hills, it was unremarkable.  I do remember thinking a couple of times ... what have I gotten myself into ... but that went away around the next corner!!

It's green and gorgeous ... springtime in British Columbia!!

Good driving conditions ... at least there's not much snow to be seen.

Here's one of Nick's "heebie jeebie" bridges!!  The height didn't bother me, it was the grooves in the grating!!   

Finally Fort Nelson ... a very nice, quiet RV park, except for Dan and I screaming because the internet wouldn't work.  He finally made a trip to the office and asked them to turn it on.  It worked long enough to get a post in yesterday, but not long enough for me to do the same.

The Heritage Museum is a must see.  One building was totally crammed with old cars owned by Marlin Brown ... Marl as his friends call him.  

Great stuff at this place, some under lock and key.  You have to see the local kids to get in.

This was oil country ... 

Love the old motorcycles ... he had two ...

Here's Patty contemplating the laundry ...

Packard ... mint condition.

Studebaker ... mint condition ...

Like I said, the building was full.  

Later that evening, Patty and I went for a walk and found 6 shining examples of Caterpillars used in building the Alaskan Highway.  They were all cable rigs and VERY impressive, being the old Cat Skinner that I am .....

Fort Nelson to Laird Hot Springs

Right out the door Dan spied these two beauties ... they were in a hurry to get somewhere, so I didn't get a great picture.  It was at this point that I set up my good camera, determined to stop the next few sightings.

We went over lots of bridges like this one ... I try to stay as far behind Dan as possible ... LOL!!

Sheep were everywhere on this section of the road ... Stone Sheep I'm guessing.  Not the least bit shy, he just kept eating the gravel while I snapped away.

This big guy posed for me ...

 A little further along, this beautiful cow was going for a pedicure ... standing in the muddiest spot within miles.

These big guys were parked on the side of the road.  This Alaskan Highway is a boon for bison ... 500 miles of pasture.  

There were so many spectacular views, I can't publish them all.

Arriving at Laird Hot Springs, we headed up the long boardwalk to jump in.  The logs in the water are benches to sit on.  The further up in the picture, the hotter the water.  It was rather cool on your feet, but hot hot at the water level.

This is where the hot spring comes out of the mountain and down into the pond.

We returned later in the evening, even though it looks like broad daylight ... and it was raining.  

We are only here for one night, then it's off to Watson Lake.  This has been an amazing trip so far.  I feel so lucky to be able to drive this rig through this beautiful country.

Pioneer Village ... Life in Dawson Creek!!

As you can read, Walter Wright is responsible for the Pioneer Village here in Dawson Creek.  Buildings have been moved here and furnished with donations from other families in this area to give you an idea of what life was like in the early 1900's.

This rather large log cabin has many rooms, including four bedrooms upstairs.  The inside ceilings had been covered with paper and the walls whitewashed.

What an amazing stove ... I could cook on this!!!  From the Dutch Oven to the waffle maker, this homemaker had it all.

The living room was fully furnished, including a piano and an old quilt wall hanging that was hand sewn.

This building is the Dawson Creek Schoolhouse, complete with wood stove and desks.

The inside of the St. Paul's Anglican church is rather austere.  The Pastors/Ministers went from church to church by horseback in the summer months.

This cabin was built by Mr. Marion and his brother, early cooks who came to make their fortune on a small parcel of homesteaded land.  First living in an 8'x8' cabin, he built this one (not much bigger) for his wife and 10 kids.  It has a living room, a kitchen and 3 bedrooms upstairs.  Pretty cozy for 12 people!!

Farming was one of the major occupations in this area, with harvesters like this one gathering all the grain.   This bunch was pretty inventive ... if it required a horse to pull it, they took old truck and tractor parts and made it self-propelled.

When World War II began, the Alaska Highway project became extremely important to the U.S.  Here's one of the trucks used on the highway.

This MAC truck was used to haul supplies to those building the highway up until it was retired in the 80's.   Truck drivers were paid $1.49 an hour.  They traveled all of 45 mph on the gravel road.

This is a closeup of the log cabin dove tailing.  It was amazing how precise they were with the cuts and how well they fit together.  

Reflections of the coming storm that we got caught in coming back from the grocery store.  When it rains here, it pours!!!  One hour later the sun was out.

Here's one of the original cafes in Dawson Creek ... food was cooked on the old wood stove.  

George Dawson was the first settlor here ... this advertisement for his town was an effort to get people to come to this area.

From Pioneer Village, we went to the Railroad Museum, which also had memorabilia on the Alaska Highway.  It was amazing the amount of stuff that was donated, including a beautiful purple wedding dress made in Paris France.  Both of these museums are a definite MUST if you drive the Alaska Highway.

Next to the train station was this grain elevator.  Farmers brought their grain to this building, where it rode elevators to the top and then down the chutes to the waiting trains.

Dawson Creek is a lot larger than I expected, but seems to be stuck in the 40's when it increased in size drastically due to the road building.  I must say I'm spoiled by the Super Walmarts ... because the ones here aren't super at all, but pretty old and tired looking.  

Today we start up the Alaskan Highway ... 

MILE ONE!! Dawson Creek BC

We left Hinton and headed up to Grand Prairie on Hwy 40.  Finally, a gorgeous sunny day.   We slowed for deer and sheep crossing the road ... even Mamma Moose and her baby!!!  I just couldn't drive and get the camera out fast enough!!  I did get a nice shot of my steering wheel and one of my leg!!

There was road work being done here and there but it didn't slow us down much.  On this section, the road is in much better condition until we came to this bridge.  When was the last time you saw a wooden deck??  At Grand Prairie we took Hwy 43, now heading West.  We crossed rivers quite often, but most of the scenery was trees and logging operations.

Past oil drilling rigs, coal mining operations and natural gas sites, we ended up in Dawson Creek.  And what should we see right off the bat??  Chances "Gaming Entertainment" ... looked like a casino to me. Their sign was announcing all the entertainment, as you can see, except today is June 1 ... I think it needs updating.

Dan had made reservations at Northern Lights RV Park ... and with my AAA discount, it came to $81.00 each for two nights.  Full hookups, 50 amp with a relatively new building full of individual bathroom/showers and a laundry room.  

Then it was off to Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.  Dan filled me in on the history, World War II, build a road to Alaska ... and it all started here.  

Of course I had to have a picture!!!  From this point on we will be on the Alaska Highway.

And here's Nurse Patty and Dan!!

I think I have the internet figured out ... it pretty much seems to be a WiFi problem ... which won't be much of a problem from here on, because we won't have WiFi.  I definitely think Wally World should set up internet for it's campers!!  No fear if you don't see any posts for awhile ... WE'LL BE BACK!!!

Just a little data ... total spent on fuel $911.35    Average mpg  8.7    Total miles 1,812.

RV Driving Alberta .. Not for the Faint of Heart!!!

We left Golden in the rain ... in fact, it rained all day.  That doesn't bother me as much as all the snow!! We headed to Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains.  It was a LONG day on narrow curvy roads ... and I don't think I have ever gone over so many mountain passes in my life!!!  There were several 10% grades which were scary, but my RV handled it perfectly ... except for the big bump that put me in the other lane.  THEN Dan told me what those "mountain" signs were ... it meant BIG bumps in the road!!

Lac Louise (Lake Louise) was even scarier ... when I saw Dan turn up the road with the sign that said no big trailers or trucks, my hands were frozen to the wheel ... I couldn't even grab the radio and protest before we were at the top.

This is a crazy beautiful lake ... if I had my landscape lens (you know, the one I bought for this trip and left home??) you would have seen lots of clouds on the mountains.

On the way out, we stopped (on a curve ... eek!!) to see these two brutes munching away not 60 feet from us.  I sooooo wanted to jump out and get some pictures, but my little camera had to do this time.  They are Black Bears and a LOT bigger than they look here!!!

Further on up the crazy wet road, I was really getting worried about it starting to snow!!   At the top, this lake was still frozen!!  It was spectacular!!!  Check out Dan's blog for his pictures!!

This is my rig parked at the top on a steep hill ... when Dan says, can your dogs climb up in the drivers seat and hit the brake release???  Holy cow!!!  I don't know, but I went running back to find out.  Now I use the clothespin trick ... clip it on under the brake release and it can't be pushed!!  Chance Tip #25!!

This is where we came from .. and where my rig would have gone had the brake release been hit!!

Further on, more snow!!!  This was the Athabasca Glacier ice field.  These huge buses take tour groups up across the actual glacier, as you can see below.  Yup ... still raining!!

Here's two of the buses crossing the ice field.  They go up and they come down ... not too exciting!!

Here's the buggy they USED to ride in ... now THIS might be exciting!!!

We finally landed in Hinton ... got fuel and hit Camp Walmart for the night.  Still raining .... as you might guess, they don't have a water shortage around here!!

Tomorrow ... Dawson Creek